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

What's happening? What's happening? They don't have to do this! But...

Aegera flinched toward the people being led out into the street. Jonah managed to grapple onto her shoulder before she could get more than half a step.

"You can't," he said with a kind of blunt regret. "There's too many of them. We'll be too exposed."

Her eyes were wild and angry. "We can't let them do this! Once they take them away we'll never be able to find them. I'm going."

His teeth grit together. "The suppressors aren't going to work against anything in that helicopter. They might not be able to see us from there, but if they start blind firing there's no telling what could happen."

"I'm going!"

Are you going to be okay without your only friend in the world?

"Fuck! At least—we at least need a plan!"

Her eyes lost a little of their wildness as they darted over the street ahead of them.

"Jump us in. I'll do a massive surge of force, radiating outward. Knock everyone down. We'll get the others out. That'll even the odds."

Jonah bit his tongue and tried to quell the jitteriness of his muscles. He felt sick with adrenaline and very near exhaustion, both nervous and physical, The plan might work, but...

She's right. They get on those trucks and you'll never see them again.

He exhaled in resignation and nodded. His voice trembled as he began speaking, but at least it gave him something to focus on. Aegera curled her finger and breathed heavily in anticipation.

And then they were besides the nearest carrier, a little closer than he had intended, but still between the soldiers marching the prisoners toward their destination. There was a fraction of a seconds lag before he felt the crash of Aegera's wave ripple out around him. It rocked the carrier a little on its suspension and threw the first six black armored figures to the ground along with their green hooded captives. The remaining three readied their weapons, the panic over having people suddenly materialize in front of them clear even through their eyewear and even clearer when all that came out of their weapons were a couple of impotent pops.

Aegera sent a lance of force into the chests of the first two men and they folded to the ground with the sound of breaking bones. Jonah watched as the third backed off with stuttering steps before abandoning his weapon entirely and bolting down the street as quickly as his bulky armour would allow.

Aegera quickly yanked the weapons away from the fallen soldiers and Jonah carefully eyed both those guarding the carriers further down the street as well as the distortion field hanging over their head. The soldiers were scrambling, pulling some sort of equipment out of the carriers that he could not make out.

Clang

A loud ringing made him start and press his back up against the carrier for cover. He inhaled sharply, finding it almost impossible to exhale. The huge dent in the metal exterior of the vehicle gave away that the other soldiers had started firing from outside the range of the suppressors and that it was likely only due to their nerves at the strangeness of the situation that they had missed him.

"Come on!" Aegera was pulling hoods off the Adepts and waving them over towards the carrier where he crouched, muscles so tense that he was unable to move.

"How many can you jump?!" Her question was momentarily lost on him and upon realizing what it was he found he couldn't even remember the words that had seemed so clear only a minute prior.

"I-I-I," was all that would seem to come out.

"Jonah!" she shouted.

"Four, maybe five," he replied as the first of the horrified Adepts joined him next to the slim cover of the carrier.

The shots were coming half a dozen at a time and all he could tell himself was that there were forces he could put up, but his brain was scrambled by the noise and the adrenaline. He pulled his knees up to his chest and sunk against the comfortingly thick rubber of the carrier tire.

You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. Was the only thought that seemed to have the power to break through into his stream of consciousness.

"Where's Tom?" Aegera shouted. Whether she got a response or not was lost on him.

Just as the Adept next to him started to construct the wall of force he had long forgotten a metallic canister clattered along the concrete and a noxious cloud spewed from ports along the edge. Jonah felt a sharp painful sensation along his face. He scrambled to get to his feet, nearly bowling over the Adept as they coughed madly. Tears and mucus flowed from his eyes and nose as inhaling became a nightmare of burning.

The Adept fumbled for the canister, his free arm up over his face and threw it as far as he could in the direction of the other carriers. Even as he did, the sound of several more landing nearby foretold an increase in the density of the toxic cloud. The sounds of soldiers from the other carriers coming closer hit him with renewed urgency.

He struggled to his feet and turned to try to run, break free of the miasma that was billowing over the street. Something caught on his leg and he realized immediately that it was the hand of one of the soldiers who had fallen from Aegera's initial barrage. Someone careened into him as they tried to get away from the approaching line of soldiers, sending him sprawling to the ground.

The world was a run of yellow air and tramping feet. There was no sound save for the bellowing of pain and the soft thumps of metal and concrete on flesh. Here and there were drops of blood on the pavement.