Ruin of Dragons Page 10

  Rowan was still trying to wrap his brain around that one. "The memory that wasn't yours," he said.

  "Yeah, but it felt familiar in a way that nothing here has," Petra said. "That's got to mean something, and I need to find out what."

  The look on her face left no room for argument. "Okay, let's say you're right," Rowan said, trying to be rational. "Only problem is we don't know where this wizard went. Let's go back to the whole off world thing. Do you honestly think you can find him? Do you even know where to start?"

  This seemed to break through Petra's fog, and she stood there lost in thought for a moment. But then a tight smile drew across her face that made Rowan nervous. "No," she said. "But I know someone who might."

  • • •

  The Republic colony world of Barrast, an outlying omega-class planet, was remarkably average. Chosen for its reasonably hospitable climate, mild vegetation and relatively nonthreatening fauna, it largely served as an offshoot for the more densely populated worlds in its closest proximity. It was this primarily benign existence coupled with the reported reasons for the attack that made the least amount of sense to Aris. The newswaves were calling it ecoterrorism, but he wasn't buying it.

  Ecological extremists usually had a cause for their activism or a movement to protest, but of the four targets that had been attacked so far, only two of them had been newly established colonies, and none resided in ecosystems that were otherwise under any kind of threat or duress. And especially in the case of Barrast, which had been founded almost seventy years prior, it looked to Aris like little more than senseless destruction. The fact that all four were colonies on what had been uninhabited worlds was telling, but there was something that wasn't adding up. And if Davv was right about dragons somehow being connected, as implausible as that might be, then Aris felt the need to become involved.

  Airspace control had directed them to a landing site on the west edge of the capital, and all was quiet as they stepped off the ship into the brisk afternoon. The sky was empty as all other traffic seemed to have been diverted away from the city, creating an unsettling stillness around them.

  They met no one upon arrival, and there were no other outward signs of movement in their vicinity. Barrast, at least to their immediate surroundings, was a ghost town. "The city's been evacuated," Aris said into the silence. "But we could be walking into anything, so stay sharp."

  Aris had a street layout pulled up on his handheld and directed the group as they made their way east toward the city center. The haze of smoke hung thick in the air, letting sunlight through in fits and patches, and though all the fires had been extinguished two days prior, a thin filter of ash still hovered around them. And from the moment they stepped off the ship, the taste of sulfur on the air was inescapable.

  As they progressed further, they began seeing signs of fire damage. Woodwork on building facades was scorched, grass and other plant life was dried up and shriveled, paint was peeling, and windows were cracked or shattered. Then, like passing an invisible barrier, everything suddenly became barren and monochrome.

  They slowed as they crossed into the blast zone, having to be more careful where they stepped. Buildings still stood, but anything that had been flammable was gone, leaving only brickwork and metal. Most of the newer constructs had survived reasonably well, while older structures had collapsed in on themselves. All organic material had been turned to ash, and only the trunks of the thickest trees still stood, branches burned down to rounded black nubs. And everything was coated in an endless sea of gray ash.

  Gareth had wandered over to the edge of the street to examine the brick facade of the nearest building. "Burn type is consistent with dragonfire," he said, putting a hand out and sweeping ash from part of the standing wall, revealing a slick glassy sheen on the outermost layer. "Stonework shows signs of first stage breakdown."

  The ground crunched underfoot as broken glass and chunks of masonry mixed with the ash on the burnt pavement. Aris knelt down, a closer look revealing a thin layer of granules under the ash. "And there's silicate everywhere," he said, remembering that Davv had mentioned as much.

  They continued on, crossing more abandoned streets and watching as the buildings progressed into greater stages of ruin, the smoke becoming thicker as they drew closer to the city center. Gareth was scanning along the upper sections of the standing architecture, shaking his head. "This has all the marks of dragonfire aftermath, but it's all wrong for a dragon attack," he said. "If that makes any sense."

  "How does one use dragonfire without using dragons?" Aris nodded, voicing the obvious conundrum.

  Gareth pointed to a streetlamp on the corner. "I mean look at this. Most of the metalwork is still standing, and that's usually the first thing to go. Plus, there's no sign of focused burn anywhere, no gash marking the path of the creature, no physical structural damage, other than what was caused by the fire."

  Aris nodded. "A dragon moving through the area would have knocked through buildings, torn up pavement."

  "And we haven't seen any subterranean exit or entry points. It all just looks like blanket fire laid down from the air."

  "And dragons don't do that," Aris said, turning to Mira. "I need eyes."

  "On it," she said, scanning quickly and spotting a fire escape against the side of a three-level building that was still structurally intact. She started toward it but didn't get more than four steps before stopping suddenly, holding up a hand.

  Everyone else froze as she listened intently, hoping to catch the sound she thought she had just heard. It had been faint, but distinct, like a footstep. She strained her ears in the silence, wondering if she had imagined it—

  There it was again. She turned back to Aris, her voice barely above a whisper. "We're not the only ones here."

  Aris's expression tightened as he turned on his earpiece. "Spread out. Comms active."

  Without another word, the others took off in different directions, disappearing into the haze. Mira continued to the fire escape and leaped easily to the lower level, then climbed up the side of the remaining two floors to the top of the building.

  At the roof, she found herself stopping quickly. The entire center mass of the building's upper level had collapsed inward and down, leaving only the brickwork around the edge still intact. Mira balanced easily as she made her way around to the other end of the building, where the corner butted up against a much taller eight-level structure, the top of which would serve nicely as a lookout point. Most of the building's outer surfaces were gone, but the heavy girder framework looked stable enough, and would give her enough purchase to climb to the top.

  She reached the corner, vaulted across the open space to the taller structure, caught onto a ledge between levels and pulled herself up into the opening of the floor above. Stepping through the gutted room to the ruined front of the building, Mira looked out and up, taking a moment to choose her path. The design and placement of the bricks in the facade would allow a fairly even route to the top of the structure. She took a breath, leaped up and grabbed onto the next ledge, sidled over to the middle facade and started climbing upward. A moment later she was at the top, hopping over the outer ridge onto the roof. She stepped over to the east corner and looked out, her breath catching in her throat.

  Almost the entirety of the city center was decimated, a rough square mile of ash and smoke. Much of the commerce districts, and the circular municipal complex they surrounded, were gone. A graveyard of silent massive steel and stone frames, gutted and empty, was all that remained. The capitol building itself, the center of the destruction, was little more than a pile of rubble, the center of a thick column of smoke rising far into the sky.

  Despite the fact that it was primarily business and municipal areas that were hit, during the quietest hours in the middle of the night, Mira took little comfort in the fact that there had been minimal loss of life for the amount of damage that had
been wreaked. The economic and governmental systems would have difficulty recovering from such a complete system-wide attack, if they managed to avoid collapsing altogether. It was all terribly tragic and senseless, and Mira had trouble understanding it all.

  "Who would do this?" she whispered to herself.

  "That's what we're here to find out," Voss's voice said in her ear, attempting a note of reassurance.

  Mira took a deep breath, putting her mind back on task. "It's bad up here, guys," she said. "This goes on for half a mile in all directions. Whoever did this wanted the place shut down cold."

  "So no chance of this being a natural event," Aris's voice said.

  "Not even a little," Mira said. "From up here you can clearly see a sweep pattern in the scorching. Lure is likely right about it being an attack from the air. It looks like a strafing run."

  Aris's sigh was audible in her ear. "This just keeps getting better," he said. "Any ideas on how that's possible?"

  "None," Mira said. "If it was a dragon, it wasn't acting at all typical, and it definitely wasn't a forage. But the pattern suggests a level of control that our neurotransmitters just won't allow."

  "Any other signs of movement?" Aris asked.

  Mira scanned the streets immediately around the base of the building she was on. She focused on the corners and alleyways, narrowing the focal range in her ocular implants to telescope her field of vision nearly to street level. She spent another minute flicking from block to block, but saw nothing.

  "Not yet," she said. "But we're definitely not alone. I've heard at least three different sonic marks, just no visual yet."

  "Copy that," Aris said. "Keep me apprised."

  "Acknowledged."

  She crossed back over to the opposite corner of the roof to get a closer look at a transmitter tower that still stood there. Looking up to the top, she spotted a security sensor array, loose but still attached. Her brow creased as she wondered whether it was still functioning. One way to find out, she thought as she stepped up and started climbing the rungs.

  She reached the top, locked her legs around the tower and examined the array. It dangled down off its mount, hanging by a cable in the crook under the apex where the three supports met. The housing was blasted smooth and partially eaten away, and all the outer electronics and positioning servos were completely gone, but the crook of the support arms had given it some amount of protection, and Mira was surprised to hear a faint beeping coming from within. She removed a multitool from her belt and pried a panel from the side of the housing open, revealing the innards of the sensor array.

  The beeping was accompanied by a small red light flashing in time, confirming that the power source was still active. She leaned in closer, poking around inside. The light was an alert, indicating it was no longer connected to the network, no doubt a result of the initial attack. But there was a possibility it had continued recording, and Mira intended to find that out. She extended a flat blade and separated the internal memory unit from its slot on the circuit board.

  A sudden sound drew her attention, and she looked down to see a shadow pass into an open building two streets over. She scanned left, spotting Gareth a block behind, making his way up a covered walk.

  "Lure, you may have eyes on our new friends," she said. "One block straight ahead, on your left." She saw his pace slow as he slunk inward closer to the building, putting himself farther into shadow. "Copy that," he replied.

  Gareth, for his part, had seen the shadow of movement up ahead, but wasn't sure it had been anything more than light playing through the shifting haze. Mira's statement had confirmed it, however, and he proceeded with as much caution as possible. It was difficult to maintain a reasonable amount of stealth with the ground crunching underfoot, but if he stuck close to the buildings, he could minimize the amount of debris he was walking through and at least stay out of the direct sunlight that managed to penetrate the smoke.

  He had seen the shadow moving left, so he skirted the edge of the building heading the same direction, hoping to see more signs of movement. "What've we got?" Aris's voice cut in.

  "They're sneaky," Gareth whispered. "I'm hoping I haven't lost them. Who else would be here at ground zero?"

  "Other than us?" Aris asked as Gareth crossed the street, ducking into the open ground floor of the next building over. "I'm sure there's an official investigation going on, though whether they've been out here in the field already is anyone's guess." There was a pause, and in the silence Gareth heard the faint sound of crunching gravel. He adjusted course and continued on, his senses on alert. "Could be scavengers," Aris continued, his tone nonchalant. "And let's not forget whoever it was that rained down fiery death on this place to begin with."

  Gareth stopped. That was not encouraging. "Guess I'll be careful then."

  He continued on in the direction of the last sound, mildly annoyed at how pressing the silence seemed around him, amplifying every footstep and breath. He stopped at the corner of the building, scanning the different directions he could take, listening intently.

  "Lure," Mira's sudden voice cut in, startling him. "I'm seeing movement two blocks north of your position."

  "Thank you," he whispered, turning left and crossing the street. He stuck to the shadows, making his way north, stopping once again at the corner. This time, however, he could hear what sounded like a muffled voice, snatches of indistinct conversation floating along with the breeze. He crossed the street and ducked into the open interior of another ruined building.

  The voice became more distinct as he made his way to the other side of the structure, keeping the front support pillars between him and the voice. There was a sudden crunching sound as the voice changed direction and Gareth threw himself behind a half-crumbled wall as he realized it had started back toward him. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he was beginning to regret his initial willingness to come along on whatever this mission was that Aris had set himself on.

  "Copy that," the voice said, now very close, and Gareth froze. It soon became apparent that he was listening to someone speaking into a communicator. "It looks like total immersion," the voice continued. "No signs of ballistics or other defensive countermeasures. Just a blanket of ash and silicate." There was a pause. "No, Commander, it looks like this caught everyone by surprise."

  Commander? Had the military gotten involved already?

  "Hang on," the voice said, and Gareth could hear the footsteps stop on the opposite side of the wall. He sat there a long moment, trying not to breathe too loud, when the footsteps started off again, continuing the way they had originally gone.

  Gareth waited a few more seconds then peeked up over the edge of the wall. The man was walking away, striding right down the center of the street. He was tall and bulky with short dark hair, a small scanning device in one hand, and a sidearm at the ready in the other.

  And he was wearing the gray longcoat of a ranger.

  Gareth grinned. The Republic had already sent in a task force. Aris was going to love this. He straightened up slowly, watching the departing agent and trying not to make any noise. He waited another moment then turned, only to find himself staring down the barrel of another ranger's sidearm.

  This one had a similar stocky frame, equally short hair, and an expression that had absolutely zero patience in it.

  Gareth put his hands out, attempting a lame smile. "Hi."

  "Who are you?" the ranger asked, his voice as blunt as his build.

  Gareth hesitated, trying to get a read on the other's face, looking for something he could use. "Easy," Gareth said, putting as much cool calm into his voice as possible. "I'm just looking. Same as you, I'd imagine."

  The ranger's brow creased slightly. "This is a restricted area," he said, his left, gun-free hand lifting and gesturing towards himself. "You'll have to come with me."

  Gareth watched the gesture, looke
d back up to the ranger's face, but didn't move. He needed the man to come a little closer. "I'm sure," he said, putting on a warm smile. Keeping one hand out in front of him, he turned away from the ranger and pointed with the other to one of the nearby pillars. "Did you notice the searing on these supports? The surface is smooth, like it was just beginning to break down, but only on this side. It was only under fire for a few seconds…"

  And just as he had hoped, the ranger lost his pretense for patience and stepped forward. "I said, you'll need to come with me," he repeated, reaching out and grabbing Gareth's right forearm.

  And in that instant, Gareth turned and placed the two middle fingers of his left hand against the man's forehead. Time seemed to stop for a moment as the ranger inhaled sharply, his eyes shutting tight. They stood frozen for a handful of heartbeats before Gareth stepped back slightly, breaking contact.

  The ranger's eyes opened, then squinted, seeming slightly confused.

  "Of course," Gareth continued as if nothing had happened. The ranger released his grip and gestured back the way they came. To the man's credit, his gun arm had never budged and only now lowered slightly.

  Four blocks south, Aris was on the move. As soon as he had heard the second voice in Gareth's comm, he had gone on high alert. Pulling out his handheld and zeroing in on the wizard's position, he abruptly changed directions and started north. "We read you, Lure, sit tight," he said. "Veil, do we have a visual?"

  "Negative," Mira's voice came back. "View is obstructed."

  Aris shook his head, stepping up his pace. The voice had sounded like military, but no identifiers had yet been given. "Wasp, you're with me," Aris said. "Continue east for two blocks, then cut south, we should be able to flank them." Aris put away his handheld and stepped up to the corner, about to cross the street, when the crunching of gravel stopped him in his tracks.

  "That's a nice coat," a sharp voice said from behind him. "Who'd you steal it from?"