5th May
19:27 GMT +4
Roy's subversion arrows arc over the road and strike the security cameras with a dull clunk, sticking them on an unchanging loop of an empty street. Garth and Tula are walking down the pavement along the wall side of the street, dressed in Azerbaijani apparel. Great thing about a country like this as opposed to somewhere like Japan is that there are so many ethnicities in the mix that Atlantean features don't stand out at all. Tula's red hair and Garth's purple eyes might attract a glance or two, but they certainly don't look out of place. Just two young people out for a walk.
"Raaaoowwwwwww!"
"Get the fucking dogs back in the fucking kennel! And when I find the cum-drinking idiot who sent us these useless mongrels I will…"
I lean back, wincing slightly. Richard raises his right eyebrow.
"I still say urine would have worked better."
He taps his earpiece, carefully watching the image transmitted by my surveillance drone. "Guards are moving away. You should have space in five… Four… Three… Two…"
The wall is about three metres tall, topped with razor wire. Slightly offset from the lip on each side is a laser, which means that if a person climbed up they'd trigger an alert as soon as they grabbed onto the top. Someone trying to use a ladder would have a similar problem. For added fun the razor wire is electrified, so anyone who tried grabbing onto it would find themselves spasming and unable to let go. The walls are painted with anti-climbing paint, so an Atlantean's normal fallback of using patches of highly viscous water to let them stick to the surface is out.
None of these protections do anything as I interrupt the power to the street lights for a moment and Garth and Tula trigger their kinetic belts. They aren't as comfortable using them as some of our team mates, but a simple up, over and down is no real test of their abilities. As they go in to land in the cover of some trees I tense for a moment. We couldn't be completely certain that there wasn't something nasty hidden just behind the ward we could see. There are any number of curses available to people who don't mind treating with malevolent Spirits or Demons, and while I'm reasonably confident my Spell Eaters could cope with anything that's actually likely to be there it would completely blow their cover.
"We're in. No problems."
"Understood." I nod to Richard and Roy and they jog across the roof we're standing on, heading towards the alley side. Really, as far as finding Ms Molotova goes their part of the operation is far more important than what the rest of us are doing. We might have to spend a week tracking down every operation and holding the company possesses, but that's the place where we'll find that information. A moment later they're gone, dropping over the edge to join Kaldur in our hired van.
I return my attention to the footage from my drone. I've got the magic detector in position over them, just in case someone who thinks that they're invisible tries to approach my Atlantean colleagues. Mister Crandall's invisibility system works perfectly well against x-rays and infrared but it can't disguise the presence of a soul. I'm going to have to get some sort of visor with an arcane detection system built in created. It's just too useful. Not Sephtian, his industrial work is too important. Maybe I could find someone else familiar with his techniques and hire them instead?
There's an uptick in arcane energy as the Atlanteans get going with their ritual. Bit of a shame that Zatanna's not available, but she has school today.
"Orange Lantern to team, the Atlanteans are in."
"…and Johnny. We were both only just learning what our powers could really do-."
"Kid Flash?"
Jay's voice gets blocked out. "Sorry, Oh El. Rocket asked Jay about Max, and…"
"Okay, but unless it revealed some sort of deep-seated Communist tendencies, please leave it until after the mission."
"Right."
For a moment I consider asking Raquel to get airborne. It won't get properly dark for another hour or so, so she'd have to get pretty high… No. It wouldn't actually reduce her response time by all that much and would create a chance of her being spotted. People don't usually look up without some sort of audible cue, but just one would be enough.
"Orange Lantern to intrusion team. Any difficulty?"
"None so far."
I turn my attention from the drone monitoring the patrols to the monitors I've got tracking Max and General Kerimov. Max is getting a few odd looks, but the General is well into his glad-handing and they appear to be accepting his guest. In fact…
"Kid Flash, could you ask Jay if Max speaks Russian?"
"Yeah, one sec." There's a slight delay. "He says he doesn't think so. He spoke Spanish and French, but no Russian."
Curious. Lip reading at this resolution is an imperfect science, but the ring thinks he's speaking Russian. Again, doesn't mean that he couldn't have learned it, but I tend to assume that if you've been around for a hundred and sixty years and not done something then you've probably decided not to. There wasn't anything on his file about him being politically active outside of the Native American rights movement. Nothing about him even coming to Russia before.
I vaguely remember Edward Clariss from the comics, but he only showed up once as a ghost. I had no idea who this 'Rival'.. person…
Okay. The fact that he was called that in the comics and so was the person the Russians had as a source doesn't necessarily mean that they're the same person. It's just -based on what I've seen so far- a strong indicator. Given the level of security the Russians are operating under there's a good chance that only the Director knows who it was, if anyone else knows that there was a source at all.
Max is acting suspiciously, The Demon Constantine is around and there's a super speed comic character who was known to escape from Hell and possess people.
He's in Max, isn't he?
Ah heck. "Orange Lantern to Kid Flash. How fast is Max compared to you?"
"Ah… About as fast but a lot more experienced. I thought we weren't supposed to be fighting him?"
"We're not. I'm just a little worried that the reason The Demon Constantine is here is to possess him. Which means that we're about to ping two Demons who may -or may not- be aware when we do it."
Okay. From what little I remember, becoming a Demon is supposed to take a very long time. Would a shared super speed ability be enough to allow The Demon Constantine to bind Clariss' damned soul to Max Mercury's body? And what about the control spells they'd need in order for Clariss to control him outright? I can't see any tattoos or drawings on his skin.
"Rocket, when I say 'now', fly to where Tempest and Aquagirl are and stick a barrier around them."
"Got it."
"We're activating the spell."
The rings glow faintly as I prepare to create a railgun construct. I won't be able to obscure it. Anyone looking in this general direction will have their eyes drawn to it. And they'll immediately know who it is making it. Max doesn't appear to respond in any way. Not only does he not look around, there's not even the slightest twitch or saccade of his eyes.
"Two Demons and a major focus of Demon magic. Sending you their locations now."
I have the rings relay the data to my eyes. One Demon and the magic locus are in the mansion's cellar. Constantine, presumably. The other matches the current location of Max Mercury.
"Orange Lantern to team. Max Mercury is possessed. Rocket, change of plan. When I say 'now', get in there and put a barrier around Max."
"My kinetic barrier doesn't stop magic."
"No, but it will stop him punching his way out." My armour materialises around me and I trigger the invisibility system. "I'm going after Constantine."
