The Irregulars

Chapter 9

As a child, Alec had never really had dreams about flying. Ethan had them all the time, so much so that he often wondered if they were actually dreams and, in reality, he had left the confines of their apartment to levitate above the city. For Alec, though, there were no such flights of fancy, either real or imagined. It was always falling. He could feel himself tumbling end over through the air and hear the wind roaring in his ears. At first there was nothing around him, only black sky above a blanket of silver clouds. Then he would fall through the condensation and see the city lights strewn beneath him like illuminated crystal. The lights would grow closer and closer, buildings and streets taking shape, until all he could see was the concrete rushing up to meet him. And then, before the final impact, he would awaken in his bed with a jolt.

Upon his departure from the cave with Rathbone, Alec felt a similar sensation, falling uncontrolled through endless darkness before landing hard enough on his bunk to startle Benny awake.

"I'll do it, Ma, I promise!" he muttered sleepily, before blinking and looking over at Alec. "Oh, hey buddy, did I wake ya?"

"No," said Alec, trying to get his bearings. "I was...I just had a bad dream."

"Must have been a lulu," said Benny. "You're soaked!"

Alec sat up, looking at himself and seeing that, indeed, his clothes were still wet from his excursion to the cave. He grinned and shrugged at Benny.

"Yes," he said. "Definitely a lulu."

"Yeah, well, dry off and hit the rack, pal," said Benny. "Classes and training at 0800."

With that, Benny rolled over and was seemingly asleep in seconds, snoring rhythmically. Alec, on the other hand, found sleep to be just as elusive as it had been before he left with Rathbone. He kept turning the story over and over again in his mind, trying to make sense of what Rathbone had told him. And also trying to figure out what he had not.

Your mother was very special...

Eventually, his mind gave up the fight and he slipped into a deep sleep. His dreams were of a golden city with shards of ice pelting its streets.

* * *

"What is magic?"

Alec looked at Jane in genuine confusion. They had been training together for several weeks now, with the routine being largely the same. Jane and he would spar, with her casting spells and him trying his best to repel them. But rarely, if ever, did they talk. Jane would offer instructions ("Guard yourself!", "Remember, one hand casts, the other hand protects!"), but they never talked about anything of real substance. As such, the question, which had seemingly come from way out of left field, had genuinely thrown Alec. And it must have shown, because Jane followed it up with one of her usual exasperated remarks.

"It's not the bloody Riddle of the Sphinx," she said. "It's a pretty basic question. What is magic?"

"Ummm," said Alec. He knew there was a right answer, but he could not think of what it was. In his desperation to not say the wrong thing, he blurted out the first word that popped into his head, and immediately wished that he could take it back."

"Tricks?"

Jane's face showed no emotion. It was total stone, and it unnerved Alec greatly.

"I won't even dignify that with any further comment," she said. "Magic is power. And not power that comes from holding dominion over something. Power that comes from control. You don't make the object move, you work with it, drawing on its power and infusing it with your own. It's a balance. A give and take..."

"Repulsion and attraction!" said Alec, making the connection from his conversation with Rathbone.

Jane gave a nod and her mouth curled up into something that could almost be seen as a smile.

"The boy can think," she said. "Maybe there's hope."

"Maybe," said Alec, smiling back.

Just then, Benny came streaking into the room, announcing his presence from all the way down the hall with a steady cry of "Guys, guys, guys!", which only grew louder as he got closer.

"Guys!" he said one last time, before putting his hands on his knees and catching his breath.

"Got some important news, have you?" asked Jane.

"So important," he said, still breathing heavily, "Whatever you're doing, stop it now."

"Why?"

Benny finally collected himself and looked up at Jane and Benny. When he did, he was smiling.

"We've got a mission."

* * *

"They call themselves Wolfsgeschwader," said Miranda Spear, who was leading this particular briefing. "The Wolf Unit. The're a paramilitary team of Nazi soldiers who operate off the books and in the shadows. They're rumored to be setting up an outpost somewhere in the Ardennes Forest, along the border of the Free Zone. Ordinarily, this might not be cause for concern for our kind, but we've received intel that the outpost has been tasked with the storage of crystals to be used for the dispersal of vril energy."

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" asked Jane.

"What's she suggesting?" whispered Benny before being shushed by Alec.

"Yes, Ms. Harriman, I am," said Miranda. "This is not the first time that we have heard about vril crystals being mined and processed by the Nazis. It seems that they are developing vril-powered weapons."

"So that would mean that any Nazi, user or non-user, would have access to our abilities?" said Foxy.

"Yes," said Miranda. "This would not just be flying discs or high-tech aircraft. Imagine beaches lined with vril-infused anti-aircraft cannons. Stormtroopers carrying vril rifles. This would turn the tide of the war, perhaps for good."

"OK," Benny said. "So very, very bad things. What's the plan?"

"The plan is for you and the team to infiltrate the base and retrieve the crystals. If you are unable to take the crystals, then your orders are to level the base. Leave nothing standing."

"That's where you come in, big guy," Benny said to Foxy, who only nodded.

"Miranda," said Jane. "If I may, I don't think that Alec is ready for this mission."

"Hey," said Alex. "I'm sitting right here."

"Good," said Jane. "That means I don't have to say it twice."

"Your objection is noted," said Miranda. "But Rathbone feels differently. This should be a fairly simple mission with comparatively small risk."

"Easy for him to say," said Benny. "What about this Wolf Unit? Should we be worried about them?"

Miranda shook her head. "From all we've heard from our intelligence sources, they won't be a threat."

"Oh, our intelligence sources," said Benny, feigning a sigh of relief. "I feel better already."