Avarice: The Realm Chapter 9: The Rocks

The Rocks

I’m sitting at a bench at Fort Lincoln, thinking. I need to attach Tracking Beacon to Peter Cool before I can make my next move. Before I can do that, I need to know about a place he’s likely to touch and trigger Sticky Glue. Since we’ve captured Ratsi, we have a good source of that information.

I just have to wait for the interrogators to do their job.

The glint of a scope pops into my peripheral vision and I dive to the ground. A bullet flies over my head and strikes the dirt, sending up a puff of shrapnel.

I get behind a truck, putting the vehicle between me and the sniper.

It’s not the first time someone has tried to snipe me. But I know that, had my adversary been more experienced, or if I had been less observant, I would be less a brain right now.

I peek around the vehicle. “Binder,” I say. “Telescope.”

I scan the desert rocks where I first saw the glint. The formation is about twenty meters tall, filled with cracks, with the occasional cactus sticking out between them.

I see the glint again, and zero in on a male sniper wearing tan camouflage.

I sprint between the truck and a concrete barrier. As I lean against the wall, I conjure my bow.

I pop out and fire while diving. The arrow flies true, and a small spurt of blood tells me that I’ve hit my mark.

I put my hand to my ear and activate telepathy. “Garnet,” I say. “I just took out a sniper who was after me.”

“A sniper?” says Garnet. “Nobody should have been able to get that close.”

“I’m heading over to examine the corpse,” I say. I creep towards the rock formation, measuring about ten feet a minute. There could be two, or the one could be not dead.

I reach the rock formation and press against it. “Binder, periscope,” I say. I toss the view half up to the top of the rock formation.

The man is clearly and totally dead. My arrow is embedded in the man’s eye.

I climb the rock formation and examine the corpse. There’s nothing on him that would indicate an affiliation. His gun has no marks, and I’m not entirely sure what make and model it is.

Garnet and several X-marines climb up the formation behind me. Garnet kneels next to the corpse.

“We’ll get an ID on him,” she says. She points to two marines. “Help me carry this body away.”

When the marines are gone, Garnet sits against a rock. “We need to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” she says.

“I don’t know how we can do that,” I say. “They know where I am at all times, and a good sniper can get past any sort of defense.”

“Binder,” Garnet says. She slips a card out and gives it to me.

It has a gold border.

“You’re giving this to me?” I say.

Garnet nods. “The US government has three of this specific card,” she says. “This is one of them.”

I look at the card. Surprise Negation.

“This card takes effect whenever you’re going to be surprised by an attack. The effect is permanent. You’ll know about the attack as soon as your enemy is in place.”

“How much is it worth?” I ask.

“Don’t ask that,” says Garnet. “Just know that the brass value the death of Mandrake more than they do this card.”

“Couldn’t someone else take my place if I were to be killed?” I ask.

Garnet shakes her head. “It’s because of your track record so far. The brass, to be honest, thought that you wouldn’t even be able to take out one of them. We’ve tried so many times that they were cynical.”

“So this is akin to a reward,” I say.

“Exactly,” says Garnet. “Now use the card.”

“Binder, Surprise Negation,” I say. A little flicker of light attaches to me and then disappears. The card disintegrates.

I feel no different than before. Scratching my nose, I look off at the horizon.

“Did it take effect?” I say.

“It should have,” says Garnet.

“Well, I trust you,” I say.

Garnet grins. “Great,” she says. “That was a huge investment on the part of the government.”

“Thanks again,” I say. I climb down the rock formation.

Garnet follows.

Pierre approaches us as soon as we enter the compound. “We have the information we need,” he says. “Ratsi caved when we offered her a plea deal outside The Realm.”

“Hah,” says Garnet. “That proves her loyalty to Mandrake was only superficial.”

Pierre nods. “I agree with that assessment,” he says. “But in any case, we have the information we need to proceed.”

I turn away from the two, looking back up at the rock formation. Something about it gives me the chills. As if the rock itself has a soul and it’s watching me.

Pierre holds his hand to his ear. “We have an ID on the assassin,” he says.

I turn to him. “And?” I say.

Pierre sighs. “Looks like a rogue Finnish sniper. He’s been wanted by INTERPOL for several years now.”

“Finland?” I say. “What about his gun?”

“Let me check,” he says, hand still at his ear. “What’s the ID on the weapon?” He’s talking through telepathy, so I can only hear one side of the conversation.

“Right, yes,” he says. “I’ll let him know.”

“It’s a custom rifle,” says Pierre. “It has some sort of hybrid magical system embedded in it. We believe that there could have been a gold card involved in its manufacture.” He sighs. “But we can’t seem to ID what kind of ammo it uses.”

“If you get me one of the bullets,” I say, “I can replicate them.”

Pierre nods. “Pierre to base. Get me one of the bullets from the rifle.” He sits on a bench and continues his telepathic conversation.

I watch the rock formation, still feeling a bit queasy about it.

Five minutes later an X-marine brings the rifle and a bag full of bullets. I take both the gun and the bullets and sit down at a small metal table to investigate.

I hold my hand over one of the bullets and activate my secondary ability, composition read. It’s not a card and has no relation to The Realm outside of being a Freax power.

Looks like these bullets are made from uranium-cored bismuth bronze. The Realm sure has an infatuation with this specific kind of alloy.

With the knowledge of how it works, I can reproduce it. I don’t know how I do it, not consciously, but I know I can. I conjure a handful of bullets, all slightly different.

“Can I use your firing range?” I ask.

“Sure,” says Garnet.

Pierre is still engaged in a conversation.

Garnet leads me to the shooting range on the other side of Fort Lincoln. I am carrying the rifle.

Several X-marines are using the range, but there are plenty of open spots.

I settle in with the rifle and load it—it’s bolt action. My first shot goes wild—the scope must have been unaligned when I killed the assassin. I zero it in after a few shots and then test the ammo I conjured.

It works. I’m a little scared about the fact that these bullets use depleted uranium, but the bismuth bronze coating should prevent too much radiation from escaping.

Also, the bullet is in a special, unique caliber that I’ve never seen before. This gun is most definitely custom.

I like it. Turning to Garnet, I smile. “Can I keep this?” I ask.

“Sure,” says Garnet. “I’m not sure if I have the authority, but you need a better weapon than what you can conjure on your own.”

I place the rifle on a table. “Great. I’ll make sure that this gun works for us.”

It’s been a while since I last used a gun for my primary weapon. Now seems as good a time as any to change that. This rifle shoots in a way that reminds me of my childhood, and I think I’m feeling a bit of a connection with it.

Hunting trips with my father. That’s where I learned to shoot, to track, and to defeat my quarry.

Garnet takes out her own pistol and begins shooting down the range.

I pick the rifle back up and fire another couple of shots. All of them go exactly where I want them to.

Garnet and I spend the next hour or so shooting, and in that time I manage to deconstruct the ammunition completely, matching everything with how the gun was designed to shoot.

Pierre enters the shooting range, waving at me.

“Hey!” he says. “RT.”

“Yes?” I say, putting down my gun.

“We figured out what kind of weapon that is,” says Pierre, pointing at the gun. “It’s a custom, of course, but it was actually manufactured here in The Realm.”

“I mean, it makes sense,” I say. “It was probably made by a conjurer anyways.”

Pierre shakes his head. “Of course,” he says. “But we managed to contact the man who made it. We might be able to buy some off him.”

“This gun should be enough for me,” I say. “But if you can outfit some elite soldiers with this I wouldn’t complain.”

Pierre shrugs. “Yeah. Just wanted to let you know. Maybe you can learn something from this conjurer.”

I turn back to the shooting range. “Makes sense,” I say. I pick my gun back up. “Card,” I say. The gun turns into card form, and I slip it into my binder. I also turn several dozen bullets into card form.

“Another thing,” says Pierre. He hands me a piece of paper. “This is the information we got from Ratsi. Peter Cool lives in a penthouse apartment in the Western Biome city of Endiga.”

I take the slip. “I can probably sneak in somehow and implant Sticky Glue.” I pause, turning to Garnet.

She takes her ear protection off and puts her gun down. “Are we ready for this?” she says.

“Get me a copy of Sticky Glue,” I say, “Plus Tracking Beacon, Wall Walk, Light Bend, and Transportal.”

Garnet smiles. “Will do, chief!” she says. She jogs away towards the card storage building.

I am left standing next to Pierre. He turns to the shooting range. “Transportal, eh?” he says. “No one uses those. The fast travel towers are too convenient.” He scratches his head. “How are you going to use it?”

“You’ll see,” I say. I walk away from the range. Pierre follows me.

I absent-mindedly flip my half medallion between my fingers. “If there’s nothing stopping me,” I say, “I’d like to implant the Tracking Beacon on Peter Cool as soon as possible.”

“We won’t stop you,” says Pierre. He salutes. “Good luck with your mission.”

I walk to the fast travel tower.

“Endiga!” I say, and I am transported away.