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14: CRY “HAVOC!” AND LET SLIP THE GODDESS OF WAR


It had been a mad dash through the parking garage, over a backyard wall, and down rain-dark unlit streets to get to the Centre Avenue Bridge. It was a thousand feet of running down back alleys beside the wide curve of the bus way. Tall chain-link fencing, Jersey barriers, a rail line, and a steep hillside on the opposite side of the limited access road reduced the risk of being overrun by the oni.

Chesty kept to Jane’s side. He gave no warning of hidden danger. Still she chanted “keep down, keep moving” to the people around her.

Yumiko raced with her, explaining that the first wave of monsters had been some weird magical puppet construct. “You need to hit the creature inside the outer shell to do any real damage! It can be anywhere within the puppet’s skin: maybe in the head or the center of the chest. Any bullet you fire at it will be slowed down and deflected, so it’s going to be difficult to kill the horror.”

That explained why Jane’s carefully aimed headshots had done nothing to the dog-sized hornets. Even Durack’s machine-gun fire seemed to be ineffective.

“Understood.” Jane glanced back in time to see something the size of a house charge across the South Aiken Bridge. It was a monstrous thing, looking like someone had smashed together a triceratops with a warg. It felt wrong to leave Oilcan alone with that thing.

Oilcan did something that knocked the monster back with a force that shook the ground.

Okay, clearing the area was the best idea. Her people couldn’t handle the creature. Jane was glad that she’d had Juergen move the Chased by Monsters truck out of range.

“Storm Six, this is Storm One,” Duff suddenly said over the radio. “Bullhorn is a go! I repeat, Bullhorn is a go!”

Her portable radio stopped broadcasting static. The afternoon deejay, Marti Wulfow, was doing a speedy intro, followed quickly by a news bulletin about the oni attack on Oakland.

“This is Storm Six, copy that! Hal!” Jane shouted as she realized that both naturalists had stopped to stare back at the monster at the bridge through CBM’s night vision binoculars. Taggart was ducked down beside them, filming the creature.

“We’re trying to determine its species!” Hal pointed at the beast without lowering his binoculars. “It seems to have an additional magical attack beyond the normal warg’s frost breath.”

She grabbed hold of Hal, trusting that Nigel and Taggart would follow. “Hal! You’re live! Talk to Pittsburgh! Make them care!”

“Oh!” Hal put a hand to his ear. “This is Hal Rogers, the voice of freedom! Oakland is under attack! I’m calling out to you, the people of Pittsburgh! If you value all that is good, grab your rifle and get to Oakland! We need every hero that we can muster to stop them. We need your fighting spirit at the Centre Avenue Bridge!”

“Run!” Jane grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hal! Run and talk!”

She dragged him round the curve to the Centre Avenue Bridge. The Smithfield cell had taken up position in the five-story redbrick office building between Centre Avenue and Baum Boulevard. It gave them command of the two bridges that crossed the busway. Jane could see the dark wave of oni warriors pouring down Centre Avenue toward the bridge. It seemed like an unending flood. Thousands of them. How were they going to stop them? They only had a hundred people!

“Homestead! Hot Metal! Get inside with Smithfield!” Jane ordered. “Stay back from the windows. Stay low!”

There was a massive explosion of flame from the South Aiken Bridge. Jane skittered to a halt to look back. Flames erupted again and again.

“What the hell is that?” Jane said.

Yumiko stopped beside her. “It’s Tinker domi!”

Yumiko had said earlier that Tinker was angry. Judging by the multiple columns of flame erupting on the South Aiken Bridge, Tinker was hell-bent on reducing the dinosaur warg to ash.

In a thunder of wings, tengu came flying down to alight all around them. There were hundreds of them. The numbers started to tilt in their favor.

“Tinker domi is here and she is glorious!” Hal reported. “Our little goddess is here and she’s raining fire on our enemy!”



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Framed