Deadly Wands (54 page)

But all this loot loaded them down, so Billy
invited them to deposit it at his bank.

Billy didn’t give the politicians the
opportunity to waste this opportunity. He called a meeting of the
military commanders, expecting just Team Red and the marathoners
that Birdy trained. Instead, it appeared that all the quads
commanders showed up. Either to see the famous Baron, or all the
booty that his team captured the night before. The politicians
showed up, of course, but he ignored them to speak to the unit
leaders.

“I heard that you’re all risking your lives
for an independent India for free. Well, I’d like to pay you
according to how high or far you can fly. Sign up with Birdy and
open an account with Global Bank so that you can rob Mongol banks
and businesses with us.

“Half of what you take belongs to the
Republic of India. You get to keep the other half, although I ask
you to distribute some to the families of our slain and disabled
heroes. My team will lead the marathoners to destroy the larger
units. Start now or else the enemy will surprise us, instead of the
other way around.”

No one but the politicians objected, so they
fanned out, seeking out the enemy for the first time. While Grandma
led the marathoners, Billy visited the news agencies in the largest
cities to urge Indians to kill Mongols on sight, plead with the
militias to join the democratic government, and warn Indians
serving with the Mongols to switch sides or else.

As he hoped, the appearance of the Red Baron
electrified the subcontinent. He distributed a longer video of him
killing Tamerlane. The first week went so well that he stayed to
orchestrate the second week. Billy was so in-demand that time flew
by like a super-quad.

Things couldn’t be better. Until Blade
arrived from the Tian Shan Mountains to report the horrible
news.

"They wiped out half of the Americans," she
said, looking like she either just flew a few thousand kilometers,
was pregnant again, or both. "Genghis sterilized the Silk Road so
the follow up forces could travel faster. He rewarded locals, who
gave us up. The vanguard of the follow-up forces will arrive in
just a few days.”

Well, that made Billy feel like shit because
he was suppose to return a week ago. No way anyone but him could
get there in time. He had sent ten thousand Indian near-marathoners
north with bombs, but they wouldn’t get there in time.

He called a meeting of his team leaders.
"Load up the Indian marathoners with bombs and have them launch as
soon as they get back from raiding. I want Team Red to leave in the
morning without bombs. Have each battalion fly on their own so the
slowest won’t hold back the fastest.” He paused to consider his
options. The sight of Birdy gave him an idea. "Our victories have
multiplied the number of air bandits -- quads who’ve turned
criminal. Birdy, spread the word that the Red Baron secretly moved
the plunder your troops accumulated when based out of the
Himalayas.”

“What plunder?” Birdy asked surprised.

“The huge fortune you guys stole from Mongols
north of the Himalayas,” Billy said with a wink. “Yeah, reassure
the new guys that I had the treasure moved to the northern side of
the western-most Himalayas to put it out of reach of the Mongols in
India. I want those bandits to become our blocking force in case
the Mongols from the Silk Road decide to intervene in India.

"Genghis and his best quads are back in China
by now, but they need those follow-on forces. I’m gonna lure their
vanguard to the Himalayas to give the rest of you time. The Mongols
will assume the criminals are our troops, and the criminals will
assume the Mongols want to take the gold that they think we’ve
buried.

"Unless anyone has any better ideas.”

CHAPTER 71

Billy sat in the lotus position to slow his
breathing when Princess started up again.

"I know you can hear me," she said, as if he
wasn’t in the same room. "It's ridiculous that you won't wait for
us. We may not fly as fast as you, but we can fly pretty damn fast.
Isn't that the point of putting all the super-quads in their own
units? But no, you want to play the hero and attack them alone like
in Barcelona. I saw the Mongol uniform you have under your
overcoat. That means you plan on infiltrating their camp."

Billy didn’t care about glory, fame, or
power. He just wanted to stop a never-ending world war that killed
a million civilians a year. Nine generations of his ancestors died
for that mission. As the world's most powerful quad, he owed it to
them. Everyone has to decide what to make their life about --
stopping a cruel imperialist empire from subjugating the entire
human race seemed a pretty good way to spend one's life. It was not
just worth killing for, but worth dying for. But Princess knew all
this.

Billy got up and inspected his backpack while
silently thanking his father for his advice.

"I wanted to wait until morning, but you
won't let me meditate, even though you know that the more I slow my
breathing, the higher I can fly, and therefore the faster and
longer. I can get there early to slow the enemy vanguard. But not
with you filling my head with your fears. You want me with you, but
you drive me away. I am what I do. I’ll spend the rest of my life
killing Mongols. If you help me, then we can be together. If not,
not. But right now you’re costing me my edge. I need peace of mind
in order to do what I do, so you are killing me."

Princess broke into tears -- a woman's
cruelest tool. He packed some leftover food, bandages, and water
sacks.

"Listen to me," he said, raising her chin
with his palm. “My mother, Elizabeth, was the only legitimate child
of King Richard of England and Queen Ann of Ireland. If something
happens to me, take our children to my grandfather. Technically,
I’m still next in line to the throne.”

“You’re a real prince?” She backed up as if
bitch-slapped. “Here I’ve been telling everyone to call me
princess, and all this time you’ve been a damn prince? And didn’t
tell anyone?”

“I’m too busy to rule, so I told the king to
find another heir to the English throne.”

Princess nearly fainted. She stared at him as
if her eyes couldn’t focus. Her mouth formed such a perfect “O”
that it tempted Billy to place a coin in it like a fish on a dinner
plate.

“Do you have any other family secrets you’d
care to share with your fiancée?” she finally deadpanned.

"Oh, on my father’s side I’m a Prussian baron
and heir to the kingdom of Bohemia. It’s why I call myself the Red
Baron. Like my father, my name is William von Richthofen, but my
parents called me Billy.”

“That’s it?” she asked sarcastically.

Billy twisted the knife. “You know how Jack
thought Subodei wiped out his first family, and how he love his
wife so much that he never remarried? Well, a great-granddaughter
was visiting her lover in the White Mountains when it happened, but
Jack only learned she survived when he saw me with his wands from
three centuries ago. I was the last of his legitimate bloodline, so
he has made me his heir.”

“But Jack owns most of the Americas and will
probably end up with half of Africa,” she said, only slightly
exaggerating.

“Our kids will enjoy the life my parents
should have had.”

She snorted in disgust. "I’m not really a
princess. My parents were orphaned together, so I don’t even know
who my grandparents were. They call me princess because I’m
probably the only Indian in the Americas who can’t trace ancestors
to a tribal king. My real name sounds great in my native Iroquois,
but translates into Running Turtle."

Billy burst into laughter, then hugged her
until she laughed, too. "Look, I’m not trying to get myself killed.
This is my job, and no one is better at it, which saves the lives
of those who can't do what I do as well. Don't make my job harder
than it already is. I cannot be with you if you make scenes like
this." Drawing a line in the sand of their relationship, he walked
out the door. Before flying off, he paused to floor her once more.
“I never make promises, but I promise to make you a real princess
before I die.”

“And how will you do that?”

“By marrying you, silly.”

She stripped him before he could escape and
showed him how much she loved him. It turned out that he didn’t
leave until morning, after all.

Billy launched before dawn while she snored.
He ascended as high as possible, acclimated to the thin air, then
slowly rose higher, while falling into a meditative trance that
allowed him to fire all wands at maximum thrust for many hours.

Billy loved to fly because he associated
flight with his beloved parents. It cleared his mind and let him
soak in the amazing experience of shooting through the sky. Flying
high, far, and fast relaxed him like nothing else. It gave him
peace. It made him feel like part of the universe. And the longer
he flew, the more he merged with the cosmos. No drug, no wand, not
even sex beat the experience. He heard that runners experienced a
kind of natural high, but this was so much deeper. It was like
sleepwalking in the clouds. It emptied his head, purified his
spirit, and drained his rage. Plus, the longer he flew, the more it
increased his wand power, which made him repeatedly push his
limits.

He had no idea how many hours he flew, but it
was dark and his body needed to sleep. He landed in a village,
slept until dawn, then flew north. A day after that he passed the
Tarkestan Desert and slept in a gully. Next he flew west until he
spotted the enemy outside of Samarkand, still showing the wounds
from Grandma’s raids. It was funny that the Mongols rebuilt this
city since Genghis Khan famously destroyed it three hundred years
before. Large units camp near cities for quicker re-supply. Hunting
enough to feed ten thousand takes too long.

Billy landed in the ancient city and drank in
a tavern to learn the latest. The vanguard broke into five
divisions to form an arrow around the tip of the supply train. Each
division would dedicate a battalion to long range patrols. Each
division commander would rotate the battalion flying patrols to
share the burden evenly. The other fifty thousand quads would stick
with the thousands of horses, mules, and oxen slowly pulling the
bombs, gold, and supplies. Billy ate, checked into a nice hotel,
then slept until nightfall.

Instead of attacking the quads near
Samarkand, Billy flew to the division farthest to the north. He
started targeting those least visible to others, often walking past
hundreds of sleeping troops, just to find another dip, gully,
crevice, ravine, or sloping wooded hill where troops fatally chose
to sleep. And so he spent the night. By midnight, with the division
looking for him, Billy landed among the bombers to throw munitions
at other bombers. Now that he had everyone’s attention, he rose
above them, flashed his wands, and did his scream to freak them
out.

They now had to find him.

Billy slept in his hotel in Samarkand the
next day, then killed quads in the second division that night. A
cut to his thigh drove him away early, so he flew to the town
nearest the next battalion and slept all day. That night he
repeated his attack, but this time in the rain, which helped him
kill more Mongols.

Now he flew to the unit near Kabul and
started work as soon as the troops fell asleep. On his fifth night
he hit the Mongols camping by Kandahar. Except he didn't stop at
dawn. With greater visibility, the number of pursuers grew to
alarming levels, but Billy kept weaving through the trees until
they boxed him in. Dozens of squads now patrolled overhead, but he
knew he could evade them. He only hoped his contempt for mediocre
quads didn’t get him killed by a lucky shot.

He assumed the divisions stayed in constant
contact, which meant they all now knew where he was. By luring the
southernmost division south, he brought the rest as well. Which is
why he left India alone. This was a one man job. Another person
would have only slowed him down.

Billy lured them towards the Himalayas. Now
all he had to do was let them believe they could actually catch
him. The sight of several thousand quads blotting out the sky in
pursuit of a lone flier would probably have horrified Princess, but
he was truly having fun. He loved to test his tactical instincts.
How else would he improve? His life of constant self-sacrifice had
its moments.

After just a few hours most of the enemy
tired out. Several hours later, even their best gave up. Billy, who
brought jerked mutton and several bags of water, had already eaten
lunch in the air, so now he pummeled those on the ground. They ran,
they hid, they flew into trees, but Billy still had plenty to fire
at. Billy spent a wonderful afternoon shooting fish in a pond, or
its Mongolian equivalent.

Just when he thought it couldn't get any
better, a large group of fliers in a skirmish line appeared on the
horizon. blasting those trying to fly away. They didn't actually
meet until sunset, when Princess broke their line to greet him with
a flying kiss that nearly broke his nose. Side by side they hunted
Mongols until it grew too dark to see.

They camped far in the woods and roasted deer
for dinner in a ravine. Only the first battalion of super-quads
arrived yet, but the others would get there soon.

"When we saw the sky darken, we couldn't
figure out why," Bear told Billy. "They didn't fly in a normal
formation, but they were shooting at someone we couldn’t see, so we
figured only you could drive people so crazy. Instead of helping
you, Princess suggested backtracking the enemy to their camp to
steal their bombs. We found several hundred Mongols still there,
packing up, tending the wounded, or burying the dead. After
eliminating them, we ate their food, took their bombs, then raced
after the main body. We started finding the enemy in small groups.
These one-side engagements hardly qualified as fights.