CHAPTER 31: THE LANDSCAPE
The crowd outside of Horizon was beginning to disperse, everyone beginning their first tasks under Silent Arm. Parish and Lazar kept pace with each other, moving through the facility. The halls of Horizon were gray with a large red stripe along the floor, both walls, and the ceiling.
"I can't wait to hear the story," Lazar told Parish as they walked quickly.
"It's not quite as grandiose as you might be hoping," Parish admitted. "We sent a representative to request his presence from his office. He had no idea what was really happening until they left the city, and by then it was already too late."
"And you think he'll give us solid intel?" Lazar asked.
"I think it will be worth squeezing him to see what he's got," Parish agreed.
"Great work. I'm looking forward to the results," Lazar said.
They stopped at a pair of enormous black doors, and Parish placed his hand on a biometric reader. The scanner beeped, and the doors in front of them unlocked. Parish held the door open for Lazar, and the two strode into a deeper section of Horizon.
"Does he have any idea where he is?" Lazar asked.
"No," Parish answered. "We had our development team build us something for the trip. It's an install over the windows of a car that essentially turns them into a television screen, so you can show your passenger whatever you want to. In this case we showed him a loop of the same half-mile stretch of trees. Our guys have contact lenses that see through the screen."
The two of them came to the end of a hallway, at which point there were three doors surrounding them.
"Would you like me to come in there with you?" Lazar asked.
Parish shook his head. "Let me take a swing at him first. If I can't get through, I'll enlist your help, Mister Secretary."
Secretary Lazar nodded, and Parish opened one of the doors. They walked into a hall that split off, and they each took a different path. Parish came to another door, and he opened it to walk into a small room. The room had a one-way mirror on one side and a large television screen on the other. In the middle of the room, there was a small, metal table with one chair on either side.
A man sat at one of these chairs. He had dark skin, and he was slouched, wearing disheveled business clothes with messy black hair. Blood dripped to the ground from the man's head, and his head rolled a bit as he took a heavy breath.
"I apologize to you for the circumstances under which we're meeting," Parish said as he sat across from the man.
The man scoffed. "Yeah, I'll bet you are."
Parish shrugged. "If you hadn't attempted to resist, my men wouldn't have physically subdued you."
"Like I said, yo ass ain't sorry at all," the man said.
"Special Agent Alexandersen," Parish said, consulting the man's file in front of him. "You and I have a lot we need to discuss."
Lamar Alexandersen gave Parish a deadly glare, but he kept his composure through unfocused eyes.
JACK FOSSE:
Gilo dove down on us, his entire body enveloped in white-blue fire. We all fired our weapons at him, but he evaded them all and forced us all to dive for cover. Sarah helped me to my feet, and I fired an arrow at him that sailed straight past Gilo and out to the ocean. Gaetav, who was on one knee and seemed unable to rise following Gilo's assault against him, revealed his shoulder gun and let off a burst of heavy gunfire.
Many of the bullets hit Gilo, eradicating his fire shroud and causing him to plummet down. We heard him yell in surprise and pain as he crashed into the ground, and we all moved in with our weapons raised. A roaring engine brought us all to a stop, and we looked around to see an enormous aircraft hovering in the air. It looked like a cross between a fighter jet and a cargo plane.
"Everyone lower your weapons!" called a voice from an intercom system aboard the aircraft. "Put your weapons down or we will open fire!"
"Who is that?" Gaetav asked, astonished.
"It's a long story," Sarah told him.
Gilo managed to get to his feet, and his wings became enveloped in fire as he took to the air again.
We were split between two sides. Fornell, Diane, and Rob aimed their weapons at Gilo, meanwhile Gaetav, Ari, Sarah, and I focused on the aircraft. I guess the people aboard the aircraft ran out of patience, because they let loose heavy gunfire on us. We all yelled in surprise as the shells pounded the ground around us, blasting up dust and knocking us all down. I briefly wondered how intentionally they had missed with every shot, and I drew back my bow and fired an arrow.
The pilots of the aircraft didn't see the projectile incoming, and I hit the turbine engine in its wing. The Blast Arrow eradicated the engine, knocking the aircraft out of the air and sending it crashing to the ground.
"That was easy," Rob commented, astonished.
It wasn't as easy as he thought. The second the aircraft hit the ground, soldiers started pouring out of it. I heard the shouting of commands, armed combatants spreading out to advance on us. We would be overwhelmed in seconds.
"Keep them from surrounding us!" Fornell ordered.
We all took aim with our weapons. Ari pressed a button on his sword, and the line running down the blade opened. The blade split in half from tip to hilt, revealing a gun barrel that Ari took aim with. The four of us waged a massive assault against the soldiers, and meanwhile Gilo assaulted Fornell, Diane, and Rob. I lost track of what was happening behind us as the soldiers returned fire, and we were all forced down. Sarah took aim and fired a concentrated beam of energy, and this unleashed an enormous explosion that blasted several soldiers into the air.
I saw DiNozzo at the back of the crowd, firing his assault rifle and hitting Gaetav. Gaetav's armor managed to keep him from sustaining serious injury, but it still persuaded him to move for cover. I fired a Pulse Arrow at the ground under DiNozzo, but he evaded it before it detonated.
"Hey," Fornell said as he backed up towards us. "Let's do everyone a favor and try not to kill DiNozzo."
Sarah and I nodded, and we continued our assault against the incoming enemy force.
"That means you, Haswari," Fornell growled when Ari didn't respond. "I do not want the first thing that Jethro does once he's out of his funk be for him to shoot us all."
Ari fired several more shots from his sword, and he looked at Fornell and nodded, stone-faced.
IN THE EYES OF THE MULTIVERSE:
"A lot to discuss, huh?" Alexandersen asked. "Yeah, I got a feeling this conversation's about to be really one-sided."
"Well, we can start with the fact that you are no longer a special agent," Parish told him. "You seem like a smart man, I don't see that being a huge surprise to you. Your security clearance has already been revoked. You still technically have your badge, but you might as well sell it to a Halloween store."
Alexandersen remained furiously calm. He didn't give any reaction to Parish. "You know, I'm not blind," he said. "I knew it was only a matter of time before the government started coming after American citizens. I just see now that I was stupid to think my badge would give me a little more time."
Alexandersen leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table to stare directly into Parish's eyes. "Let me ask you this, Agent K. Would I have had my ass dragged the hell out to Nowhere's ville, bitch slapped, and thrown in this chair if my skin were a few shades lighter?"
Parish chuckled. "Son, you know damn well your presence here has nothing to do with your race. Speaking of which," he said, perusing Alexandersen's dossier. "You've had quite the career at NCIS. You started immediately out of college. Worked your ass to the bone to excel. Dealt with more than your fair share of prejudice from both your coworkers and the communities you've served over the last eleven years. Some would say your environment didn't want to see a man like you succeed the way you have."
Alexandersen remained silent. His eyes were narrowed in suspicion and anger. "So why in the world would you screw up all of the amazing progress you've made to aid and abet terrorism?"
"Maybe because I don't trust this government to give them a fair shot in hell at due process. You would have taken them, imprisoned them, ripped them apart to figure out how they work, and left them all in a shallow grave."
"Wow," Parish said softly, his eyes wide. "I consider myself a cynical man, but you have me beat by miles. If I may get off topic for a moment, why in the cosmos did you become a federal agent?"
"Because I want to fix it," Alexandersen said fiercely. "The whole damn thing. This country is so goddamn broken because no one gives a shit enough to fix it. Not anybody who has a say. Case in point, I'm sitting here locked in a room with no rights to speak of all for helping out some people who lost their way."
"I know your agency received the communication about the conflict in Chicago," Parish stated. "You saw what they did."
"Nah, man, I saw what some creative video editing made it look like they did," Alexandersen corrected.
"You tell me what they were firing at," Parish requested. "Go on, I'm listening. Because we had the whole United States government look at it, and we came up with nothing."
"Spatial Hunters," Alexandersen said grimly.
Parish stared at him mutely for a moment. He then exhaled deeply. "I keep hearing that term tossed around. Spatial Hunters. Yet no one can seem to explain to me why they don't show up anywhere that these Anomalies are supposed to be fighting them."
"I don't really understand it either," Alexandersen admitted. "But I know enough to tell you I was damn near killed by one."
Parish's eyes narrowed as he observed Alexandersen. "I'm listening."
"What's the point?" Alexandersen asked. "You already got your head so far up your ass, you're not gonna hear a damn thing I say."
Parish weighed his words. "Alexandersen, I believe your heart's in the right place. I also believe that you are entirely on the wrong side of things. If you ever wanted a chance to correct me, now is the time."
Alexandersen took a long time to respond. He and Parish held silent, intense eye contact for almost a minute before Alexandersen made his decision. "I was there," Alexandersen told Parish. "I went to their little hideout to check in on them after Fort Wayne and Louisville."
"And this was after you were called to Bloomington to respond to someone impersonating a navy admiral," Parish clarified.
"Yeah, because even though I started out thinking they were some big threat to national security, I found out the only crime they committed was being a victim of circumstance," Alexandersen stated.
"Well, their circumstances have left a lot of innocent people either dead or hospitalized," Parish countered. "Maybe if they quit shooting at us every time we encounter them, we could come to some common ground."
Alexandersen scoffed. "You really think I'mma believe your bad boys haven't contributed just as much to your hostilities."
"Alexandersen, you have a choice here," Parish told him. "We can sit here and go back and forth about what's right and wrong. Or you can save your own life and give me the information I need to apprehend these fugitives."
"Show me where the hole is with my name on it, I'll head on over and dive in," Alexandersen said.
Parish studied him. After over a minute of silence, he said, "Why would you do this for them?"
"Because much unlike the wannabe hardass I'm looking at, they're fighting the real bad guys," Alexandersen declared.
"Well, I need to catch up with them before they bring the bad guys to our streets. A threat which seems to already be underway."
"Why are you trying to blame them when they're the only ones trying to stop it?" Alexandersen asked.
Parish declined to respond. "Tell me everything you know about them, son."
"No," Alexandersen said defiantly. "I guess we're at an impasse."
Sloane stood next to Luca, who sat at a computer in the lab.
"Do you know how we can find Tony?" Sloane asked heavily.
Luca shrugged. "I mean, I can do all the conventional ways. But if they're buddying with the Hunters, I don't know that those will work."
Sloane let out an exasperated breath. "Every one of us would have killed for half of this tech when I was at NCIS. And now that we have it, it's all but worthless."
"Well, what about this?" Luca suggested. "Theas told us all Anomalies carry a radioactive signature that's distinct from people of this universe, right?"
Sloane nodded.
"What if I calibrated a worldwide scan that tracked down all organisms with signatures different from those of this universe? That should make it easy to locate Tony."
"Yeah, sounds like a good idea."
Sloane and Luca looked around to see Gibbs walking over, looking calm and determined.
"Hey, Jethro," Sloane said, looking concerned. "How are you?"
"I'm pissed," Gibbs told her. "I want to find him."
He nodded meaningfully at Luca, who immediately started fulfilling his proposal. After a few minutes of furiously typing, he hit the enter key, and a map of the world displayed on the screen. A pulse of purple spread out across the map, and after a few seconds, blips started popping up.
Gibbs, Luca, and Sloane watched, and they all slowly fell into a state of incredulity. Showing on the map were several hundred bright yellow blips, spread out across the entire surface of the planet, displaying the locations of Anomalies.
"What?" Sloane said, aghast.
"That's…unbelievable," Luca said breathlessly.
"Well, I guess Theas wasn't kidding," Gibbs said softly. "He said the Anomalies were getting worse from the Macrobreach. Here's the evidence."
"Okay, well I should be able to sift through these to track down Tony," Luca stated.
Gibbs bent down to better see the computer screen. "Where are Tobias and the others?" he asked.
Luca moved the cursor to just off the coast of Africa, where a concentration of over half a dozen blips were congregated. Luca pulled up a list of names and photos detailing Jack, Sarah, Fornell, Rob, Diane, and Ari. There were still three Anomalies there that weren't listed.
"Who are they with?" Gibbs asked.
Luca investigated, pulling up photos of Gaetav, Gilo, and DiNozzo."
"Oh, no," Sloane said softly.
Gibbs's eyes narrowed, and he immediately started mobilizing.
"Excuse me, where are you going?" Sloane asked.
"Who all is there?" Gibbs asked.
"Our people," Luca answered, "a Microbreach, a Hunter, DiNozzo, and eighteen other military personnel."
"So what you're saying is, our people are out there, outgunned, in desperate need of backup, and we're here," Gibbs said, looking incredulously between the two of them.
"Well, aren't you suddenly ready to go diving into a war," Sloane said.
"Yeah, you coming?" Gibbs asked her.
Sloane stared at him for a moment before following him out of the lab. They grabbed their weapons on the way to the stairs. "Are we taking anyone else?" she asked.
"I don't know, let's find out," Gibbs said as he pulled out his phone.
Gibbs made a call, and on the other end of the line, Theas answered, "Yeah?"
"Hey, we need a portal," Gibbs told him as he and Sloane ascended the stairs.
"Cool, where to?" Theas asked.
"Dassen Island," Gibbs answered.
"Uh…okay, I got it. I see ART has gotten involved in quite the party."
"Yeah, you got time to join?" Gibbs asked.
"I can't, man. Daak has me heading to Superias to talk with Seridon."
"Really?" Gibbs said, slowing to a stop in the kitchen. "That sounds interesting."
"Yep, and you haven't been authorized to join," Theas told him. "You've got a little much on your hands, and we feel it might be a little detrimental to add this to it."
"Alright," Gibbs said as a portal opened in front of him and Sloane. "Well, I want to hear about it when you're done," he stated.
"Well, we'll see how much clearance I'll have to disclose details," Theas told him. "Good fighting, Gibbs."
The phone call ended, and Gibbs and Sloane checked their firearms before approaching the portal.
JACK FOSSE:
I fired an arrow at the oncoming soldiers, who were steadily boxing us in against Gilo. Sarah unleashed a barrage of automatic gunfire, and the first four soldiers backed down. We were forced back down by the returning gunfire from the troops. On this infuriatingly flat island, it was difficult to find adequate cover.
I glanced around and saw Fornell fire a Tri-Shot Blitz, but this was easily evaded by Gilo as he returned fire with several burning feathers. I felt the dust rain down from the resulting explosions, and this distraction left me open to take a string of gunfire from the troops. I managed to evade most of the shots, but one Aolen round hit me in the arm, spattering blood out as I was knocked down.
"You good?" Sarah asked me as she continued to fire on the troops.
"Yeah," I grunted.
I drew an arrow and took aim, but I didn't see Tirrell closing in on me until he swung his knife. I just barely managed to duck down to avoid it, and I backed away as Tirrell aimed his rifle. I barrel-rolled out of the way, and Tirrel stepped in and swung his knife again. I blocked it with my bow, and I stepped in and swung my bow at him again. He ducked, kicking me in the gut, and I was knocked to the ground before rolling back to my feet. Tirrell stepped in and brought his knife down on top of me, but I caught him at the wrist and was only barely able to hold him at bay.
"You're out of your league, Fosse," Tirrell growled, steadily pushing the tip of his knife closer to me.
I didn't respond, and I swept his feet out from under him. He crashed to the ground, and I quickly backed away while drawing another arrow. Tirrell took aim from the ground and fired his assault rifle at me, and I stumbled back, only barely managing to avoid the gunfire as I fell over. Ari moved in on Tirrell, and Tirrell ducked the slash from Ari's sword. Tirrell and Ari exchanged in heavy combat, matching each other in a string of furious attacks. Tirrell placed two powerful strikes against Ari's torso, but Ari managed to brush these off as he swung his sword again.
Tirrell parried the attack with his knife, but Ari's weapon let off a powerful energy pulse, knocking Tirrell back. Ari took aim with his sword and fired several shots, but Tirrell's armor absorbed the gunfire and left him unharmed. Tirrell rolled back to his feet, taking aim with his assault rifle, and he opened fire as Ari ran out of the way. I fired a Pulse Arrow at him that hit his chest and knocked him back, but three soldiers saw what was happening and ran over to intervene.
I moved alongside Sarah and prepared for their arrival, but Gaetav moved in on them. He swung his swords, his armor preventing him from taking damage from returning gunfire. The soldiers were quickly dispatched, and Gaetav took aim with his shoulder gun. A barrage of gunfire scattered another group of soldiers who were attempting to rally.
Meanwhile, Gilo dive-bombed Fornell, Diane, and Rob. He was wrapped in blue-white fire, and as he passed over them, he expelled a large fire blast that assaulted them. They all dove aside as the fire blast gouged out a large crater in the ground, sending a cloud of smoke and flames rolling into the air. Gilo was back up in the air before the Anomalies recovered, and as Gilo evaded a hailstorm of gunfire, he came back down and rushed at Rob. Rob attempted to shoot Gilo down, but he was unsuccessful as Gilo tackled him.
Rob hit the ground, grunting in pain as Gilo crouched on top of him. Gilo brought his claws up, surging with fire, and he swung them down at Rob.
A powerful gunshot split the air, and Gilo was knocked off of Rob with a gaping hole in his side that gushed blood. Gibbs took aim with his sniper rifle from several hundred feet away, and Sloane moved towards the conflict, firing her pistol against DiNozzo's and Tirrell's soldiers.
DiNozzo finished firing a wave of shots, and he looked around to see Gibbs from afar. His eyes narrowed, but he turned away from Gibbs and continued leading his assault against the other Anomalies.
"Yeah, that's right," Gibbs whispered. "You know I'm coming for you."
Gibbs fired another shot, hitting a soldier and knocking him down. The battle continued to escalate on both sides, and with Gibbs and Sloane joining the conflict, the soldiers were beginning to back down. Gilo struggled to get to his fours, grunting in pain as he put pressure on his bleeding side. He looked around as Fornell, Rob, and Diane focused on the soldiers. Gilo tensed himself to attack again, but Gibbs fired a shot at him. Gilo took a hit directly to his chest, and he let out a terrible grunt before collapsing to the ground.
Gilo groaned in pain, and after a few seconds, he collapsed into ash and blew away in the wind. Gaetav fired three mortars from his back, and they rained down onto the military unit, tearing the group apart in a series of powerful explosions. This provided the opening the Anomalies needed to rally against Tirrell and DiNozzo.
The two military leaders looked around, somewhat startled at this sudden change in the tide of the battle.
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs roared.
DiNozzo's eyes narrowed in anger as he observed Gibbs aiming his rifle at him. DiNozzo glanced down at his assault rifle in his hands, but he knew he would be cut down before he ever got the chance to raise it.
"You stand down, DiNozzo!" Gibbs ordered. "You put your weapon down! You're coming with us!"
"I will have to contradict you, Mister Gibbs."
We all looked around in surprise, including DiNozzo and Tirrell. The voice echoed around the island, seeming to come from the very ground beneath us. We all readied our weapons, and the few soldiers that were able to stand looked around incredulously. Sarah and I stepped closer to each other, and I looked around and saw someone that made my body tense up.
A woman who appeared to be in her eighties stood some fifty feet away from us, yet as I watched her, she had the disposition of someone much younger and far more powerful. She had short, white hair, and she wore a deep blue, long-sleeved shirt with dark pants. She observed the scene with a calm serenity.
"Who the hell are you?" Gibbs asked, turning his rifle on her.
The woman, looking almost amused at this, said, "I wouldn't stress out too much about it."
She swiped her hand slowly through the air, and I felt a peculiar sensation for a split second before all awareness vanished.
The next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground, dust and rubble covering me. My body ached, and I climbed slowly to my fours as I looked around. The rest of the Anomalies were in similar states, and a few of them were beginning to regain consciousness. I looked around and saw Sarah groaning, rubbing her head as she opened her eyes.
"That must have been a hell of a rager," she said hoarsely as she sat up.
"Are you okay?" I asked her.
She nodded. "Who was that lady?"
"Whoever she was," Gibbs said as he rose shakily to his feet. "She wasn't kidding."
I looked across the battlefield, realizing that all of the enemy soldiers, including DiNozzo and Tirrell, had vanished.
"Dammit," Gibbs grunted. He helped Sloane to her feet, and the rest of our people began regrouping.
"Good to see you decided to quit moping," Fornell said to Gibbs. "What do we do now?"
"I'm going after DiNozzo," Gibbs declared.
