Paragons 1.3.9

There’s a reason the Watchers’ SUVs have battering rams mounted to the front. See this in action in the ninth chapter of War Games!

“Are you sure about this, Savannah?” Kylie whispered.

“We’re going to get caught,” Bronte choked out.

“Yes, I’m sure. And, no, we’re not,” I told them. “Timer?”

Kylie glanced at her watch. “Twenty-two seconds.”

“Ok, get ready to run.”

The three of us were peering over the top of the stone wall that surrounded a derelict house. Across the street, three Watchers patrolled the park. Two of them were on opposite ends of the sports track. The third stood beside an old wooden sign. The sign simply read ‘Park’, its former full name erased by the corrosive Australian sun.

That Watcher was our biggest problem. He was within spitting distance of the big, boxy SUV that we needed to borrow. The Watchers’ vehicle was ironically parked next to a metal sign that instructed drivers to ‘keep driveway clear at all times’.

“There it is,” I said.

Smoke was rising from a cluster of trees at the edge of the park. The Watchers saw it immediately. Or maybe they’d smelled it. The smoky, woodsy scent of burning leaves clogged my nose. There was a lot of smoke. I’d have been concerned, except Asher had assured me that he knew how to make a lot of smoke without it turning into a big blaze of fire.

I blinked a few times to clear my eyes. “They’re taking the bait,” I said as the Watchers ran toward the smoky plume. “Let’s go.”

We pulled ourselves over the wall, running toward the black SUV. The doors were unlocked. The Watchers never imagined anyone would have the gall to steal one of their vehicles. They’d even left the keys in the car.

“Let’s hope the boys are here soon. That smoke won’t keep the Watchers distracted for long,” Kylie said, claiming the driver’s seat.

“Are you sure you can actually drive this thing?” Bronte asked as she climbed into the backseat and I hopped into the front next to Kylie.

“Absolutely,” replied Kylie. “You know where I come from.”

“From the Blue Mountains.”

“Where things are very different than in your posh Killfield.” Kylie threw a wink over her shoulder at Bronte. “On the fringes of the Fortress, a lot of people are tasked with transporting materials and salvaged goods into the city from the Wilderness. So, yeah, we learn to drive.”

“But you were in school. It wasn’t your job to transport anything yet.” Nervous tremors hiccuped through every syllable that Bronte spoke.

“My mother taught me to drive,” Kylie replied brightly. “She said the skill might come in handy later. Seems she was right.” She adjusted her seat so she could reach the pedals. “Geez, those Watchers sure are tall.”

“And burly.” Bronte hiccuped again. “This is a really bad idea. They’re going to catch us. And hurt us.”

I could hear her fumbling with the door handle back there. Luckily, before she could bolt, the back doors swung open, and the boys hopped inside, squeezing her in from both sides.

“Ok, Kylie, hit it!” I exclaimed.

Thank goodness I’d put on my seatbelt—I’d read they were kind of important—because the moment Kylie’s foot hit the gas pedal, the vehicle shot forward like a turbo-powered rubber band.

“Ok, now head for the gate,” I instructed Kylie. “And don’t slow down, no matter what.”

I could hear the Watchers running far behind us, shouting. But with every passing second, those shouts grew more distant.

“There will be more Watchers at the gate,” Dutch said. “And they have guns.”

His calmness was in stark contrast to Bronte, who kept muttering, over and over again, “We’re all going to die.”

“They won’t shoot us,” I said. “It might scratch the paint on their shiny SUV.”

Asher chuckled, but Bronte clearly did not appreciate my joke. Her chanting of “we’re all going to die” grew louder, faster.

“Ok, there’s the gate,” I said.

“And there are the Watchers.” Kylie indicated the solid line of Watchers standing between us and the gate. “Uh, they’re not moving out of the way. Maybe I should slow down?”

“We’re all going to die!”

“No, keep going. They’ll move,” I told Kylie.

“Uh, they don’t look like they plan on moving,” Kylie said.

“It’s just a stupid game of chicken. They’ll move,” I assured her.

“We’re all going to die!”

“You’d better be right about this, Winters,” said Asher. “The General will destroy us if we run over his soldiers.”

“We’re all going to die!”

“Bronte, please, you’re not helping,” I chided her.

“We’re all going to die!” she squeaked.

I expelled a heavy sigh.

“Here goes!” Kylie said.

“Everyone, hold on!” I shouted over Bronte’s agitated chanting.

The SUV shot forward, the Watchers scrambled, and I pressed the button on the display to open the gates. As soon as we were through, I closed them again, trapping the Watchers on the other side.

“Ok, now slow down,” I told Kylie. “Drive casually. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

“Yeah, it’s a good thing the windows are shaded,” Asher commented.

As we drove through Killfield, slow and steady, Bronte’s panic simmered down. Outside the windows, large single-family homes gave way to smaller houses and much larger apartment buildings.

“You’re doing great, Kylie,” I said.

“We’re coming up on the Black Obelisk,” said Dutch.

“Ok, so this is where things will get interesting,” I replied.

Bronte leaned forward, squeezing her head through the gap between the front seats. “I think things have already been far too interesting.”

“Yeah, well they’re about to get very interesting. There’s no remote code to open the Black Obelisk.” I swept my hand across the dashboard display.

The list was extensive—pages long. But there was no Black Obelisk. There wasn’t even a ‘home’ or ‘work’.

“It appears the Watchers are even more paranoid than we thought,” I said, frowning.

“Than you thought. This is your plan. You said we’d be able to get into the Black Obelisk with the Watchers’ SUV,” Dutch said—no, accused. Like it was my fault that the Watchers were so crazy-paranoid.

I could see the Black Obelisk now. It jutted out of the ground like an alien crystal. Entirely covered black glass windows, the building oozed menace, warning everyone to stay far, far away. The security fence around the property did that too. The array of metal posts and spiked wires looked like the weaponized interior of a monster’s mouth.

Far in front of us, way at the end of the road, another black SUV came to a stop at the Black Obelisk’s gates. A guard walked up to the driver. They seemed to be discussing something.

“It looks like the Watchers check every vehicle that wants to enter the Black Obelisk district. Even their own,” I said as the gates clanked shut after the other black SUV.

“If that’s the case, how did the Cursed Ones get in yesterday?” Asher pointed out.

“You’re right. Good point.” I shook my head. “I have no idea how that could happen.” I filed the mystery away for later exploration. “But I’m pretty certain the Watchers won’t let us in.”

“Then how are we supposed to deliver the treasure to the General?” Kylie wondered.

“We should ask the guards to let us in,” Bronte said. “If we could just explain that we—”

“Hijacked a Government vehicle for our own nefarious purposes?” Asher said, chuckling.

“Our purposes aren’t nefarious,” Bronte shot back, indignant. “We’re only trying to complete the Quest the Government gave us.”

“You mean the fake Quest they designed to be impossible? Yeah, I’m sure the guards will be happy to let us right in,” Asher snorted.

“The guards will never open the gate for us,” Kylie sighed.

“No, they won’t,” I agreed. “So it’s a good thing there’s a big, bad battering ram mounted on the front of this SUV.”

Bronte gasped. “You can’t possibly be serious!”

“Dead serious. Kylie, drive full-speed at the gate. Aim for that part.” I pointed at the thinner section, the section on a moving track which opened and closed to let the Watchers’ vehicles into the district. “As fast as you can.”

I pressed the dashboard button that looked like the battering ram on the front of the SUV, and the whole vehicle started to hum. Then I selected a second icon, this one in the shape of a fluffy cloud. White smoke blanketed our vehicle.

“Brace yourselves, everyone!” I shouted.

“Kylie, don’t you dare!” Bronte protested.

Kylie hit the gas, and the resulting burst of speed threw Bronte backward. Our SUV smashed through the gate before the guards even knew what was happening. We screeched to a stop.

“Hurry!” I shouted, throwing open my door and stepping out into a curtain of smoke.

Dutch jumped out after me. “How did you know that would work?” he coughed. “The gate is heavily reenforced.”

I pointed at the glowing, sparkling object mounted to the SUV’s front, throwing up a pretty impressive lightning storm. “I knew that was no ordinary battering ram. It’s clearly magical, likely crafted by the Alchemist Knights at the Castle.”

“Yeah, Winters, but how did you know that before it started glowing?” Asher asked.

“I don’t know. I just knew. Somehow.” I circled around to the back of the SUV and popped the trunk to reveal a bunch of Watcher gear. Including uniforms. “Ok, guys, put these on. We need to blend in.”

“We just smashed through the gates of the Black Obelisk. I think it’s safe to say that ‘blending in’ is off the table,” said Asher.

“There’s smoke everywhere. If we put these on and duck away before the Watchers get here, we can just disappear into their midst.” I started dressing myself. The uniform was way too big for me, but hopefully everyone would be too busy to notice. “Hurry, guys. Suit up. We don’t have much time. The smoke and lightning will only keep them at bay for so long.”

We quickly disguised ourselves as Watchers, then snuck off under the cover of the smokescreen. By the time the Watchers closed in on the crashed SUV, my team was on the building’s doorstop. We slipped through the front door.

Chaos had broken loose inside the Black Obelisk. Watchers were running along the corridors, up and down the stairwells, in and out of the rooms. So when we did the same, we didn’t even look out of place. We didn’t even look suspicious.

From a pair of passing Watchers in the halls I overheard that the General was in the war room, so we made our way upstairs. We burst into the room to the sounds of beeping alarms and buzzing alerts. There were two Watchers posted by the door, but they didn’t stop us. Their attention was fixed on the big screen mounted to the wall.

“General, the SUV is empty,” a sharp, male voice spoke out of the radio in the General’s hand.

“What do you mean it’s empty?” the General growled, looking up at a soldier’s body cam footage of our abandoned SUV, playing out in realtime on the TV screen. “Is the gate secure?”

“Yes, General. We’re guarding it. No one has tried to escape through the gate.”

“They can’t be far! Find those Apprentices!” Then the General slammed the radio down on the table.

Bronte drew back a step, but I moved forward, toward the General.

His eyes bulged, and his jaw literally dropped when I pulled off my helmet and set it down next to his radio. “Mission accomplished,” I said and handed him the treasure bag. “We win.”