The New Magic - The Revelation of Jonah McAllister - Landon Wark (bill gates best books TXT) 📗

it. Tom thought as the shadowy figures regrouped. The glimmer was beginning to dissipate from the air and once it was gone completely any caution on the part of the armoured men was going out the window. He could do a recast, but it would only buy them a bit of time if they couldn't get the door open.

From somewhere behind him Tom could, over the commotion of the soldiers organizing, hear the beginnings of a spell coming from the lips of one of the Adepts. Some of the sounds were familiar and upon recognizing the main components of the spell he froze.

"Sto—" he tried to call out for them to stop, but the last of it got out before the command fully formed.

Force rippled out against the wall and the corrugations of the door bent and warped, the bottom of it kicking out. The force slammed into Tom's legs, buckling his knees and twisting his hips. He felt the air pushed out of his lungs before he was knocked to the floor, coughing and spluttering. The taste of metallic blood bit into his tongue as he landed against the work table, pain dancing playfully along his shoulder. His head spun and the blur around him disappeared into the blur and ringing in his head. He coughed, feeling a trail of blood dripping onto his shirt and then the floor.

As his head rolled involuntarily to the side he could see the thin wedge of daylight glaring from the buckled out corrugated steel of the door.

The Adepts were slinking across the floor of the garage, each in their own separate dazes. He thought that maybe one or two of the soldiers/cops had been knocked over, but largely his kids had just scored a huge own-goal. Two of the slinking figures managed their way around the obstacles of their fallen comrades into the flare of the daylight.

His head still ringing and his mind barely grasping the reason he attempted to flop his way onto his legs, hip aching. A blunt force slammed into his side. Pain exploded up his sciatic nerve and he cried as it bore him into the cold concrete of the floor. The flat force kicked him over onto his stomach and something grappled at his hands, pinning them behind his back.

Run, you glorious fuckers, was the first thought that managed to claw its way through the din in his head as he was pulled onto his feet and a wedge of cloth was shoved against his tongue.

A Call to Arms

The heater in the truck was broken and the chill air from outside had crept in through the shoddy repair jobs in the body. Exactly what San... Aegera's fascination was with old broken down vehicles he could not fathom, fewer credit checks he supposed.

Jonah stretched his arms against the dash and rolled his head on his shoulders in an attempt to ring some warmth out of his own body. He thought there might be some in his hind-quarters, but the lack of space in the truck prevented stretching that way, and it was a temporary solution at that. He frowned and tried to shake the cold from his mind by deciphering what little he could of the labelling on the truck's dashboard.

They sat in the middle of a swell of traffic. All three lanes of the thoroughfare were clogged—as far as he could tell—for a good kilometer into the city ahead of them.

Besides the traffic and the cold his spirits were high. The tests had gone well and with a little tinkering he was confident that he could have a production run of close quarters anti-firearm measures within a week. Maybe a couple dozen or so. From there it was simply a matter of teaching a few of the Initiates to do it and they would have an infinite supply. Well, more than enough to let the rank and file hold off a well armed opposing force. And, after that he could continue his work uninterrupted, his conscience a little clearer. He leaned his head back on the headrest and allowed his mind to wander a little.

"I can't believe you're not freezing," Aegera interrupted.

Crouched over the steering wheel, her gloved fingers pressing into the vinyl, she made for a pathetic figure. Almost reminiscent of the way he remembered her from the hospital months prior. He wondered if it was the reduction in her body fat that was making her feel colder or the fact that she had never experienced cold of this magnitude before. He decided not to ask.

"Where I'm from this is mid-spring," he replied.

She glanced over at him. There was a little hostility in her eyes. Most likely because of his disregard for the Adepts. His 'interrupters' (he was still working on the name) in the back had helped a little, but the fact that he was still adamant that there was little he could do about the situation still hung in the air between them. He could see no real way to stop it. But, the violence would only last for a short while. As long as they kept working, kept researching and kept recruiting, the world would be better.

"We're going to make it there," he said, half to Aegera and half to the vapours that were pouring out of his mouth with each breath. "There's going to be a better world."

"I don't doubt that," she muttered. "But it doesn't—"

Almost as if the universe wanted to argue directly, the lyrical tone of the phone at Aegera's side overwhelmed the rattle of the failing heater. Jonah nearly lunged for the wheel as she fumbled between her pockets before whipping out the flip phone and pinching it gingerly between her ear and shoulder. The truck coasted to a gentle stop only a centimetre from the bumper of the car ahead.

"You want me to take th—You're gonna drive and