The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Gaining Access

With a groan, Mordecai's eyes fluttered open. And almost they immediately slammed shut against the wave of dizzying pain that filled his head with enough force to make his stomach twist sickeningly. By shear force of will he kept the contents of his stomach from erupting forth as he tried to dampen the waves of pain that kept washing over and over him.

"Uuhhhh," he moaned softly, clasping his hands to his head. Just what the hell did Father Brin do to him in that pocket reality? It felt like somebody was trying to drive a metal spike right through the middle of his brain!

Abruptly a strange sensation of warmth washed over him, as he became aware of a pair of hands resting on his head. As the warmth advanced, he could feel the pain noticeably retreat, as if being pushed by the warmth out of his head. And then, just as abruptly as both had appeared, both were gone, leaving only the retreating hands.

Once again Mordecai's eyes fluttered open, this time flying wide with wonder as he found himself gazing into the smiling face of Lash's healer, Olira.

"Welcome back from the edge of the fire, Mordecai," she said softly, rubbing her hands as if they pained her somehow.

"Do I have you to thank for that, Olira?" he asked just as softly and her smile widened slightly.

"Just doing what I can, for a fallen comrade." Abruptly she reached out and lightly touched his cheek, her smile becoming wistful. "I can certainly see what the queen sees in you, my friend. You look simply delicious!"

"How fare we, over here?" Lash rumbled, stepping close to the bed to interrupt the odd moment of intimacy as Olira snatched her hand back, visibly blushing.

"Well enough," Mordecai quickly said in reply, drawing Lash's attention to him and away from his blushing healer. No use her drawing fire if she didn't have to. Sitting up, he looked over at the big vampire. And immediately frowned.

"What the hell are you doing, wearing a furniture mover's overalls, Lash?"

"These?" Lash looked down at the faded blue overalls, tugging at the lapel half-heartedly. "You can thank your human comrades for this. It was Dee that came up with a plan to penetrate the Brotherhood headquarters without firing a shot!"

"Oh?" Mordecai's head swiveled around until his eyes found a crouching Dee, going over some holographic maps with Lash's second-in-command, a vampire by the name of Tahsis. Was it time to upgrade his opinion of the Normals once again?

"What sort of plan have you devised, Dee?"

Dee looked over her shoulder and, for a brief moment a look of relief washed over her face. Then it was gone, replaced by a mask of determined professionalism. Standing, she turned towards him and Lash.

"Quite simple, actually," she said with a grim smile. "The probe data yielded a heavy core strategy defense in place in the building that we suspected held the Brotherhood headquarters, basically confirming our suspicions. That presented an immediate problem."

Pausing there for a brief moment, Dee stood.

"However, when Duffy and I made our reconnoiter of the downtown core, we noticed a high volume of courier traffic between the various office buildings and a large amount of office furniture being moved to and fro. That observation presented us with a possible solution to our need to penetrate the Brotherhood's heavy initial defenses." Her smile brightened. "I just figured that if our team masquerades as furniture movers and couriers, we should be able to slip inside the Brotherhood's security perimeter before they even know we're there. Then we launch our attack from within, taking care of both the security and any additional force that might stand in our way from taking the headquarters."