Page 79 of Legacy of Chaos

Mace had been peering out the window at the mist; now, he turned back to Stryke. “Three hundred meters, maybe.”

Not good news. “You’re sure? It’s that thick?”

“We were too busy trying not to die to get an exact measurement,” Mace said.

Scotty came to her feet with a wince. If she’d taken a wound in every spot her clothes were ripped, Blade hadn’t been exaggerating. She looked like she’d barely survived a date with Freddy Krueger.

“What’s going on, Stryke?” she asked. “Is this a rescue mission, or are we here to help fix this rift? Because I gotta be honest and say I don’t know how to seal a rift between realms.”

Blade, leaning casually against the map table, looked around the operating center, studying everything except Stryke. “Oh, I’m sure my brother has all the computations figured out.”

“Yeah. I do.” He gestured to Cyan, his heart skipping a beat when she slid him a brief smile from where she was studying the newest images from the underwater monitor. “She’s going to use the amplifier you brought to seal the rift from here instead of underwater. If that fails, we’ll use the diffuser to get everyone off the platform before the rift blows.”

“Blows?” Mace had been casually flipping a dagger, but now he went still, and the weapon hit the floor. Cursing, he swept it up in his fist. “It can blow? What happens then?”

“Aquatic demons will fill the Earth’s seas and oceans,” Stryke told him. Told all of them. “The fog will spread. I don’t know how far, but if it reaches land, it’ll support aquatic demons for miles inland. Billions will have to evacuate or will be killed. The oceans will die. The planet will suffer a slow, agonizing death that would likely hit its crescendo when Satan is released from his prison, and Armageddon arrives.”

There was a long, heavy silence.

Scotty finally broke it, her voice uncharacteristically grave. “Wow. That was, uh, stark.”

“So, this is save-the-world-type stuff, right?” Mace popped off. “Because A, talk about bragging rights, and B, I’m trying to beat Wraith’s record.”

Blade punched him in the shoulder. Stryke would have gone higher. Scotty gave her teammate a scathing you’re-a-dumbass look and turned back to Stryke.

“How can we help?”

“We could use your security and combat skills. Help us keep the demons off the rig. While the mages hold the fog at bay, Cyan will do her thing.” He turned to one of X-Oil’s senior crewmembers who had stayed on after Stryke bought it. “Put together an evacuation plan. We may need to make multiple trips through the fog to get everyone off the platform.”

“Yes, sir.” Jackson took off, and Stryke turned back to the agents.

“What do you guys need?”

“Our weapons are still on the boat,” Blade said.

“My people are getting everything out of it right now.” He looked between Mace and Scotty, ignoring Blade’s cool glare. “What else?”

“We need to know what kinds of demons you’ve been fighting,” Mace said, snapping into pro mode. “We also need to know what is and isn’t effective against them.”

“When Taran gets back, he can brief you. What else?”

Blade pushed off the table. “I want to know how you caused this.”

“I didn’t. Anyone else got a stupid question?” He could practically feel Blade stewing but wisely kept his mouth shut.

The door banged open, and Taran burst inside with two heavy duffels and three black backpacks slung over his shoulder. Behind him, a deckhand Stryke didn’t know carried the diffuser device and a metal case that contained the runic amplifier.

“Taran, they have some questions.” He took the case from the deckhand. “Cyan, you need to figure out the best place to work from.”

She nodded. “I’ll need the platform’s schematics.”

He gestured to Twila. “Can you bring those up?”

“Sure thing.”

He looked around at all the expectant faces, people who trusted him to get them out of this. He wouldn’t fail them. He couldn’t.

“We’ve got this,” he said. “We’re all the best in our professional fields, and I need you to give it your all. Let’s get to work.”

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