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Chapter -10- Novus Ordo Seclorum

June 23, 1999, 11:58pm_ _ Tunguska, Russia

Sinopa Parker, from where she sat in the passenger seat, shuffled her sonogram photographs** **into a neat pile in her lap. She slid them into an envelope with kanji scrawled on the front.

Sinopa reached up for the rearview mirror, angled it towards herself, and pushed the envelope into the reflective surface.

Karla arched her brows keeping her eyes on the road. "It still boggles my mind how you can use something as normal as a mirror to travel between realms. I just ... I don't understand what's so different or important about this _other_mirror if you people can use any mirror like that. And quite frankly it's a little weird, you know, considering your people can watch us while we brush our hair or use the bathroom."

Chance cut in, "Why are you putting your photographs in the mirror anyway?"

"To keep them safe in my realm," Sinopa replied with a smile. She glanced over at Karla, behind the wheel of the SUV.

"You didn't answer my question, Red," Karla said in reference to Sinopa's vermillion hair. "You people can come and go as you please through any mirror? So..."

The kitsune said, "The mirror we seek is the only one of its kind. While our people can move freely between realms using any reflective surface, humans cannot."

"You're stalling."

"I was never allowed to tell anyone of Amaterasu's mirror."

"Well, make me understand what we're fighting for, Sinopa."

Chance frowned. "Karla, she already told us about..."

"No, babe," said the succubus. "I want to hear it again. I want to know about this thing in detail."

Sinopa lowered her gaze, "The mirror we seek would allow humans to see into our realm and call on us at their leisure. During the time of the original treaty, we had a great respect for the leader of the Esoteric Community. It was a gift to him. He died and willed the mirror to Niall Kincade."

Karla nodded. "Right, and Niall had it until he died."

Sinopa nodded. "Yes. Niall died at the beginning of this century, and so my kind placed the mirror into the hands of a caretaker. For a time, it was safe. Eventually, the Esoteric Council took it the caretaker. I've been tasked with retrieving it."

"So, what happened to that guy?" Chance shifted his weight, leaning forward slightly so that his seatbelt was taut.

Sinopa turned around in the passenger seat and faced the boy behind her. "Well, he passed away. No one knows what happened for sure. Some say he was assassinated by someone who was power hungry. It happened in 1908 under the guise of war. Niall's death lead to the community drifting apart."

Chance frowned. "Jesus..."

With a nod, Sinopa frowned again. "Hai. Niall died from an attack. More sides of the faction formed. An all-out civil war happened in the summer of 1908, right here in this area."

"Jesus. Civil war?"

"The largest recorded of your kind. They fought over the fate of some boy prophesized to change the world. The boy disappeared. Nobody knows the child's identity."

"Who won?" asked Chance.

Karla grinned and reached for the rearview mirror. She readjusted the angle and smiled at Chance, behind her. "Nathanial Carrington. He didn't agree with either side based on their political policies, but he chose a side based on how he felt about the fate of the child. He claims he knew what the child was capable of, and that the child had to die. When the child disappeared from its cottage, both sides blamed the other."

"Jeeze."

Karla continued. "...The larger faction attacked in the morning, a little after seven o'clock. The opposing force pulled down a piece of debris from space. They were going to hit our camp with an asteroid or a comet or something."

"Holy shit, seriously?"

Karla nodded. "But we had Nathanial."

"Jesus. What happened?" he asked, intrigued by the story.

Karla cut her gaze back to the unpaved path in the woods. The subtle evening mist glowed in the high-beams. "Nathan told everyone to fall back. Ethan was on our side back then. He never technically changed sides when he died. Nathan and I are the ones that separated from ... anyway, moving on..."

Chance remained quiet, listening intently to the story.

Karla continued without missing a beat. "Ethan was teleporting groups of people out as quickly as he could manage. Nathan told me to leave, but I stayed by his side. He was my closest friend at the time. I wasn't going to abandon him."

The succubus paused with a smile of remembrance.

She sighed softly and continued her story. "Nathan channeled every bit of lightning he could, with the help of this smart Austrian guy named Nick. Dapper guy, that Nick. Anyway, between Nick and Nathan, the biggest, brightest, unholiest pillar of light you could ever imagine came down from the ionosphere. It struck the object, whatever the hell it was, somewhere in the lower part of the stratosphere. The thing burst apart as it came down into the troposphere. That's uh ... you know, the regular sky. Anyway, it was amazing."

Chance telepathically imagined a visual from Karla's memory. "You mean like one of those Plasma Globes, when you touch the surface, and there's a bolt that goes from your hand to the thingy in the center?"

Karla grinned. "Just like that. They stayed linked up for several minutes. Then the object exploded. It made the Atom bombs over Japan look like a wimpy grenade by comparison." She cut her gaze to Sinopa and added, "No offense to the suffering of Japanese civilians, of course."

"Your respect is appreciated," Sinopa replied.

Karla continued, "It's estimated that this thing went off like a twelve megaton bomb. It flattened eighty million trees; it leveled everything for about eight hundred square miles. Whatever was left was on fire after that."

"How'd you survive?" Chance asked, eyes wide.

"Fear." She smiled weakly then shrugged. "It was the first time I ever teleported. I didn't know I could do it back then. Even after I did it, I didn't know it was me. I thought Ethan came back for us and nabbed us out of there in the nick of time. But I later found out that he was in Vanavara, like ... forty miles away, with some of the survivors. The blast killed eighty percent of both sides. Only the people that Ethan had been evacuating were saved."

"Oh my God," he whispered, seeing more imagery in his mind.

"Anyways, the blast happened while I was in mid-teleportation. I reappeared with Nick and Nathan just after the boom and the shockwave. Methos calls my timing a mathematical improbability. I call it luck."

"I call it divine providence," said the kitsune. "Someone wanted you alive as part of a plan. My people are always planning and scheming." Sinopa shifted her weight. A katana at her side thumped against the interior of the passenger door.

"Moving on, when I reappeared, everything was crazy. Fire was everywhere. And I was so damn afraid, that a second teleportation happened. Math-boy Methos estimates that I covered over a hundred miles in just two teleports. Later, Ethan helped take Nick back to New York. He was home by dinnertime, which, in America, was an hour or two after the blast."

"And that's when you learned how to teleport?"

Karla laughed, "Hell no, babe. I didn't teleport anything again until a few days before my birthday in 1943. Anyway."

"Where'd that happen?"

Karla frowned. "Philadelphia. It was an accident. I snuck onboard a Navy ship to screw a sailor while it was in port. We got caught in mid-climax. Height of emotion, you know? I have to focus to use my telepathy, but teleportation is triggered by emotions. Anyways, I was going to be arrested for trespassing. I freaked. Next thing I know, I'm lying on my back, on a wharf, a good distance away, panties in hand. That's how it happened, honest to God. Anything else you hear was all rumors to sell a story."

Sinopa tilted her head. "I heard a rumor it appeared briefly in Virginia."

Karla scoffed. "It_never_ arrived in Norfolk, Virginia. It just ... vanished for a few seconds. Nathan says he thinks that I was able to teleport a three hundred foot steel warship because it was currently charged with high amounts of electricity. But it never moved, it just phased and reappeared in the same place."

Sinopa tilted her head. "Electricity amplifies your teleportation ability? Perhaps that is why you traversed such a great distance in 1908."

Karla glanced down at the gas gauge. Half a tank remaining. "Yeah, Nathan and Methos came to that conclusion. Anyways, I later find out the Navy was doing a top secret project, that's why I was at gunpoint when they caught me with the sailor."

Chance cringed. "Uh ... good grief, Karla. That's ... wow. So ... what was the top secret project, did you ever find out?"

"Oh, yeah ... of course. They were trying to use electric generators to change the magnetic polarity of the ship's hull. It would make the ship invisible to magnetically activated ocean mines. But with all that juice going through the ship, I caused it to phase when I teleported. Anyone who wasn't in direct contact with the ship at the time ... well ... they _didn't_phase with the ship. So a handful of people got injured or killed when they fell into the walls and floors. Er ... bulkheads. And decks. Whatever they call that stuff."

Silence. Karla looked down for a few seconds. She sighed. "I felt like absolute shit about that, just for the record."

"How can someone not be touching part of the ship? They had to be standing on it right?"

"Yeah, hon, but if someone was in their rack, they're not touching the deck. Apparently one guy decided to jump down a deck ladder. He was in mid-air or something, y'know, when the ship phased. Uhm..." Karla trailed off in thought.

Silence.

Karla tapped her index finger on the wheel. "Another guy was standing on some canvas tarp on the top deck, atop of some supply crates; another guy was painting on a wood scaffold, supported by rope. So a handful of people were messed up because of me."

"I'm sorry, Karla. I see this still bothers you."

She shrugged. A frown marred her feminine visage. "I caught up with the sailor I shagged to make sure he was okay ... he told me what happened and said the entire crew was forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. At the time, I didn't know it was my fault. The ship was brand-freaking-new at the time; people pointed the finger at the Navy."

"And nobody found out what really happened? Like, the Navy or whatever?"

"Oh, sweetie, the Navy had no clue; they freaked like everyone else. Just eight years after the ship was built, the US Navy abandoned it like a redheaded stepchild," Karla glanced over at Sinopa, added, "Again, no offense," then continued, "The Navy sold it to Greece. They wanted to put as much distance as they could between themselves and that ship. Out of sight, out of mind. They gave Greece several similar destroyers, hoping the 'cursed USS Eldridge' would fade into obscurity and be forgotten."

"Seems a bit extreme."

Karla offered a weak smile. "I don't know why but brass and sailors, just Navel people in general, were hardcore superstitious people. Let's not talk about my screw-ups, though."

"Okay, sorry. I just ... I guess I don't get to see this side of you."

"What, the vulnerable side?"

The forest path opened up on all sides. The three looked around at the surreal dark clearing, dimly illuminated by a waning half-moon.

Chance leaned back in the back seat. "I ... guess. I don't know. I just ... I guess I mean the side of you that is willing to open up to me emotionally."

Karla scoffed. "You don't have to be the girl in this relationship, babe. I've got that part covered." She reached back, between the bucket seats, and patted his knee. "Enough about the past, though, okay? We're here."

A glass building at the center of the clearing reflected their headlights back at them. The two story tall mirror created a kaleidoscope reflection on the surrounding forest.

Chance pursed his lips with apprehension. He swallowed, licked his lips and found his voice. "It's not lit up tonight. What if they got away?"

"I don't know, baby-boy."

Sinopa frowned. "It appears to be many, many times larger than the complex beneath Marseille, France."

"Yeah, Dr. Sokolov said his place is smaller," Chance reminded the trio. "This place may not belong to him after all."

The kitsune drew in a calming breath, but it did little to relax her pounding heart. "It is larger than a sports stadium," Sinopa whispered, in awe of the enormous compound. "And wrapped in mirrors; why?"

Karla switched off the high-beams, and then turned off the headlights all together. "That's reflective window tinting, I think. Try to think from the perspective of someone who wants this to be a secret. If it's mirrored, then it reflects the woods around it. The word of the day is camouflage."

Sinopa frowned again. "Excessive..."

Karla shook her head. "Not really, Red. The roof is covered in grass with a couple of small trees planted on top. If you have a building that reflects the woods with grass on the roof, then anyone flying overhead or wondering through will see the forest mirrored on the sides of the building, making it invisible by day. Pretty damn smart, huh?"

Sinopa folded her arms, resting them across the expanse of her pregnant belly. "Most impressive. It makes the complex in France seem insignificant by comparison."

"Should'a seen it last night, Mrs. Parker," Chance said. "I've never seen so many people at one time. It was surrounded by huge stadium lighting posts that were so bright, you'd have thought it was the middle of the freaking afternoon." He trailed off and tilted his head. "But tonight I don't sense anything. Or whatever ... you know what I'm trying to say. Still feels weird saying it like that, though. But ... nothing."

Sinopa nodded. "What do you feel, Chan-kun?"

"Chan-kun, huh? Isn't that a bit contradictory?"

Sinopa replied with a weak chuckle to humor him. "Please, are we alone?"

Chance shrugged. "The immediate area feels as empty as it looks right now."

The succubus stretched after their long drive, "Good. Let's hope you didn't jinx us, babe." Karla reached back and gave his knee a firm pat. "I expected them to see us with thermal, run out here screaming at us in Russian, which I can't speak, and ... yeah."

Chance shook his head with a shrug. "There is nothing out there to make me feel leery," he said.

Karla replied with a similar shrug. "I like 'nothing.' It's drama free." She reached up, switched the interior dome-light from the 'door' setting to 'off,' and nodded to Sinopa.

Sinopa returned the nod. "I am ready."

Karla opened the driver-side door and stretched. "God. That was a long bumpy drive." She placed her palms against her upper rump and arched herself backwards until her back popped. "Big breasts, bad back. Heh."

Sinopa and Chance both exited the SUV on the passenger side and quietly eased their doors shut.

Sinopa hip-bumped his door, clicking it into place.

Chance repeated her action. In a soft voice, he asked, "You've seen your husband do that, huh?"

"There is no need to read me."

Chance shook his head. "I don't know how I read you when we met before my coma. But I have trouble reading you now." He saw her look of confusion and added, "It's either that or you're just being fox-like, walking back on your tracks and all that clever stuff."

Sinopa nodded with a grin. "Hai, Chance-kun."

Karla, on the other hand, slammed the door shut, causing a deep echo of noise in the clearing. Birds raced out of several nearby trees, startled.

Chance and Sinopa exchanged glances and grimaces.

The demoness cleared her throat. "Guess I still have my screw-up moments, huh? Are we still alone, babyboy?"

"I ... I think so." Chance paused. The area felt anxiety free. "Maybe you should give me another shot of that Everclear stuff and make out with me again, just to be sure." He felt a little bolder in complete darkness.

Karla grinned at his flirting. "Maybe I will, hon. Listen, Chance, don't doubt your ability. Have confidence in it. Own it. Seize it and all that. Make it your bitc--"

"He gets it," Sinopa interjected. "My friends, I can see well in this area." The vertical slits of her foxlike eyes dilated fully, allowing her to see with relative ease.

Karla grinned. "Vulpine vision, huh? Lead the way, Red."

Sinopa reached for Chance's hand and walked him over in front of the SUV. She took Karla's hand and guided it to Chance's free hand. "Now we go together. Perhaps we should have brought night-vision. Jonathan uses them for some of his heists."

"Heists?"

"Hai. Have Karla explain what he does for a living at a later time. This way."

Chance immediately saw an image in his mind of a man in a black suit, rappelling down walls with a stolen artifact under one arm. Chance bit his lip. "So I was right, earlier, about the car door thing?"

"Hai. I've seen Jonathan perform such as a matter of stealth."

Karla grinned and whispered to Chance. "You read her by accident."

"Did not," he whispered back.

"Shh, both of you. My hearing is even better than my eyes."

Karla and Chance grew quiet.

The trio followed Sinopa across the clearing. They stopped at the corner of the two story glass building. The kitsune glanced back at Chance and asked, "Do you sense anyone in this area?"

"Sort of. I don't know how to explain it better than that."

Sinopa gave Chance's hand a squeeze. "Try."

"I feel like we're not alone, but I also feel like we're being left alone if that makes sense."

"That's weird," Karla whispered. She pondered the contrast between the silence and how busy the area was the previous night.

As if to give voice to Karla's thoughts, Chance said, "It's so quiet tonight. Last night, there were trucks parked on the side of the building and lots of commotion. But now I barely sense anyone at all."

Sinopa nodded.

Chance frowned. "God, it still feels weird to say it like that. 'Sensing' someone. Makes me feel stupid and geeky."

"Suck it up, babe." Karla glanced around with a frown. "I hate that it's overcast. No moon, no lights ... I'm starting to be able to make out the sky but everything else is still black as shit."

Sinopa gave Chance's hand a tug.

In turn, he guided Karla to follow.

The three followed the mirrored glass wall for a bit until Sinopa came to a simple door. She reached for it and turned the latch knob.

The door opened with ease, quietly, on well-oiled hinges.

They made their way inside.

Sinopa nodded towards a simple handrail in the dimly illuminated room. "We seem to be on a mezzanine level."

Karla released Chance's hand and pulled the door shut behind herself. "I really expected one of those haunted-house squeaky doors. Thank goodness for small miracles."

The trio walked forward and came to the simple handrail.

The first floor was as Sinopa described - a ring around an enormous empty gap.

Karla peered over the edge of the handrail. "That's deep. I wonder what's down there."

The building continued down untold stories.

Sinopa squinted into the darkness below. She shook her head. "It appears as though it goes down forever." She counted the dim yellow light fixtures that marked each story down. The lights faded into the abyss somewhere in the low-teens.

Karla drummed her hands on the rail. "It's like a bottomless pit, huh?"

Sinopa sighed. "Pits cannot be bottomless."

"Yeah, yeah," Karla said. "Just like oceans aren't endless, the world isn't flat and aliens are fake."

Sinopa frowned. "The cosmos are too large to assume extra-terrestrial life is 'fake,' Karla-chan."

The succubus smirked. "Let's start with finding the bottom of this pit and worry about aliens another day, huh?"

Chance smiled, feeling a little more confident. "Now what, fearless leader?"

Karla smirked at the boy in the dim lighting. "Oh, I'm the leader now, huh?"

"Hot and smart, a killer combination."

"Oh, yeah, that's me. Hedy Lamarr. Hot and smart. Did'ja know she dated Methos for a short time? Anyway ... I have no damn clue what to do right now. There's no plan for this, other than looking for a mirror in a building that is owned by Doctor Who."

"I ... wait, who?"

"Yes, Who. It's bigger on the inside than it seems on the outside. By a lot, actually. I don't think this is going to be as easy as I initially planned."

"No, I mean, who is Hedy Lamarr?"

Karla shook her head with a wry grin. "Oh, she was this super-hot actress who also invented techniques for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping."

"Uh..."

Karla saw his confused expression and shook her head with a chuckle. "Like Wi-Fi, babe. Remember? The little card in the side of my laptop that lets me connect to the internet without wires?"

"Right, right. So when did that actress lady invent that stuff?"

Karla guided the group into walking around the perimeter of the handrail. "She invented that 'stuff' during the Second World War."

"What is your point, Karla-chan?"

Karla smirked. "Hot and smart doesn't make me a leader, it just makes me hot and smart, heh. The leader is whoever has the most influence in a group."

Sinopa nodded, following the other two around the large pit of concrete and steel. "Hai, my husband and I have invested in an up-and-coming technology group called SIG. They're based out of Washington, and are working to develop a technology they're calling Bluetooth. It also uses this 'frequency-hopping spread-spectrum' bit. I was unaware an actress from fifty years ago managed to invent such technology. That is most impressive."

"Yup Hedy Lamarr. In 1942." Karla's grin broadened, speaking with excitement and respect for the actress. "Lamarr patented a way for a torpedo to be controlled with radio frequency hopping so the Axis powers could not jam the transmission. Then she and some composer, who helped, took the patent and gave it to the US Navy for free. It goes through eighty-eight frequencies like a piano-roll - guess that's what she needed the composer guy for. Makes it hard to detect or jam a remote controlled torpedo."

"I was unaware," Sinopa murmured.

Karla continued. "Hedy was married to an Austrian arms dealer, selling to the Nazis. She left him, met one of the heads of MGM studios while in Paris and talked that guy into a massive acting contract. Later, Hedy realized that signal jamming could be a big problem for the Allied powers. So, she invented that fancy technology and gave her frequency-hopping patent to the Navy to fight the Nazis. Love that girl, she was a rebel."

"Impressive," said Sinopa with a nod. "I am pleased your role model was someone of such intelligence and beauty. Your actress sounds like she should be an example to women everywhere."

"Oh!" the succubus exclaimed, adding, "And, during such an extremely conservative era, she was also the first actress to be filmed having an orgasm on screen. So, yeah, she is my hero!" Karla grinned, sticking her tongue out through her teeth.

Sinopa sighed. "I will attempt to reserve judgment, being as that I am a messenger for a fertility deity." She stopped walking and gazed down into the pit again. "This is where we started; we've come full circle."

"Does talk of orgasm make you uncomfortable, Red?"

"Only regarding my own. I am a private woman. So far as your actress, a woman's climax should be a private matter, not reserved for film or viewers. It cheapens the mystery of womanhood."

"Yeah, yeah. I've seen Ecstasy. It's where I learned a few German words, and it was hot. I had a bit of a girl-crush on Lamarr, I won't lie." Karla peered over the railing, adjacent to Sinopa. "Damn that's deep, huh?"

Chance brought his palm to his face. "Can, uh ... can we focus?" He looked around in the dimly lit area. "Let's find a way to go down to the lower section. I don't want to use an elevator though. That might be noticed. We should take the stairs if we can find them."

Karla turned to Sinopa and hooked a thumb back at Chance. "He's manning up isn't he, darling? I like being in charge sometimes, but at times like this I don't want the responsibility or blame if things go south."

"It is a man's job to lead, which is why women, on average, are naturally attracted to such qualities."

Karla grinned. "I think it's sexy if a man consults with his women before making command decisions." She cut her eyes to Chance. "What do you think, babe?"

Chance grimaced. "Okay, I'll take point. Let's start looking for the stairs, then." He led them away from the handrail at the center of the room. He started walking along the outer wall. The women followed him.

The glass walls at the front of the building became concrete and industrial looking. The walls were supported by buttresses and lined with large round rivets.

Karla looked around in the dim lighting. "It kind of reminds me of Tim Burton's Batman. God, I can't believe it's been ten years since that came out. All we need is an Art Deco statue and this place would look like Gotham."

"Haven't seen it," Chance said.

Karla reached up and ruffled his hair. "The Batmobile was awesome in that movie."

"I'll take your word for it," he said, leading them along the wall in the hunt for a stairwell.

Sinopa came up alongside Chance and pointed. "I can see a door in the dark up ahead."

Chance continued in the direction of her finger and came to a simple door with a simplistic staircase logo engraved besides the doorframe. He eased the door open.

In stark contrast, the stairwell was brightly illuminated. Chance squinted, his eyes adjusted. "Okay, this is the plan. Whatever floor we decide to investigate, we'll close our eyes for a moment before we leave this staircase. That way we're not stumbling around blind again."

"Sure." Karla took the lead, skipping down the steps of the silent building. "C'mon, you two. I'm interested to see what's going on down here."

Karla opened the first doorway she found, one story down. Beyond the door she squinted into black obscurity.

Silence.

Karla frowned. She cracked her knuckles and waltzed out onto the first subfloor. Like above, the main floor was a mezzanine around a dark concrete pit.

The first sublevel was decorated with marble highlights and a potted plant by the wall.

Chance sighed. "You didn't let your eyes adjust first."

"So?" Karla shrugged.

Their eyes began to adjust. Small doors lined the nearest wall.

Sinopa approached one with a hand on the handle of her sword. She glanced over her shoulder and reported, "It's an empty office." She made her way to the next door and peered within. "Another empty office. It smells of cleaning chemicals. I believe they were cleaned out recently."

"Let's look around," Chance said.

Each office they explored had a desk, a few chairs and a telephone. Most office were empty and smelled clean.

Karla stepped into one of the many offices and smiled. "Guys! I found one that still has stuff! Maybe 'Ivan Ivanovich' was out sick on cleaning day." She approached a box on the desk.

Within the box, she found books and daily planners.

Karla flipped the light switch. Instead of a light on the ceiling, a corner lamp came to life, flooding the room with relaxed illumination. "Well. The lamp has a nice 'like home' kind of feel." She began rummaging through the boxes.

Sinopa stood at the doorway, back to her friends, eyes towards the dim building. She sniffed at the area, ever alert. Her orange-furred fox ears perked up, standing tall from her hair.

Chance picked up a book from the box and began rummaging through it the way Karla was doing. "What's the Thule Society?"

The succubus set the book down and reached for another. "A German study group who later became obsessed with a make-believe land, like Atlantis, which was supposed to be the home of the so-called Aryan Race."

"Oh. That's kind of an odd thing to be down here, right?"

"A weird book in a weird building."

"You're right," Chance said, adding, "It does sound cliché, doesn't it?" He handed it to Karla.

Karla held the book up so Chance could see the cover. There was a creature on the front.

"What the hell is that thing?"

She grinned. "It's the face of Moloch." She turned the book over so he could see the back of the cover. "And this is supposed to be Hyperborea. A mythical land at the North Pole where the sun shines all the time."

Chance reached out and touched his finger against the oddly textured leather wrap.

Karla sniffed at the leather cover. "This is some dark shit, babe."

"How do you know all this stuff?"

"Because I'm turning four hundred, sweetheart. I've lived through all this malarkey. I like to read a lot." She rubbed her thumb over the cover and then sniffed it again. "Christ. This tome is wrapped in human flesh."

Chance jerked his hand away from the book. "Oh my God, seriously?"

"Yup. Told you this is some dark shit, honey-bear."

"So who is the Thule society and why are they mentioned inside that book?"

Karla opened it to a random page and glanced at the wording. "They were a bunch of yuppies that met at the Four Seasons Hotel, started talking politics and tried to stage an uprising. It got a bunch of them killed, but there were some prominent people in the group. Before long, the survivors used their clout to start another layer of drama, followed by a citizens' uprising. Later down the road, members got into the occult. I guess, sometimes, you can't have science fiction without throwing in some fantasy."

"Jesus Christ, Karla, did I just catch your thought the right way? The Thule Society later became the Nazi party?"

"It's a little more complicated than that, babe." She flipped through a few pages and scanned the words within.

Sinopa glanced over her shoulder. "You can read Russian, Karla?"

Chance said, "It's all in English, Mrs. Parker."

"Just Sinopa, kudasai, Chance-kun. Why would a book at the heart of Siberia have English text?"

Chance shrugged.

Karla spoke up. "Here's some stuff about Catharism."

"Pardon?" Sinopa tilted her head and faced away from the room again, like a sentinel.

Karla shrugged. "They were a Christian movement that believed in duality - equal parts good and evil. They were wiped down during the Inquisition for believing evil exists in balance with good."

"Does it not?" asked Chance.

Karla scoffed. "Doesn't matter if it exists or not - the Inquisition wanted everyone to be good or die. Anyone who misbehaved was labeled a heretic. The crusaders were a pretty hardcore bunch of extremists."

"Jesus," Chance murmured.

"Yup, there was a lot of murder in His name," Karla said.

Sinopa asked, "Why are these ... Catharism people mentioned in that book?"

Karla thumbed to another page. "Historical fashion."

"Pardon?"

The succubus chuckled and shook her head. "What I mean is, suddenly, these new-age yuppie occult theorists like to focus on anyone who disappeared. Then they act like it's a conspiracy or a coverup. I mean, yeah, the Cathars died; it happens when organized religions bully each other out of existence. But it's not like they were targeted by a secret organization to cover up some sort of truth. Anyway. Moving on." She flipped through a few more pages. "I've heard all this nonsense before. Big deal." She closed the book.

"Karla-chan, please. This is our first insight to the people who cleaned out this building and disappeared."

Karla opened the book again to another random page. "Oh, now we've got some crap, here, saying that the child of Jesus and Mary - his girlfriend, not his mother - is the Aryan leader, whose descendant will rise up as the false prophet of the Bible, but will become the so called true..." she trailed off and flipped a few pages. "This is _all_rubbish."

"I don't follow any of it."

"Occult conspiracy crap."

"Explain?" asked Sinopa.

Karla scoffed. "I can take occult stuff seriously to a point. But whatever this crap is, it's on another level of crazy." She thumbed through another few pages. "The book bleeds back into politics at some point and gives us this whole, 'Order of the New Ages' crap. Everyone thinks they can lead us into a bright new world of peace. It's akin to saying they want to ignore the crappy parts of the Book of Revelations, and jump right to the 'thousand years of peace and prosperity' part."

"That doesn't sound so bad, Karla. What's the catch?"

Karla smirked. "The part they left out is about how half the population doesn't like being told what to do. So, in order to make things peaceful, the 'master race' has to kill the bad half of the population. Remember what I said about the Inquisition earlier? They tried it then. They wanted to kill all evil and jumpstart the 'thousand years of peace and prosperity.' Guess what? We still have World Wars and shit, babe."

Silence.

Karla looked back down at the book and scoffed again. As an afterthought, she added, "Politics and religion should never mix. It goes one of two ways. You either get popular religion in charge, like in the Middle Ages. The church starts wars, kills people, and gets away with it. Or, the unpopular religion takes charge from behind closed doors. People refer to it as 'occult,' and start saying the Government is being run by these obsessive people who like numbers and logos, who keep their 'religion' a secret. Blood oaths, the works ... it's goofy bullshit."

"So why would people believe in it so strongly?"

"Because, Chance, they're not far off."

"How do you mean?"

Sinopa glanced over her shoulder again and said, "There _is_an Esoteric Council governing the world. That is real. However, it isn't based on a secret occult religion like some people believe. It is the supernatural community, comprised of people like yourself and Karla."

Karla nodded. "See? No mystery. No good and evil crap. No occult. It's just the Specials trying to stay separate from the Mundanes."

"But if people believe in it, it's real to them," said Chance. "Some people are really into that stuff. Maybe that's how these groups like the Masons popped up. I just can't figure out how they're still around after all this time."

Karla chuckled. "You're adorable, babe. Anyhow, you know how this bullshit actually works? Money. The God freaks and the occult freaks are both really good with money. Moving on."

Chance frowned and fidgeted. He picked up a daily planner and skimmed it. "Dammit."

"What babe?"

Chance showed a page to Karla. "We just missed everyone. Apparently they packed up early this morning after we left."

"Dammit. Well, I want to see what's at the bottom. You guys with me? It can't hurt to look. I want that mirror so I can pay off my condo and relax. Cold hard cash." She tossed the book onto the floor and stepped on the binding on her way back to the doorway.

Sinopa stepped aside to let them out of the office. The kitsune tilted her head and pointed at a faint logo printed on the marble floor. "What is that icon?"

Karla circled the logo on the floor with a frown. "Chance?"

He licked his lips and recited, "It's dark shit."

The succubus smiled. "Exactly." She circled the logo again. She bent at the waist and studied the logo.

"Do you recognize it?" asked Sinopa.

Karla squinted. "There's an owl here in the middle. And beneath it is some sort of triangle. And over here is a Star of David, but it's lopsided and kind of incomplete. And up here..." She stood up straight and rubbed her chin. "Oh, for fox sake. Get the hell out of here with this silly occult nonsense."

"What?" asked Sinopa.

"I thought this looked familiar. It's Washington DC's layout made in line art. The owl is the White House. Never mind, it's ridiculous crap. Whoever has the money to make a building like this and keep it a secret ... they're rich and completely mental."

Chance and Sinopa exchanged a silence glance, each shrugging to the other.

Karla turned back towards the stairs. "Let's go. Natalia's _Vamp-Bux_are waiting for me. She noticed the logo again on the floor further up, and occasionally on the walls.

"Who is behind all this?" Chance wondered aloud.

Karla folded her arms as they continued back towards the staircase. "Painted on the walls, gritty in the halls, the republic's logo decorum. Bound in flesh, painted in blood, it's their Novus Ordo Seclorum."

Chance blinked.

Beaming with amusement, Karla announced, "I just made that up. Should make it a song, call it 'Manifesto,' and sell it to a punk or metal band. I could be rich."

Chance fidgeted. "Seriously, Karla, what was all that stuff back in that office? What's with the logo with the map of Washington DC or whatever? What the hell is going on here?"

"Oh it is _really_stupid stuff, hon - there's no reason to freak out."

"I just need to know we're not getting into something way over our heads."

Sinopa frowned. "Chance, we most certainly are in over our heads, but it seems we're dealing with a cult, not the supernatural society."

"So why won't you tell us about this stuff, Karla?"

Karla patted Chance's shoulder. "I don't want to talk about occult conspiracies because it's annoying. Two hours later, the conversation turns into 'the gunman on the grassy knoll,' and 'Oswald standing in the doorway,' and the 'magic bullet.' Before long, you're talking about Masonic stuff, the Knights Templar, and then you've got people trying to take every single conspiracy in history and stitch them all together, like it's all one big plot contrived by demons and aliens."

Silence.

Karla scoffed, adding, "It's all because people have too much time on their hands."

"Oh...kay."

She grinned and opened the door to the stairs. "If we get to the bottom of this building and I find some irrefutable proof, then I'll gladly eat my own words. But it hasn't happened yet and I've been around for a while."

Sinopa sighed through her nose. "You are a boisterous woman, Karla-chan."

"Yup." The succubus squinted in the bright lighting of the stairwell.

The trio continued their descent once more. However, there wasn't another door on the next level down. Nor the next, nor the next five.

On the tenth sub-floor, there was another logo, scrawled on the wall.

The group descended into the bowels of the building. By the twenty-second subfloor, their mood had changed to reflect their irritation, frustration and soreness.

Karla came to a door, glanced down the next set of stairs, then back at the door.

Sinopa turned to Chance. "How are your legs? Sore I imagine."

"Yeah. My heels and ankles hurt like after that day in the French warehouse."

"Eat more bananas, baby-boy. Potassium will help with leg pain." Karla pushed her hands together, cracking her knuckles. "There's no damn way I'm going down any further until we check this door."

Chance nodded. "What if we do find this mirror? Then what?"

Karla scoffed. "Can you imagine how much it's going to suck to carry a mirror back up to the top? How far down are we?"

"I think we're about two dozen stories down. I lost count in the upper-teens."

Sinopa reached for her blade, moved adjacent to the door and closed her eyes. She wrapped her fingers around the handle and clenched it firmly. The kitsune remained motionless for a moment.

Karla and Chance nodded to one another and closed their eyes to make their pupils dilate.

"Wait." Chance reached for them. "Something isn't right."

Sinopa pursed her lips together and sighed through her nose. "Can you sense someone waiting for us?"

"I'm not sure. I definitely think there's one guy out there. And the person seems familiar. And confident. It's like ... I should know him or something."

Karla opened one eye, half-lidded. "I bet it's that Foster guy. I won't be fooled by his crappy wall of fire again. I'll use my telekinesis and blast it right back at him now that I know he's going to be behind it. Anyone else with him?"

"I want to say yes, but I really can't be sure."

"Whatever. Let's do this, team." Karla opened the door, swinging it hard on its hinges. She stormed out into the room, which was only slightly brighter than up on the ground level.

Standing up ahead was a man she'd not seen in a month.

Darius Vei. The man from the New York Hospital where she met Chance for the first time.

Karla narrowed her eyes and balled her hands into fists. "You."

"Me," he said in a calm voice.

Karla tilted her head from left to right, popping her neck twice. "Well, now things are getting interesting." She smirked.

"Indeed they are, Karla."

In a taunting tone, the succubus asked, "Is your insomnia back, now that you don't have me to help you fall asleep?"

"Actually, yes. It's difficult to sleep again. And I can't seem to find any other succubus to help me. Yet."

"Aw, isn't that a shame," she said with a grin. "Guess you'll have to take care of it yourself, Darius."

"Myself?"

A sly smile spread across Karla's lips. "If sex with three people is a threesome, and two people is a twosome, then I now understand why people call you _hand_some."

"What are you doing here, Karla?"

"Me? I'm trying to figure out why people who want to find Thule would give a damn about Moloch. It's really contradictory to me. You've got books here about finding the Aryan Race, and signing blood oaths that prove you're not of non-white ancestry. But it's bound in the flesh of a dark-skinned human, and has an Ammonite god on the front. One that was popular in North Africa and the Middle East. It makes about as much sense as..."

"Shut up, Karla. You're an idiot and you can't begin to understand what's happening here."

"Why don't you shut up," Chance snapped, adding, "She's smarter than you think."

Darius rolled his eyes. "I see you're still dragging around your child toy. Really, Karla. That's awfully low of you, having sex with children. I respected you as a motivated mind, even though you clearly are incapable of seeing the bigger picture. But this nonsense? You running around with a_ _little boy, leading him around by his little dick, like a leash. It's a new level of disgusting, even for you."

Chance opened his mouth to speak but Karla quickly thrust her fist to the right, gesturing him to stay quiet with a single extended finger.

Silence.

Darius added, "We're following up on research conducted by the Thule Society, but only as a reference point. This facility was once a German-owned research center before the fall of Berlin. They believed Tunguska was the epicenter of a Thule weapon unleashed on Siberia in 1908, and wished to study the region. It is as simple as that, Karla, and I know that you know what really happened here in 1908. You witnessed it."

Karla pursed her lips together and glared.

"You are the oldest succubus, and the only one with active abilities. You have seen things that most have only dreamt about. You have incredible potential. That is why I was attracted to you."

Silence.

Darius cut his eyes from Sinopa to Karla, and finally to Chance. He continued to address the succubus with his words. "It's a shame, though. During my time with you, I learned that you were small-minded. You wanted to find your father, you wanted to play with your electronic toys, and you squander all your potential."

Karla clenched her hands into fists but said nothing.

"And what finally motivates the great Karla Chintzy? The great Keturah of Azazel? What could it be...? A fucking child, fresh out of a coma, who can read minds. Well then. Is it because you secretly want a child of your own, succubus? Or is it because you're a pedophile?"

Karla leered at Darius. She took a calming breath and, in a soft yet firm tone, said, "I've not slept with him. The boy still has his flower." Her tone began to crescendo in volume, "And I don't appreciate you saying that shit to me; you know how much I hate when men defeminize a woman with emotionally insulting attacks." Her tone blossomed into loud shouting. "This is the sort of shit that makes me want to burn down an oil refinery! You know what I'm going to do?"

Darius grimaced, listening to the rant.

Karla shouted at the top of her lungs in anger and rage. "I'm going to rip your balls off!" She took a deep breath, paused, and then, in an eerily calm voice, added, "One-on-one. Right now. Let's fight, asshole. An electric bio-leech against an organic bio-leech."

The right corner of Darius' mouth turned up into a half-grin. A single dimple formed. "Hmph."

His sly smirk infuriated her and he knew it. He knew exactly how to push her buttons after dating her for a while.

"C'mon, you pussy. Let's go!"

"I don't think so, Karla. I have my orders. You see, we've spent the last twenty hours cleaning out this facility in preparation of your arrival. So, whatever you expected to accomplish here ... forget about it. You've lost."

Karla pinched her lips together into a thin line of threat. She narrowed her eyes.

Darius added, "I'd like to tell you we could fight, now, because I'm sure everyone wants to see what a supernatural lover's quarrel looks like. But it's not going to happen."

"I've come for that goddamned mirror and you took this job because you knew it would piss me off. Now get out of my way or I'll make good on my threat and rip your balls off."

Darius rolled up his right sleeve. "If anyone is getting in the way, it's you. You've caused too much trouble. It's a shame, because you showed great promise. But your usefulness is at an end, so you have to die. The boy is telepathic, so he has to accept a lobotomy or he has to die. I prefer the latter." Vei switched to his left sleeve, rolling it up to match the right one.

Chance, Sinopa and Karla remained silent.

Darius' eyes cut to Sinopa. "And, you ... you're toeing a fine line. You're not powerful enough, yet, to be considered for extermination. No treaty has been broken, technically. But truth-be-told, I'm racist against your kind."

"Color me surprised," Sinopa replied.

"It's not about blood or genetics. It's about facts, Mrs. Parker. Deities start drama. From Moloch to Loki, from Set to Typhon, from Zeus to Tamamo-no-Mae; they quarrel and start wars, and fuck their siblings, as well as human children ... and, because they're powerful, they got away with it."

Sinopa lowered her gaze, briefly, and then lifted her eyes once more, as if sizing him up. "I agree, however the Japanese deities are the embodiment of honor and the courage that the Japanese people wished to become."

Darius snorted in disdain. "The Shinto gods were less annoying than Zeus and Loki, but they still quarreled with each other and caused problems. Amaterasu went into hiding because she was upset by her brother's childishness. The Earth became overcast for a long time. Gods hurt humanity."

Sinopa said nothing in reply.

Darius smirked. "It's true, you cannot deny it. Deities start trouble and they got in the way of human progress. That's why deities were banished from this realm in the first place. That treaty is important to the older and wiser of the Esoteric Community. We hate you fucking faith-fueled freaks. Many of my peers feel the same way."

Sinopa remained stoic and calm. "It's interesting to note that many of the gods were born as supernatural human beings. They deceived humans with their abilities. And, after their death, the faith of their human followers allowed them to be reborn in the Celestial Realm. If you find us dramatic, it is because we're born from human culture, human sin, and human imagination. We're born from you, with all your flaws."

"Your kind is the embodiment of what I hate, Parker."

"Then you hate yourself, and I pity you, Mr. Vei."

"While I still don't exactly understand how you people come into existence, and while it's true I hate your kind ... I'm going to give you one chance to honor the treaty and walk away."

"Oh, will you now?"

"Yes. You're pregnant ... and because of that, I'll let you walk away right now; no questions asked. But if you pursue this mirror, you'll be in violation of the treaty, and I won't think twice about having your head removed. I'll gift wrap it and shove it into that mirror and send it right back to your precious farmer god."

"Inari-no-Kami," she said.

Darius smirked. "We'll bury your body under next season's crops and see if it makes the corn grow any better. You've got ten seconds to leave, Parker. Remember to consider the lives of your children first and foremost."

Karla ground her molars together in disgust. "I'm gonna..."

Sinopa gestured to Karla with her left hand to keep the succubus from exploding into action yet.

Darius tilted his head to see what Sinopa would do.

With her right hand, Sinopa withdrew her katana slowly. The blade created a scraping noise against the sheath, and rang out like a tuning fork. "Have you met Aris Sokolov, Mr. Vei? Did he warn you that I was on my way?"

"Of course I've met Sokolov; he works for the EC as a hired scientist and a physician. The EC owns this warehouse. I know he's been your doctor, and I know he's oddly infatuated with those two abominations in your belly. Humans born from an animal god? There's something exceedingly disgusting about bestiality."

Sinopa tilted her head.

"Yes, I know about your tails and your ears, freak. I cringe at the thought of Jonathan Parker fucking a fox. But no, Sokolov didn't warn us you were coming. We've known because we tracked your flight out of France. Truth be told, Aris Sokolov begged for us to let you live because he's obsessed with those creatures in your gut."

Chance whispered to Sinopa, "He's telling the truth. Aris didn't warn them."

Darius continued. "I was going to honor the promise I made to Aris about letting you live. But drawing your sword was the wrong thing to do, you dumb Shinto bitch."

Chance approached Karla and said, "They airlifted the mirror out two hours before we got here. I think I'm getting pretty good at this; I actually_ know _what's going on here. I know what the building was used for, what was manufactured here, and where it all went."

"Shut your mouth, boy," Darius snapped.

The lights came up, illuminating the rest of the large empty area. There were machines on the walls with mechanical attachments, and conveyer belts in the far back corner, quite a ways across the room. There were spots on the floor that were slightly faded, as if to suggest that heavy machinery once filled the entire room.

An electric field flickered at the far ends of the room.

Doors opened and several dozen men filed into the room. Some had guns; others had their fists aloft. One of the attackers carried large knives.

They flanked the trio at the center of the room.

Chance looked around at all the people whose conscious mind flooded his. He turned pale, upset about not having sensed them until now.

Darius smiled. "Did you know that a high current of electricity, or in this case, a field of it, can disrupt telepathic screening to a degree? I'm told it wouldn't have worked for a refined telepath, but who knows for sure? There aren't any because we kill them every time one manifests."

Chance frowned and tensed up. "He's right. I didn't sense them until just now. Maybe I can try to do that thing I did before. It might be our only way out of here."

Darius offered a pleasant smile. "We counted on you being a rookie, boy. And now the three of you are right here, in an old fashion trap. We used the mirror to lure you here, and flew it out once you were on your way."

Chance turned to the succubus and touched her tense forearm. "Karla ... let's just flatten them and run. I know where they're taking the mirror, now."

"Didn't your cougar tell you about my ability?" Darius squinted his eyes at Chance as if in an admonishing manner.

Chance sank to the ground, gasping in agony.

"I understand you rendered our people unconscious in France. The creatures you saw ... they remained in a coma, allowing our people to put them back into stasis when they awoke. Quite impressive, boy."

Chance curled into a ball, gasping for air.

Darius continued with a sardonic smirk. "But whatever it is that you think you know, child, will die with you right here, right now."

Chance appeared shell-shocked, unable to focus or think clearly.

Darius turned away from the trio and announced to his men, "Kill them all, then dispose of the bodies."

Karla looked at Chance, feeling something she'd never felt before, but something she knew all too well.

Unable to handle the sight of Chance suffering, she came to realize at that moment that she loved him.

As soon as Darius turned away, Karla threw both of her arms out. Her skin incandesced in a hue of bright pink, glowing in the shapes of glyphs beneath her hands, forearms and biceps.

Three-dozen men flew back. They became pinned to the far walls and the floor in various sections throughout the enormous room.

Darius was among them, pressed up against one of his soldiers.

"So," said Karla, eyes cold and narrowed. "Fancy that. You've brought your mates. Good on you, bloke." Her Welsh dialect reverted to her practiced American one. "Now stay put while I converse with my team to decide your fate. Sinopa? Chance? Do I kill him or let him live?"

"Karla," Chance murmured, sitting up gingerly, "You know how I feel about killing people. You know how it even bothered me when Michael took the head off that creature in France. I'm just..." He shook his head. "Killing him in self defense is one thing, but pinning him to a wall and executing him is extreme."

Darius, pinned across the room, called back to her in a stressed voice. "How long can you hold all of us like this? You can't kill us all by the time you wear out. You're only..." he gasped for breath from the pressure against his chest, "...prolonging the inevitable. And then my people will overwhelm you."

"Dear me." Sinopa rolled his eyes. "Karla, are you feeling especially emotional at this time?"

"He's an ex ... I damn well am. Plus it really pissed me off that he did his fucking 'psychic-vampire' mojo on Chance." She curled the right top corner of her lip, sneering with disgust.

Chance grimaced. He looked up at the men pinned to the wall like carnival attendees in a Round-Up ride. "What can he do, exactly?"

Sinopa frowned and said, "He drains naturally occurring electric energy from people and can create a field of it that disrupts everything from a heartbeat, a mental wave-length, all the way to machines and computers."

Karla clenched her fists, causing her knuckles to pop softly. "I'm pissed off because I actually liked that asshole. I held off on my feedings with others, and I went out of my way to be nice to that dickhead. And he betrayed me. He betrayed_ _me."

Sinopa turned to Chance. "You said you read him? You know what is going on?"

"Yes." Chance nodded and got up on one knee. "This is even more messed up than I care to admit. And I think I might understand how everything ties into that creepy stuff from that skin-wrapped book we saw earlier."

Sinopa nodded.

Chance added, "I mean, just a little because I couldn't read everything from him, but just enough. We should go. We need to make a run for it." Chance got to his feet. He cleared his throat and looked himself over. "It only hurt for a few seconds. But I'm fine. No pain, I'm good."

Karla nodded, relieved. "Look, Chance, I don't want to kill him either. He's a lying douche-nozzle and a scumbag, but I had a history with him. Unfortunately, he's right about one thing ... I can't hold these guys against the wall much longer."

Sinopa stepped between Chance and Karla. "There is only one clear way for us to escape with our lives. Karla, with all due respect, and my deepest apology, I'm going to act in our best interest."

"Whoa, whoa, wait - what are you doing, Red?"

Sinopa replied with an apologetic expression. "You'll have to be upset with me later but now will not be the time. First, we must escape." The kitsune sheathed her sword and clenched her hand into a fist.

"Red, don't you do anything I wouldn't do..."

Darius ignited into flame. He writhed in agony, screaming, pinned to several others against the wall. He flailed about as the flames licked up over him, scorching the bulkheads.

The demoness blinked. She watched with wide eyes as her ex-boyfriend cried out for help.

Chance swallowed.

Karla's jaw went slack. "D...Darius."

Sinopa put her hand on the succubus' shoulder and, with her other hand, reached for Chance. In a soft, humbled tone, she said, "Karla, use that emotion you now feel and teleport us to the top as quickly as you're able."

Karla blinked once more. She still had her hands out, keeping the group against the wall. Losing focus, some of the men began to writhe and move. Most moved away from Darius as they became able.

The succubus stood still, eyes growing moist. Her heart ached, remembering the feelings she once had for the man. She watched him, burning alive, and felt grief - their relationship lasted a year, and while she never truly fell in love with him, she did come to care about him.

And now he was screaming in anguish, dying.

Karla's lower lip trembled, her emotions torn. "But ... I'm ... I'm not sure if I can..."

"YOU MUST!" shouted the kitsune. "Before the rest of them attack! They're all supernatural, trained, and the three of us are no match for a room full of them!"

Karla watched as Darius burned before her eyes. The emotion welled up in her chest. She felt an intense pang of guilt, not wanting to see him tormented from a drawn-out excruciating death. She felt physical pain in her heart.

The succubus wrestled with the grief over the loss of a lover, and the guilt of watching him break, coming undone with such exquisite pain.

She felt anger that Sinopa was killing him. And, at the very bottom of her heart, Karla felt a dash of jealousy that Darius suffered at the hands of someone other than her.

She felt remorse that things didn't turn out differently. It would have been so much easier to simply never see Darius again. Instead, she was forced to watch him burn alive.

All the emotional torment and pain boiled in her chest, coming to a head ... the trio disappeared.

All the supernatural people pinned to the wall fell to the floor, able to move freely again.

Darius dropped to the ground, still burning.

Immediately, one of the nearest people rolled him over and smothered him with their body until the flames were extinguished.

Karla, Sinopa and Chance reappeared ten stories up, hovered for a split second, and then they disappeared once more.

They reappeared every few seconds, creating a sensation that was akin to falling in reverse, until they reached the top.

The trio spilled out across the tile floor of the ground level.

Karla dropped to her knees, panting and pale.

Chance knelt beside her, offering a comforting touch and supportive words of sympathy. He drew her head to his chest and wrapped his arms around her.

Meanwhile, Sinopa peered over the ledge, into the faint glow of illumination far below. "We have a head start on them. Chance, if you can simply tell me where they've taken the mirror I will pursue it. I'll understand if the two of you wish not to be further involved."

Chance looked up, arms still around the succubus.

Sinopa frowned. "Karla, I am sorry. I know that you were upset with him, but not enough to kill him. And I know I robbed you of your chance to engage him one-on-one. But we simply do not have time. You said in the car, earlier, that teleportation is fueled by emotion. I knew no other way, at that time, to trigger your emotions. Forgive me. Chance, if you tell me what you learned, I will continue on alone. I promise the both of you will no longer be burdened by the encumbrances of my mission."

Chance helped Karla to her feet and put his arm around her. He lifted her left hand up over his shoulders, and helped her back towards the door. "Come on, we'll figure out what we're doing next in the 4Runner. We should go."

They made their way outside and left the front door open. The dim glow illuminated the ground in front of the doorway.

Sinopa led them back towards the SUV.

Before they could reach the rental, the entire forest clearing illuminated with enormous stadium-style lighting. The immense brightness caused the trio to squint.

Most of the lighting fixtures had scaffolding around them, as if to suggest that they were rapidly set up, and would be removed soon.

Several flatbed trucks were in the distance, half loaded with various objects. The ground was covered with wheel ruts and tread marks - all details they couldn't see earlier in the darkness.

Karla looked up with weary, jaded green eyes, still glistening with tears. She saw several armored trucks and GMC Hum-vees. Infantrymen stood in a semi-circle, creating a horseshoe shape around the trio. The soldiers trained their rifles on the three.

Chance licked his lips in apprehension. "That's, uh ... that's how bright it was here, uh, last night, Mrs. Parker."

"That mirror is worth a half million dollars," the succubus groused. "At this point, that's going to be on my epitaph."

A buffeting noise came from above, drowning out Karla's grousing.

Two helicopter gunships swung into position, directly above, with two spotlights dancing over Chance, Sinopa and Karla.

Chance backed up to the reflective-tinting, pressing his back against the building. Karla and Sinopa flanked him.

Someone in one of the Hummers shouted over a bullhorn. He gave orders to the company of soldiers, telling them to lock their weapons on the trio. A cacophony of metallic clacking came from all sides as the men chambered rounds into their guns.

One of the first supernatural soldiers to reach the exit door shouted at the top of his lungs, "What are you waiting for?! KILL THEM!"

"Kuso a," Sinopa swore under her breath.

In unison, Chance telepathically translated; "Oh shit."

---

Next Chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/595222