Deadly Wands (11 page)

The Baron would soon release a video, in his
deep baritone voice, bragging that he killed a thousand Mongols
that night. Genghis recognized juicy propaganda when he saw it, and
couldn’t benefit by saying the Baron only killed half that
many.

As soon as half a million Mongols flew over
the horizon to drive off the Baron, a few dozen American battalions
appeared to drop bombs on the Mongols too tired to fly. They
pounded the weak, wounded, and ill for the hour it took for the
half a million to return. They found their supplies, tents, and
comrades burned. What really alarmed Genghis is that they targeted
his food stores.

Not long after the Mongols landed to eat,
drink, and sleep, even more American units bombed them from high
altitude, then dived to shoot up whatever Mongols rose to contest
the skies. Apparently those who just left landed to enjoy
breakfast, knowing other battalions would attack the enemy at dawn.
Together they stayed for several hours, denying the Mongols sleep,
until other Americans arrived to replace them.

Although always outnumbered, the Americans
could fly higher, and then target any Mongols capable of reaching
their ceiling. Then the next highest-flying enemies. Soon the
armada lost everyone who could fly high, which let the Americans
shoot them with relative impunity. This is why William wanted the
highest fliers farthest north, to weed out the Mongols with the
highest ceiling. As the armada crawled south, Americans with lower
ceilings could still fight with relative impunity. The Americans
owned the sky.

Mongol divisions successfully chased some of
the American battalions to their hidden bunkers. The battalion
would fight from their bunkers and either wait for help or do it
themselves after a refreshing nap. Without bombs, the Mongols
couldn’t break through to flush them out.

The armada pushed on, pounding Anchorage with
savage glee. Unfortunately, Anchorage was built with punishment in
mind, so this bombardment did little more than remind Mongols of
the futility of striking the same target every year. An army of
two-wanders controlled hundreds of bunkers connected by hardened
tunnels, while a division of quads escaped from hidden openings to
blast Mongols whenever they slept. Mongols would find no food,
shelter, or safety near Anchorage. William would later fund its
reconstruction as a much larger planned city with an improved
harbor.

Genghis had assumed he could forage, but the
Americans had killed everything worth eating. It disturbed him to
see his troops excited over spearing a rabbit. The burden of
finding food turned their sprint into a stroll. William feared the
armada would not even reach San Francisco.

Genghis realized too late his invasion was
doomed. They bombed him every night so the Mongols couldn’t rest,
and harassed them from unreachable heights during the day. Tired
troops travel slow and fight poorly. Unlike the Mongols, the
Americans enjoyed warm shelter, hot food, and could sleep
safely.

As William predicted, the armada moved south
along the coast. Genghis desperately needed to eat, so William’s
three divisions hunted those units sent to hunt, fish, and forage.
The Americans already evacuated every fishing village, leaving the
Mongols nothing.

When the Khan sent ten divisions after them,
William lured them away by staying just out of range. After a few
hours, the Mongols turned around, so William attacked, mauling
them. Once the Mongols started flanking them, William retreated
once more, but by flying higher so they could still shoot the
Mongols, but the Mongols couldn’t shoot the Americans. At first,
the angry Mongols kept attacking those above their ceiling, until
finally the commander saw the futility and signaled retreat. But he
waited too long. The American marathoners flew down the exhausted
Mongols, picking them off like sharks on a beach.

Billy found his father’s munitions ship, so
William could resume bombing the armada as it crossed Canada. When
it ran out of bombs, William sent it to San Francisco, where he had
a shipload of food waiting. William had hired the entire local
fishing fleet to fish off the Siberian coast, and hoped they got
there in time to feed his own armada.

By the time the armada reached California,
Mongol scouts reported several million quads waiting for them in
San Francisco. What they didn’t know is that most of those quads
were untrained, short-range, and low-altitude. Exactly the quads
that William refused to employ. Because the Mongols faced
high-altitude, long-range quads ever since the invasion began,
Genghis had to assume those protecting San Francisco were also
trouble.

William put himself in the Khan’s boots and
foresaw his next move. He sent a messenger to San Francisco to warn
them, sent others to get his battalions, then flew at night to hide
his divisions between the enemy and the city. He grounded them and
forbid fires. The next morning William called a leadership
meeting.

“Genghis cannot go home without bombing San
Francisco. Yet most of his armada lacks the strength to fly that
far, so he’s probably gonna send his best quads at night and hope
to surprise us. Given the distance, he must leave before midnight,
so that’s when we’ll double the sentries. Until then, eat and
sleep.”

Genghis actually spent another two days
moving south, mostly fishing, making William wonder if he meant to
attack with his entire armada. Or what was left of it. Then Billy
pointed out the diminishing moon, and it all made sense. Genghis
would attack when there was no moonlight to highlight his guys.

Fifty thousand Mongols, dressed like
Americans, left that night, but few returned. They flew
individually, rather than in units, to help them blend in with the
incredible mob that awaited them. This allowed enough Mongols to
sneak through to fireball half the city. Most non-quad residents
fled weeks before. The rest stayed to put out fires. It’s hard to
kill someone faster than an eagle, but several million defenders
somehow managed it.

Stocked up on fish, the armada now flew north
with a purpose. The American battalions still shot them up, but now
several million angry quads chased them as well. They lost their
fear once Genghis Khan fled. William had paid a tribe to turn an
entire buffalo herd into beef jerky, so they had plenty to eat on
the run. The Mongols, however, had to stay near the coast to find
enough fish to feed a few hundred thousand mouths every day. Better
preparations let the Americans fly faster than the Mongols, and
that made all the difference.

While William’s three divisions targeted
Mongols fishing, and the battalions rotated turns blasting the
enemy from above, waves of angry quads crashed into the armada
without coordination or organization. Without the battalions
running interference, the Mongols would have destroyed them with
professional formation flying. But the battalions could fly higher,
longer, and faster, and didn’t worry about being chased down by
superior forces. Attacked day and night, the Mongols couldn’t
sleep, rest, or eat. William had turned the world’s greatest
military into zombies -- dead, but still hungry.

Genghis apparently did the math and concluded
his armada wouldn’t make it. So he divided the whale they just
caught among the healthier half of his troops, clarified their
tactical situation, and said everyone needed to get home as best as
they could. He urged the sick and wounded to disappear in the vast
Canadian wilderness, then escape before winter. He reformed the
units, putting the best quads together. At midnight, the armada
disintegrated, with some units fleeing north, others east, and some
seeking refuge on distant islands. The sick and wounded tried
hiding.

At first, William didn’t understand what
happened, but by dawn it became all too clear. He ordered his units
north and urged the angry mob to follow them with all the food they
could carry. Genghis had counted on the ten lines of fortifications
to feed and shelter them, but instead William’s troops ate well and
slept warm. The enemy broke into squads, so William did the same.
All the way to Siberia.

They knew some got away because they never
found Genghis Khan. William’s battalions didn’t fly as far or fast
because he loaded them down with food. At the first line of
fortifications, William put his quarter-million troops in their old
units to separate marathoners from half-marathoners. He left guides
for the angry Americans looking for Mongols to kill. William had
the two-wanders unbury the jerked beef they spent the winter
collecting. His guys now carried it to the Mongol camp on the
Siberian side of the strait. William sent Billy ahead to where the
Siberians were suppose to be waiting for them.

Thousands of civilian quads poured in every
day. William had guides direct them west, where his troops
distributed the food they brought. His quarter-million troops spent
the week as supply mules, mostly carrying bombs from the Mongol
camp.

Denuded of a million troops, Mongolia lay on
her back with her legs spread open. It was now summer, they had
plenty to eat, so William and Elizabeth loaded up on gold and flew
ahead to the summer games in northern Mongolia.

Success depended upon surprise. Alerted, the
Mongols could destroy them just as easily as the other way around.
But Genghis didn’t dare reveal the destruction of his mighty
armada, and it never crossed his arrogant mind that Americans would
dare invade Mongolia. A sneaky sack of the capital to steal his
gold, sure, but that was a one-time raid, not a lengthy invasion.
Genghis assumed the few hundred thousand quads he abandoned in
Canada would keep the Americans busy.

While the location of the summer games
changed every year, they always held it within easy flying distance
of several cities. William and Elizabeth purchased the most
ridiculously expensive clothes they could find, covered her in the
gorgeous jewelry he always wanted to give her, purchased food by
the herd, then bought out every liquor vendor.

William and Elizabeth arrived at the head of
ten thousand “liquor mules” -- quads with kegs strapped to their
backs. They over-flew the crowd to get everyone’s attention. While
the mules opened the barrels, William and Liz hovered above a
growing mob and lied their asses off.

He presented himself as the spoiled son of
wealthy merchants who fell madly in love with the woman of his
dreams. To celebrate their pending nuptials, they were buying
everyone drinks for the next week.

William became a hero to the very people he’d
soon slaughter.

They spent the afternoon buying out all the
local venders, leaving them scrambling to bring in more booze. Word
spread and every flier within several hundred clicks came to help
the generous couple celebrate.

“We should make it convincing. I’ve never had
sex before a million people before,” Liz teased him.

“I have,” William joked. “But mostly they
just told me to keep my hand out of my pocket.”

The happy couple finally enjoyed the
unrestrained debauchery that their son’s presence prevented. Liz,
who had never even seen a porn video, now starred in them. It’s
ironic that children come from sex, because it’s hard to have sex
with children around.

By the time Billy found them a week later,
the million people at the games grew into several million. And most
of them quads, since easy flying distance is a long journey on
horse.

“We’ll be ready tomorrow night,” Billy told
his parents. “If you’re ready to get back to work.”

Using a quarter-million long-distance troops
as mules and having Siberians stockpile supplies allowed over a
million civilian quads to keep up. The stronger ones even carried
supplies.

They dropped half a million bombs an hour
before dawn, then hovered to blast anything that moved. The weakest
Americans attacked around the perimeter. Because they crept to just
an hour flight away, the civilians had plenty of strength to
loiter. Mongols hate feeling crowded, so they had spread out over a
vast area. But still, the sheer volume of bombs felt like someone
picked up the earth and shook it. Most of the bombs exploded the
half million or so crowded huts. Everyone seemed stunned, deafened,
and blinded by the shockwave, bright lights, and burning heat.
Everything flammable, including many people, became a bonfire,
destroying night vision.

One million angry quads lived long enough to
fly up, but did little damage because they were too spread out. The
correct tactical move was to get out of the line of fire, mass
together, then attack the enemy flank from above. But not even
veterans think clearly when violently woken from a week-long
drunken stupor to find the sky raining fireballs.

The half-marathoners fireballed the closest
cities while the marathoners and near-marathoners overwhelmed
military units. The civilians took everything of value and
destroyed the rest. They loaded down every wagon and pack animal
and drove north, along with herds of horses, yaks, and goats.

William had them record Billy doing his
scream and fire dance in William’s suit, then cut to William, who
explained to Mongols that they could end this today by simply
renouncing never-ending expansion. If not, this would be the price
they’d pay. Of course, William knew that three centuries of success
had convinced Mongols of their own superiority, but he had to give
them the chance to negotiate a peace.

William made the most of his unexpected good
fortune. The quarter-million long-distance quads had only militia
and understaffed military bases to slow them down. He needed to
give the wagons three months to get within easy flying distance of
Alaska, so he sacked everything between him and the Strait. He
needed every city within reach just to feed his enormous horde. The
million civilians became golden mules, carrying loot north. Another
million flew south to replace them. The only thing that stopped him
from depopulating all of Mongolia was the threat of winter.