The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Chapter 19: Crash and Burn

"There wasn't another woman that could have performed your task, Mordecai?" Alex asked softly from her position on the other side of the dark knight as they sat around the table in the war room. The beautiful Spaniard had a puzzled expression on her perfect face.

"It would've been just as easy to take one of the other hardwires, from what was left of the other ESETs after Malcolm's assault. And you could've coerced another man, like you took LeFoust and Malcolm."

Mordecai slowly looked around the small table at three of the same faces that had seen him march off into the darkness, face set with the determination to single-handedly wipe out five of the six ESETs that were threatening Avalon's continued presence in Calgary. Alex, Melanie and Beki still wore those same worried expressions they had worn when he had left, though he had been successful in his mission.

"Before you think me misogynistic, there were several criteria for creating a mole that Agony filled that the others didn't, including the other female members of Mindfire. One, she was relatively unstable. That made it much easier for me to penetrate her mind and turn her. Malcolm had some of the same flaws that allowed crevices on his inner shields to be formed. Once I found a weak spot, one of those crevices, I wedged a probe in and began to hammer away, like a chisel."

Mordecai frowned thoughtfully.

"After that, it was only a matter of time." His frown deepened. "Ravage, on the other hand, was water tight, not a weak spot anywhere on his shield boundary. Tantalus, same thing. Those two are the most stable psionics in Mindfire. Waif I didn't consider, as he was too unstable. I could break him, only to watch his mind turn to jelly under the strain. I didn't want a weapon that would fail before I could use it," he grimly went on to point out, looking first at Alex then Melanie and Beki.

"Scorpion was close, with her long history of instability. But I found she didn't have the abilities and talents needed for the task. Viper, same story. Hammer wasn't even close to having what I needed." He sighed softly. "After Malcolm was done mopping the ESET suite at the hotel with Brotherhood wireheads, there wasn't enough warm bodies to pick from, little yet turn by coercion to what I had in mind. Somehow, luck or by some other method, Mindfire managed to escape the destruction relatively unscathed." He smiled tightly.

"So that left Agony, with her intimate knowledge of the Armageddon Project that might just give us an edge in this psi-war the Brotherhood has started."

"But if they discover her and turn her back, if not kill her outright, then your entire plan is shot!" Melanie countered, a frown on her face. "You're putting a lot of faith in a woman that, until a few hours ago, wanted you so dead that your memories would've been buried too! If she shoots blanks, we could be in a heap of trouble!"

"Fortunately for you, Mordecai, we went ahead and ordered continued development of the countermeasures," Beki noted dryly. A folder popped out of subspace and dropped into her hand.

Placing it onto the table, she flipped it open to draw out several reports and carefully made drawings, intricate and detailed. Tapping one of the drawings with her finger, Beki let her gaze sweep around the table.

"Based on the schematics that ironically you provided us, Mordecai, we've continued to work on creating the enhanced weaponry that will give Avalon the teeth it needs to go to war with the Brotherhood for real! The field generator and the shockwave gun are just about ready. With those in hand, we can strike while the iron is still hot and perhaps convince your lone gunmen comrades to actively join us." She hesitated slightly, as if considering her next words. Then: "That combined with your successful crippling of the ESETs at the hotel, Mordecai, could allow us to do some real damage to the Brotherhood in this part of the country!"