14) The Red Sky Morning (Tock)

  Lord Calador wasn’t fond of rising early. He preferred the leisurely start of the day which his rank and station normally afforded him. He often said even though the clock continued around the day really didn’t start until after morning coffee and breakfast.

So, when his major domo woke him at four AM with the news of the Legions’ “Mutiny” he was rather cross.

“Summon for Mr. Alexander immediately!” he barked out as he thrusted his arms into his robe.

Another servant nodded and ran off.

Calador continued to allow himself to be dressed by his servants as he fumed. “This was not part of the plan. The legions were to be ready to march now…” he continued to grumble most of the rest was incoherent or filled with profanities.

“Yes sir.” His Major Domo said placidly. He had been serving High Lord Calador, in one way or another, since he was 11, so he was aware of most of his foibles. The one thing which he knew was even though Calador could be harsh at times to those who failed him and harsher yet to his enemies he was never unfair or caprice with his anger. For this his servants owed him loyalty.

“Samuel, see to it my coffee is extra strong this morning, will you?” Calador asked.

“Yes sir. I have already anticipated this sir.” Samuel knew his liege lord was particular on his tastes but on the rare occasion when he had to rise early, he always insisted his coffee be near caustic in strength.

Calador made his way to his office in his city home and sat down at the breakfast table which was across from his desk.

“Sir, shall I have a chair brought in for Mr. Alexander?”

“No, you shall not! I will not be inviting him to breakfast with me this morning!”

“Very good sir.” Samuel bowed and clapped his hands once.

A servant came in bearing a silver tray with a breakfast plate and coffee service on it. The second servant with a tray turned and went back down to the kitchen.

While final preparation of his breakfast was being made, High Lord Calador read the details on the dispatch which arrived by messenger. “Will you look at this Samuel, those mutineers had the nerve to attack my liaisons! I am so glad I invested in those replicas of the sentinels.”

“Yes sir, very good sir.” Samuel said while paying attention to every detail about the breakfast and having no real interest in what his lord was saying.

After a few minutes a servant slipped into the room and whispered something into Samuel’s ear. Samuel nodded and said, “Sir, Mr. Alexander has arrived.”

“It’s about time! Send him in.”

Samuel nodded to the messenger who turned on his heels and left.

A moment later, Alexander stepped into the room looking as fresh and dapper as he always did. Still wearing his smoked colored glasses, top hat and carrying his black handled cane which he placed tip down between his feet. He then laid both his hands on the handle and stood patiently waiting his lord’s pleasure.

Samuel silently signaled the rest of the staff who all turned and left. Then he said, “Mr. Alexander, my Lord.”

Calador looked up from his reports and said, “Can you explain this mess Alexander?!”

“It would seem Her Eminence is far more resourceful than you had led me to understand. Also, Captain Cooper has proven to be much harder to kill than we have anticipated. By the way, costs for this operation have tripled.”

Calador looked at Alexander with a dumbfounded look for a moment then said, “You mean to blame this on me?!”

“Well sir, in point of fact yes. If you had given me proper facts without the coloring of your, shall I say, prejudices I would have been able to better plan the operation.”

“You realize, man, I could have you destroyed? How dare you talk to me this way?!”

Alexander shrugged and said, “Sir, if you were to have me destroyed then the rest of your short life would be forsaken, and worse. My associates would eventually, and quite simply, put an end to you. You, your wealth, your name, your family, all would vanish like ice on a hot sidewalk, no evidence of their existence left behind.”

Calador stared at Alexander for a few seconds just blinking his eyes. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Well do you have any suggestions on how we may salvage this situation?”

“As far as the political situation, I would have to say no. Thisis something which I have no expertise in. As for Her Eminence and Captain Cooper. Plans and corrections are already in hand.”

“Well if you had done your job correctly from the beginning and eliminated Her Eminence then the political situation would have been well in hand…”

“May I remind you your lordship even had we eliminated Her Eminence on the planned timeline, Captain Cooper would still have been able to alert the Legions of the Coup and you would still have had to deal with the, shall we say, mutiny. Captain Cooper should have been dead on more than one occasion, so I suspect there is more to this man than meets the eyes. He even survived a scorcher hit.”

“Scorcher?” Lord Calador looked perplexed by both the unfamiliar term as well as the implications of what Alexander had just said.

“Sorry sir, I mean Arc Light. Forgive me for using the street slang.” Alexander seemed truly contrite.

“Arc Light? No one ever survives an Arc Light hit.” Calador said more to himself than to Alexander still digesting the implications. His mind then recoiled when the full realization dawned on him he had ordered a hit on an immortal.

In the alley behind The Steam and Whistle, Cooper was looking down at the shackled man twitching and foaming at his mouth as he put away the black leather case with his truth serum. He shook his head and said, “You shouldn’t have made things so difficult. You should have known I would get the secrets you tried to keep eventually.”

He then looked up and saw Elsie standing in the back door of the pub smoking a cigarette from a long stem holder. “Could you please clean this mess up for me? I have details to attend to.”

“I’ll call Blake. He will know what to do.”

“That will work. He will know. Tell Igor that I had to use the red solution so I very much doubt this one’s salvageable.”

She took a long drag off her cigarette and shrugged, “Just add him to the trail of shattered bodies and broken lives behind you.”

Cooper opened his mouth, but Elsie held up her hand to forestall him and said, “I don’t want to hear it. It’d be like a scorpion trying to explain he’s a scorpion. You’re like one of the Sentinels, anything resembling a smile or emotion is just paint and polish on you. Why did I ever let myself forget that? Just be about saving your lady. That’s what you’re good at.” She turned and went back into her bar and softly closed the metal door behind her. The quiet snick of the bolt sliding home in the door was as loud as a hammer strike in Coopers head. It carried a sense of finality with it.

Cooper looked down sadly, the years evident in his frame and stance in this one brief moment and said out loud, “If it were for me Sherie...” but the alley was empty, save for the twitching mass at his feet, and he was only talking to himself.

He then turned and raised his head. An entirely different continence came over his face and being. The leviathan had now fully risen to the surface. Humanity was absent in the juggernaut which stepped forward into the night.

Batty finished the hot cocoa which Maxie had poured for her from his thermos and gratefully munched on the strawberry scone which he provided her from his lunch box. She had thought she was caught and was going to be put back into the cage with her friends. However, the limping building custodian was not of the same ilk as of his employers. He appeared to be quite ignorant about the goings on in the building he maintained. He learned early on to keep it thisway. He was just a simple man, not a simpleton, just simple. As far as he knew this building was just a gentleman’s club and the business of the members was just something beyond him. He only thought Batty was a street urchin who was trying to find shelter from the cold night. He knew he should have called for one of the many security guards which habited the building, but his heart was softened by the apparent fear on Batty’s face when he found her in the coal bin.

Batty was trying to decide whether to tell Maxie about her friends which were held prisoner but decided not to. She decided it was up to her to figure out a plan to rescue her brothers and sisters.

Once she finished the scone she said meekly, “Thank ye sir. I best be going so you no git in trouble.”

Maxie looked a little crestfallen for a moment, but he realized he would get in big trouble if he were caught harboring a street urchin. His employers seemed to lack the milk of human kindness. He said, “Little lady, if you can nae find your family then you can come over to my place and stay with me and my missus. My boys would love to have a little sis.”

“I remember. Thank you, Maxie.” She smiled genuinely.

“Lemme slip you out the back here so none of the security hassers catch ya.”

He then led her toward a stone stairway which was hidden behind the furnace’s mechanism. When they came to the iron doors at the top of the steps he reached to his belt and took off a key ring which was his way into most doors and rooms in the building.

Before he unlocked the door, he reached up to a hook on the wall and pulled down a wool sweater which was hanging there and handed it to Batty and said, “This is my spare for extra cold nights. It’ll be big on ya, but it’ll keep ya warm.”

She pulled the sweater on. It fell over her body down to her knees. It looked rather incongruent with her harem pants and slippers, but it was indeed warm. She reached up and pulled Maxie’s face down and kissed him on the cheek and said, “Thank you, Max.”

“Mi pleasure, little lady.”

Maxie then opened the door to be stunned by the sight of the imposing stone –like figure standing on the outside.

Cooper grabbed Maxie by the throat before he could call out.

Maxie involuntarily stepped back when Cooper grabbed him, thus making way for Cooper to step inside.

Despite the darkness of the stairway, Cooper knew Batty was standing there behind Max. He said to her, “Stay quiet or I’ll kill him.”

Batty quickly surmised this man had matched the description which she and her friends were told to look out for by Mousy earlier the day before. She realized she had an opportunity to save her friends here, but she had to play it right.

She said, “Papa this is my friend.” She then made a meaningful glance up toward Maxie with her eyes then said, “I was looking for Vicky here and he gave me some cocoa and scone.”

Cooper got a calculating look on his face as he put two and two together, then said, “I see.” He then looked down at Maxie who was a good foot shorter than him and said, “Thank ye for looking after my daughter, but we are looking for my other daughter Vicky.” He then straitened Maxie’s collar and said, “Sorry for being so rough. I was worried about my kids.”

“That’s alright mate. I would feel the same way if I had a daughter…”

The needle with the sedative was fine and short so Maxie hadn’t felt it go in what with the over stimulation which Cooper had done around his neck with the first gripping then straitening of his collar. All he felt was a sudden dizziness and the room seemed to darken.

“Oi, I be getting a case of the Wobblies…”

“That’s alright chap. Let me help you sit down.” Cooper guided Maxie back down the steps and to a chair leaning away from the furnace mechanism. Cooper had just barely got him sat down before his body went limp.

Batty got a concerned look on her face and asked, “Is he gonna be alright?”

“Sure, he’ll be asleep for a couple of hours, but he’ll wake up right as rain.”

Obviously reassured, Batty held out her hand and asked, “You must be Captain Cal?”

“Right and you’re a friend of Ehawee right?”

“You know Ehawee? Is she alright?”

“She’s fine. Or at least she was the last time I saw her yesterday.”

“A lot has happened since yesterday Captain Cal. Me and some of my brothers and sisters had been taken by Shadowmen. They are here in this building. I was able to escape.”

Cooper began calculating. He had planned to come in and kick down the doors to Hell itself and take the Shadowmen command staff off the game board for good. He didn’t anticipate this added complication. Before he was to bring a rain of destruction upon the shadow’s lair, he needed to see to the wellbeing of the children, first and foremost in his mind for the greater strategic points at play here. The Shadowmen took the children for both leverage and information. Cal figured if they were extricated from the situation, it would take this leverage and information out of the enemy’s hands. Considering the state which he anticipated leaving the building in after his retribution he decided it would be best for the children they be rescued first.

Sunrise saw a blood red sky over the barracks and HQ buildings behind the Palace and Pyramid. It was a reflection of the conditions within. The battle was desperate, the battle was close quarters, a literal gunfight in broom closet. Weapons designed for use at one thousand yards were used at targets across a room. The enemy had employed 100 shadow sentinels whereas the Legions’ automatons, although greater in numbers, were very much falling short in durability. Also, the enemy had called in a number of their Enforcer Legion augmentees to quell the “Mutiny”.

On top of this, several High Lords of the Council had called up their personal militias to march into the city proper. Each militia consisted of a regiment for each High Lord.

High Lord Murtaugh, the Lord Baron of the High Reaches had conveniently had his militia regiment on training maneuvers at the time. So did Lord Calador, go figure. By five am, the two activated regiments were marching into the city from both the southern and eastern gates.

Casualties were catastrophic. The first to engage, the Black Hand Watch Company, were killed to a man in the barracks of the Council’s Watchdogs. Granted the 50 plus Watchdogs were nearly decimated as well with 35 killed or wounded.

The primary handicap to the Legions was the desire to avoid collateral injuries and deaths. this was General Maximus’ first directive when the battle began. So, the Legions had limited their actions to staying within the Palace grounds and barracks areas.

The four remaining Imperial Sentinels, by previous directive by the empress herself, had deployed themselves to protect the designated heir to the Imperial, First Lieutenant Nefertiti Arkanti.

Despite her ordering them to enter the fighting, they refused and maintained their stations surrounding her. No one knew the deeper guides which control the operations of these magnificent machines. However, they just knew they had to protect the heir.

Once word of The Council’s Regiments entering the city had reached General Magnus a decision was made to order the First Amazonian and the North Highlander’s Legions out to engage the regiments.

Major Generals Kikola Ukahn and Marcus McPherson looked at each other with a look of great trepidation. Ukahn looked back at General Magnus and said, “Collateral damage cannot be avoided now.”

“I am, sadly, aware of this. Just do the best you can.” Shaking his head.

Both Major Generals snapped to attention and saluted saying, “Yes sir!” They turned and left to move out their legions.

General Magnus turned to Colonel McCready, the artillery commander for the Grandeur City Legion and said, “William, I am going to need you to loose the field guns and heavy arc lights to help the legions break out.”

Colonel McCready closed his eyes because he was aware of the implications of engaging the 8-inch cannons and heavy arc lights within the city. He opened his eyes back up and said, “Yes sir.” Saluted turned and left.

The General turned to his two remaining legion commanders and said, “I want you and your staff to work out plans to secure the rest of the city. We cannot let the traitors get a greater foot hold within Grandeur City.”

Cooper had turned off the central gas light valves to darken the shadow’s lair. Now he and Batty made their way quietly down the corridors of the building toward where the other captured orphans were being kept. It had impressed Cooper how Batty could lead him along in near darkness. He thought his night vision and hearing were phenomenal until he met her.

The two guards standing on either side of the iron door of the cell had each held a bullseye lantern and were nervously scanning up and down the corridor they occupied not sure what was going on.

Cooper simply appeared in front of them out of shadow and said, “Open the cell!” in a command voice.

The senior guard said, “Yes sir!” then took a large key ring off his belt with a single large skeleton key on it, turned and unlocked the large iron bolt then slid it open. The other guard, a much larger man grabbed the handle on the door and with considerable effort pulled the door open.

Cooper then took the lantern from the smaller man and shined it into the cell. Four children huddled into the corner and turned their heads and shielded their eyes from the sudden light.

“Is this all of them?”

“No sir. One of em, the big un, was brought out to be questioned.” The smaller guard said.

“Where?”

“The lab. Up one floor sir.” The bigger guard said with a slightly puzzled look on his face.

“Very well. You two are dismissed. I’ll be taking charge of these four now.”

“Are you sure sir? They may be a hand full.”

“Not after I am done with them, they won’t. So, unless you want to watch you best be going home now. You’re done for the night.” He gave them a deadly look which made both shudderinvoluntarily.

The two guards bowed, turned and left leaving one of the lanterns with Cooper. Once the two guards were at the end of the corridor and turning left the big one turned his head to the smaller one and said, “I don’t remember ever seeing that officer before.”

“Shut up. How many times do I have to tell you to leave the thinking to your betters? That man is an obvious officer and a deadly one at that. Besides, I don’t want to stick around and see what he has planned for those poor lambs.”

Cooper waited until the guards were gone then looked back at the four orphans who were obviously terrified about what was about to happen to them when he made a motion to his side.

Batty appeared out of the shadows and said, “Time for us to go.”

The relief was palpable when the children saw Batty standing safely next to Cooper.​