We were not placed here in our vast numbers for the scenery. So there wasn't much time to think. To reflect. To assemble something in my mind that didn't end with me deliberately sabotaging a warhead with Elias still inside that mountain with it.
"I need you to vanish back into whatever life it is you want..."
I snorted as the red filled cargo hold of the transport plane shuddered around us. A few flicked their gazes over me before returning bored stares to the windows beyond. It was hardly thrilling. The mortals that waited unaware five thousand feet below us would be nothing special. If anything I wondered at all why Vanilla had deployed so many of us at all. The only thing that could challenge–
And then I did pause.
Paragon briefed every variable in excruciating detail as always. But what if they did not. What if the reason these short fused immortals were here was because what waited below was not mortal at all.
The exit ramp began lowering. The tone in the aircraft turned marginally eager.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and checked my chutes as the walking fodder strode past me in streaks of bleach blonde hair and other unmemorable faces. I watched six immortals approach the edge and five drop without ceremony when the interior flashed to green. The blonde gave me the curtesy of flipping me off before letting gravity take her.
I watched the black sky where she once stood and felt sorry for them all.
If I had known anything about elders it was their complete lack of empathy. But if I had to guess, what was left of the founder's soul was not worth thinking about–and he wouldn't hesitate to take whatever he wanted in order to succeed.
He wanted a perfect monster. He would damn well get one.
I'd be whatever hell he needed. I'd let those immortals find whatever fate awaited them. I'd even let this despicable creature beside me live. Because my scope was so much bigger than petty revenge.
It was Quinn Adams.
I felt the aircraft pitch hard and start its slow circle above our coordinates. They would have five minutes to cause enough hell to draw whatever resources those mortals–or otherwise–had before we made our move.
Elias was silent the entire time in an eerie calm. His refusal to wear anything less than his finest suit was almost as impractical as it was moronic. But that was not my problem. My problem was dismantling weapons. Obtaining weapons grade plutonium. And keeping an elder that deserved nothing more than death–alive.
I preferred the Cold War, honestly.
"A great mortal once told me that a successful war was not one where you killed the most enemies. It was one where you did not need to pull the trigger at all." I had said the words so calmly to Quinn in her flat in London that day, yet her stillness in response spoke louder.
"It makes me wonder all the more about how much human darkness you've had to endure, Fletcher..." She had answered.
But what I had not told her, was that I had seen far worse in immortals. It was an immortal I had faced at the edge of the world when it was all ready to burn. An immortal wishing annihilation upon a world of unknowing souls purely because he had lost his own. It was nothing more than a coward.
I didn't trust any of them. I only trusted their capacity to do either great or terrible things in whatever new path they forged. I was a monster for them yes, but for her...
"I don't care what you say. You're not half the monster you make yourself out to be."
I smiled thinking on those words. I liked the way they sounded. I like the way she saw me. Even perhaps if they weren't completely true to nature–
Elias suddenly moved and stood perfectly still before the ramp as the wind tore at his finely kept hair. I didn't bother to take point next. There was no need. But my comm came alive in that red lit space.
"They are doing their job well. Make sure you follow suit, Ms Fletcher." Vanilla spoke smoothly right into my skull. As if he were watching me watch Elias on that edge. He had nothing to fear from me. Not when the cost was worth so much more than he realised–or perhaps exactly how much he realised.
"Allow me to demonstrate why it is Paragon chose me when the world was on the edge of destruction in a previous century." I returned slowly, watching Elias who did not react at all despite hearing everything.
"Bring me the plutonium and that elder back in one piece and I have no more interest interrupting your life, Tara Fletcher. Fail me and things may turn... unfortunate."
He was speaking words I did not even need to hear. But this time the elder did and his dark smile carved around in horrific fashion under the red light to half face me. If I wasn't immortal and didn't want to front kick this prick off the edge I would likely fear him. But fear wasn't in my nature. Winning was.
He was not even competition.
"Understood, Sir. I am here to serve." I answered simply, watching the elder slowly turn disappointed.
"Up front." He barked, facing the wind again. "We must do immortal work."
An old fashioned sentiment. But I'm sure he felt profound saying it. I shrugged out of my seat and paced in no rush to stand as wide as the ramp would allow. The parachutes were only necessary to guide us into the mountain runway, not to keep us alive. We had no idea if the immortals even struggled with their side of the assignment on the ground–I didn't like it.
Going in blind was what mortals did. There was no need for it–
The lights flashed green. I saw his plan to shove me moments before he could even try, so I stepped forward and mocked him a two fingered salute as I dropped.
His answering snarl from the aircraft above was almost enough to make this assignment bearable. Almost.
* * * * *
We fell soundlessly.
Elias drifted closer on my six, a mere twenty to thirty feet above. I could only imagine how ridiculous he looked in that wildly inappropriate suit.
Comms remained silent and we shot towards our mountain land point. Drawing the chute at around 600 feet would be enough to guide us in. I glanced over my shoulder to find the elder level with my fall now. He wore an emotionless expression, eyes fixated upon our target.
Workable.
In the minutes of free fall I considered if Quinn had maxed out that Paragon card yet. She'd give it damn best given the circumstances no doubt. If not for spite then for sheer audacity. She wasn't materialistic in nature–only for the show and parade a lawyer deemed in order to be taken seriously–but for Paragon she would definitely make an exception.
I couldn't let the thoughts drift further... there was the task at hand. Immortal work to be done.
"Pull chutes in thirty seconds." Elias' voice cut into my ear.
I didn't appreciate the command. But a lesser immortal would accept it. His ring of gold being a higher rank than my own. For now. I also was not arrogant enough to wage combat with him. He was not Cordius but an elder's strength was... challenging.
I remained wordless as the warmer winds rushed us. I blinked moisture back into my eyes for the first time since mocking the elder on the way down.
Now.
"Now." He ordered, seconds late.
I watched his chute blossom into a wide grey rectangle beneath me. What a shame.
"–Don't get over zealous, immortal. You may need your restraint on the ground." He said, laced with irony.
"I cannot agree more." I murmured in return.
We tugged the chords guiding the direction of our descent quickly between sharp outcroppings of rocks. The warm night air made it easier, more forgiveness was in each turn. Not that we let up on speed as we closed in rapidly on the runway jutting from half the face of the mountain. The entrance was unsurprisingly clear now.
The first drop of immortals had silently left dozens of mortals lying dead. SAM turrets still rotated in operation for incoming projectiles. Which told me they had not fully infiltrated deep beneath the mountain. I sighed, picturing how much of their mess, would become my own.
"Messy." Elias noted in disgust, as he lined his drop up and steadily stepped onto the tarmac from his chute and shrugged out of it as if he had just entered the lobby of a hotel and awaited service.
I did away with theatrics and sliced the chords a dozen feet from the runway. I dropped into a crouch and threw the empty backpack away, drawing a silenced carbine into my hand and pressing my comm with the other.
"In position. Moving for the cores." I stated, knowing Vanilla already knew as much.
I didn't need confirmation.
We walked past the lines of bodies in varying military combats. No uniformity. I noted desert terrain prints but they looked more like soldiers of fortune rather than any collective fighting force. The equipment was a giveaway. No weapons that the locals used.
Elias kicked a body from his path before entering the cavernous runway ahead where the lip of the mountain cover began. Rows upon rows of munitions were housed out of the line of sight from potential eyes in the sky. But that wouldn't concern Paragon. No something much more high calibre would...
A caged lift was at the end. We quickened our silent steps and I scanned the dark rock for signs of movement as we approached.
Elias reached the cage and tore the doors open. A small switch of movement to my right had my rifle moving before my body went with it. I let off a silenced round straight through head of the half dead mortal that was merely clinging to life. There was no life now.
"Very messy." Elias spat, shaking his head as he pressed a button sending the lift into clattering movement downward before I could join him. I rolled my eyes hard and sighed through my nose. If only I had the luxury of leaving him.
I walked, unconcerned after the moving lift.
After a few seconds a loud bang sounded on the roof of the cage where I landed.
I moved my boot to reveal Elias' nonchalant stare up at me. I crouched as we moved quickly down into the mountain. Intelligence told us it was deep. Deeper than the levels Paragon was currently–
A scene of pure violence and much louder bangs flew past us as an inner cavern was currently being cleared by a group of young, clueless immortals.
I didn't bother to roll my eyes as a flash of blonde hair tore into the neck of an immortal. And just before the scene morphed into more dark rock a scream tore out. Elias snickered beneath me. I grit my teeth. Was that the very same reaction he had upon ending mortals. The same he had when he butchered Will and Jamie.
I had to restrain myself from dropping a grenade below me and fixing that beloved suit of his.
Patience Fletcher. Patience–
The lift ground to a screeching halt.
Elias clapped his hands quickly. "Finally."
He stepped out onto the smaller, narrower tunnel. I jumped off the roof and took his back. The back I wanted to stab. Only Quinn Adams kept him alive now.