The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Chapter 46: Armageddon

"Copy that, Alpha Four," Lash replied tightly as Dee looked up in alarm at the sound of Duffy's voice.

In doing so, she caught the master of ceremonies finishing her final words from the stand, signaling the assembly of the finance ministers and their governmental leaders to her right for the last photo opportunity.

"Shit," she hissed. "They're early!"

Mordecai frowned as Dee's grim words snapped out of the communication link between the command post and the scattered Alpha Team.

"A conference ending early?" he muttered in near disbelief. Then he was reaching for a phone, hammering in the numbers with subtle pressure from his mind on the keypad. "Hello. I'd like to speak to Ms. Katherine Hollingcott, please. Yes, it's urgent." He paused as both Raven and Jeriko stared at him in surprise. Then he was speaking again.

"Katherine, hi, it's Mordecai Kelly." He chuckled at the comment he heard from the other end. "Right, from the plane. Sorry to call out of the blue but I think I have a story for you that will not only get you that anchor position in Toronto, but will have you famous from coast to coast. Interested?"

"What is he doing?" Jeriko hissed tightly. "Is he calling in the Normal media on this thing?"

But it was a grim Melanie that answered, not Raven.

"He's making sure the Normals know that the Brotherhood exists," the blonde Storm Wolf explained softly, her voice seething with barely contained intensity and energy. "So they cannot operate in secret against the human race in the future."

Both lone gunmen jerked their eyes towards the Storm Wolf, who stared back with eyes hot with inner fires.

"But the Shield ..." Jeriko began with a confused stammer.

"Has been already breached by the Brotherhood," Mordecai smoothly finished for the Swedish hardwire as he set the phone down. "We'll continue to make sure the Shield exists to protect the rest of our people. But, as far as the Brotherhood is concerned, the Normals deserve to have their perspective genocidal murderers revealed for all to see. Then we'll see how long they'll last!"

The man in black glanced over at a grim Melanie and, without a word, she bowed and vanished in a swirl of inverted translocational energies.

"And where is she going?" Raven asked hoarsely, feeling things swirl out of control.

"To Lisa and Samantha," Mordecai answered, his own face growing grim. "To warn the Storm Wolves to expect a Brotherhood assault on Calgary!"

The blonde Storm Wolf commander grimaced as Melanie relayed to her the slight change in events down at the conference center. A change that could rapidly snowball into something massive, if they weren't careful.

Then Lisa smiled, a tight expression that held neither joy nor happiness. Regardless of the Brotherhood's change in plans, the Storm Wolves would stand ready to do what was necessary to carry out their lord's wishes: stop the Brotherhood's launch of the Armageddon Project at all costs!

Not since her transferal from the wet bank did Lisa know so firmly and without reservation what she was going to do. She had gone from softwire telepath, to truncated wet bank guardian to one of the most powerful psionics on the planet, wielding the inverted energies that would allow her to carry out Mordecai's desires. And that desire was to destroy the Brotherhood, before they could destroy the human race. If it was Mordecai's desire, then it was Lisa's sole purpose. Her vow and psionic bond to the psi lord would allow nothing less.

A quick glance over at her fellow Storm Wolf, Samantha, confirmed that she too had the issue instantly resolved in her mind. Both had shed the softness that had allowed them to be wet bank guardians with their move into the rebuilt bodies that Mordecai had made for them. And they had both embraced the fire, the intensity that was Mordecai to become the Storm Wolves, wholeheartedly and without reservation. If they were going to die carrying out his wishes, then so be it. No death could be better.

Another quick look at the tight knot of Storm Wolves that now stood close around the two former wet bank guardians was enough to tell Lisa that they too were ready. Though recently come to the Pack, these former Avalonians were just as determined to carry out Mordecai's desires, even to their own deaths. And coming close to Lisa and Samantha's own intensity were the Triumvirate: Melanie, Alexandra and Tabitha.

Founding members of Avalon, Lisa and Samantha had quickly found that the emotional attachments the Triumvirate had to Mordecai had only served to increase their intensity once they had become Storm Wolves. If anything, it pushed the three to take risks that no one needed to. And that, in itself, made them perfect for what she was about to make them do.

"Melanie, Tabitha, Alexandra: take the point at equidistant points around the city."

The three snapped out of sight with barely a nod of acknowledgement as the others turned to their commanders, questions in their eyes. Lisa didn't wait long to tell them what she was thinking.

"As for the rest of you: stand by. We're not sure what's about to happen but I don't want to take any chances. Be ready for anything!"