Loose Ends

Ravyn and Jasmine returned to the ground shortly, although neither looked happy about being grounded. Once they were on the ground, they found themselves busy in attending to the Phoenix. Her magnificently flaming plumage had been damaged in a number of places. She preened herself and enjoyed the attention of the two humans immensely. Amazingly, the flames that seemed to emanate from her subsided wherever Ravyn or Jasmine went to touch her, like the Phoenix could actually control where she was flaiming and where she wasn’t.

Meanwhile, the Professor had wandered off into the building, presumably to gather more data on Drake’s group and any other secret projects he was involved with.

Cerrydwen, who was even paler than normal, was sitting near the place where Herne and our other wounded had been placed, keeping a sort of low profile guard over them in case any of Drake’s men decided to get take out any revenge on the helpless.

John Red Bear’s body had been gathered up and wrapped in a ceremonial blanket and had been place respectfully near the dock, waiting transport back to wherever he had asked for his body to be disposed of.

The Frau was busily moving among the now gathered dead and wounded from among the enemy, stabilizing those that she could, easing the pain of others, and making notes on which individuals would need hospitilization.

Many of our Native American allies, both Miccosuccee and Navajo were dealing with minor wounds, but only the worst off were laying near Herne. Most of the walking wounded were up and about, policing up dropped weapons and ammunition and otherwise cleansing the site of signs of the battle. They were remarkably efficient in their tasks, moving about silently as they completed their tasks.

I stood near Katherine’s unconscious body, watching all of this activity before deciding to find some of my own answers. I picked Katherine up, brought her over by Cerrydwen, and put her down as Cerrydwen nodded assent to my unvoiced question.

I then made my way to the entrance to the building and looked in. Inside, three of the younger Native American men and the Professor were busy turning on the various computers in the main chamber. They then hooked up small boxes and appeared to be dumping data from the hard drives of those computers as fast it showed up on the monitors.

The Professor saw me standing in the doorway and waved for me to join him. “It looks like Drake even considered the possibility of losing this battle. He left a present for you.” He was holding out what looked to be a small, expensive looking PDA that had a note attached to it out towards me.

I took the proferred device and glanced at the note. It was written in a beautiful, elegant script that was rarely taught anymore, it read: “Dear Rusty, I continue to be impressed with your resourcefulness and determination. Please accept this device and the information it contains as a token of my appreciation. You will find many answers to your questions inside. The password to access this information is the name of your project. I look forward to our next gathering. --Drake”

The Professor asked, “Do you know that password he is referring to?”

I looked up from the note, “Yeah, I do.”

“Do you want to keep that, or do you want me dump the data and give you a breakdown of what it contains? It might be safer, just in case he has any nasty surprises for you.”

“Nah, I’ll keep it and read it later. Once I’m done, I’ll get it to you for analysis.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?”

“No, but it’s something I need to do. No matter what the bastard has to say in here, I’m not going to rush off into any traps. But I do feel a certain sense of responsibility. I’m going to have to hunt that monster down and destroy him, eventually.”

Jim reached out his hand and clapped me on the shoulder, “Just remember, you’re not alone in this world anymore. You’ve got friends and allies, as well as your family. Don’t forget that.”

I pocketed the device, note and all, and returned the friendly gesture to Jim, “Don’t worry, I’m in no hurry to meet him just yet, I have too much to learn before I can expect to destroy him.”

Jim looked up from the computer he had continued to dump data from, “Oh, that reminds me, Ravyn and I discussed this before we came down for this battle. We’re gonna have to bring your family into the organization, relocate them so we can keep an eye for any danger. Drake knows you’ll respond to them being in danger, so we need to protect them as best as possible.

“I know your son was excited to receive the offer from the University of Miami, but that was set up through Drake. I’ve spoken to the admissions office at my school. They’ll accept him as an incoming freshman. The ORC’s can cover his tuition.”

“Wow, that would be great. I’m sure Kenny would do better at a smaller school like that anyway.”

“Ravyn called me while they were still flying, she wants to take on Jasmine as one of her students, she says Jasmine has the spark of very powerful Caster within her. Your ex-wife could join her and help run that massive house of Ravyn’s.”

“Well, I’m not surprised that Jasmine has that spark of talent. I think I can convince Katherine, once she comes around and gets her wits back.”

“Good.” Jim’s wristband beeped, he looked at it briefly before pushing a couple of buttons, cancelling the alert. “Looks like we’re down to five minutes. Go let the Elders know that they need to get moving. OK boys, leave the rest to me, we need to get you guys out of here.”

I followed the young warriors out of the building, amazed to see how clean the battlefield now was. I walked over to one of the Miccosuccee Elders and gave him Jim’s instructions.

Our wounded, and John’s body, had already been loaded onto airboats, with all of the weapons as well. I noticed the Ravyn and Jasmine were already back on the Phoenix, apparently getting ready to take off again. There was a long bundle laying at the Phoenix’s feet.

I approached and asked them where they were going.

Ravyn grinned at me, obviously eager to get flying again. “Jasmine, Katherine and I are returning to Chicago the fun way!”

I looked around, didn’t see Katherine, “Where is Katherine?”

Jasmine pointed down at the bundle, that I now noticed was wrapped in an extensive set of straps that led to a large metal dowel of some sort from which the bundle could be suspended. “Mom’s down there, that older woman can and put her into a deep sleep. She’ll be alright Dad.”

I looked at Ravyn, curious.

Ravyn grinned that mischievous grin of hers, “Don’t worry, she’ll be safe. This is the quickest way back.”

Without further chance for me to say no, Ravyn said something into the bird’s ear. It hopped a couple of times, flapped its massive wings and launched into the air. It grabbed the dowel on the way up, lifting poor Katherine into the air like a sack of potatoes. If she only realized what was happnening...oh boy, glad I wouldn’t be around to take the blame for all of this.

Within moments, there was a bright flash where the Phoenix had been flying, then nothing.

The Frau and Cerrydwen were also waiting on a nearby airboat, that was now starting up. The only folks left on the island were the dead and wounded of Drake’s forces, Jim (still in the building), one of the Miccosuccee Elders and myself.

Just as the sounds of the last of the airboats faded away, I could make out the distant sounds of helicopters coming this way.