Invasion: Book One of the Secret World Chronicle-ARC Read online

Then in an inhumanly quick flash, he disappeared offscreen. The background, cement laced with pipework, reestablished itself. In seconds, jumpsuit-clad figures with glowing staves dashed past. Alex cut the connection. He sank back into his chair.

  “That didn’t look good,” Belladonna said.

  “Excuse me,” Red Saviour said. “I am correct in thinking you mentioned names Marconi and Nikola…Tesla?”

  “Yes. They’re alive, but it doesn’t matter.” He buried his face in his hands. Everything he had counted on, everything he had thought was in his back pocket, had just been pulled out from under him. There would be no cavalry coming over the hill. Crushing despair pushed him down in his chair.

  He couldn’t handle this. No way. He was just a CEO, for god’s sake! He wasn’t a—a general, he couldn’t see any way out of this but Armageddon. “Without Metis, we’re screwed.”

  Red Saviour blew air out her lips. “Pssh. Save whining for old ladies. I am not knowing why this Metis is so important to fight against fashista, but my plans never included them. Is no different now.”

  The world was crashing in on him—had been, in fact, since the attack, when he realized that the hidden forces at work had unsheathed their swords. It was the day that he and Metis had feared all along, and yet Metis had decided to withdraw. They were doomed, all of them. Was there any point in dragging this crazed woman down into his personal pit of hopelessness? She would arrive there soon enough on her own. “You don’t understand at all,” he muttered.

  “I don’t need to. Is not my job to be hopeless.”

  “Nor mine, sir.” Belladonna’s voice possessed a steely grit. “Whatever covert ops you and Metis have been performing to halt this threat doesn’t seem to have worked. The Thulians are still out there, ready to strike again. If Echo has to go down in flames fighting them, then that’s what we do. Fight until we can’t go on.”

  Red Saviour nodded. “CCCP is no stranger to sacrifice. Is actually in commission.” She opened her palm as if cradling an invisible manual. “Your people are ready to give up lives, comrade. Are you ready to lead them?”

  Alex blinked at her. “You make it sound easy.”

  “Dying is no work at all—it finds you. Important thing is what you do before you go down.” She slammed the imaginary book shut. “A good leader makes each soldier’s sacrifice into a building block for victory.” Her lips stretched in a thin smile. “Russians are no strangers to hopeless battles. And yet, we win them.”

  “Indeed.” He sighed. A madwoman was giving him advice, and it actually made sense, which meant his situation was worse than he thought.

  And yet—they had hope, hope and determination. For the moment at least, that hope was filtering over to him. He stood on uncertain feet. “I suppose you’re right. I was leaning too much on Metis for guidance. I just assumed our interests and theirs had always intersected. I don’t see how any war against an organized, heavily-armed metahuman force can be won without Metis’s assistance—but now I guess we’ll found out.”

  “We’ll do it the way outmanned and outgunned people have always done it, Tesla,” Bella said, her eyes blazing blue, her chin up. “Like the Yanks against the Brits in 1776, like the Russians in St. Petersburg against Napoleon, and again in Stalingrad against the Nazis. We’ll fight them hard, and we’ll fight them smart, we’ll make them fight on our ground, and on our terms.”

  Alex knew better. He really knew better. And yet, at that moment, their determination, their sureness, swept him off his feet and, like a wave that buoyed him up rather than crashed down on him, seemed to give him strength. If there was a shore to be carried to—then these two, surely, would bring everyone there.

  Belladonna looked like that Rosie the Riveter poster, and Saviour like one of the propaganda pieces on the wall of her own CCCP. They made him believe in them. He felt his own spine straightening with resolve.

  “Now you are talking, tovarisch,” Red Saviour said, with her own eyes shining. “We win, or we die. Now. Let us be getting all cards on the house.”

  “Table,” Bella murmured.

  “Table then.” The Russian leaned over Tesla’s desk, and he was reminded again of how tall she was. “Now. Tell me what you have not been telling me before.” There was cold steel in her voice, and iron in her gaze. “Is time to stop running and take the battle to enemy.”

  Afterword

  That was how we found out about Metis, the Thulians, and the secret cities that had been operating under all our noses for decades.

  There were more secrets to come, of course. None of us knew about the March Prophecies yet. And I don’t think even knowing about them would have made a bit of difference to Bella and Saviour.

  But if we had all known how sorely we would be tested and tried in the weeks to come, would we have still been as determined as we were that day?

  I don’t know.

  But I’d like to think we would. Because the choice really was to fight, or to lay down and die. We could be predators, or we could be prey. It was time for the real fight to begin.

  Author’s Note

  This series owes its existence to the MMORPG, City of Heroes, produced by Paragon Studios and NCsoft. The characters began there as the lot of us, separated by the breadth and width of the country, met over our shared enthusiasm for storytelling in the improvised theater of role-playing, and began meshing our characters’ lives. The canonical background of the City Of games is so well planned and richly detailed, so well written, it practically demanded that our characters be as well developed and well rounded.

  The characters in these books have evolved far past that of course, and into their own story. Some, like Red Djinni, resemble the original only in attitude. But we still play. And we are still creating new characters with new stories to tell. Who knows, one day they might end up in books too.

  Meanwhile if you would like a taste, go to www.cityofheroes.com and check out the 14-day free trial offer. Don’t be surprised if you get hooked.

  Table of Contents

  Part One: The Way the World Ends

  Introduction

  Chapter One: Before The Storm

  Chapter Two: Ignition

  Chapter Three: A Nightmare On Main Street

  Chapter Four: The End Of The Beginning

  Chapter Five: The Seventh Circle

  Part Two: The Hunt

  Chapter Six: Red, White, and Blues

  Chapter Seven: Headhunters

  Chapter Eight: Moving Day

  Chapter Nine: Hoods

  Chapter Ten: Bad For Good

  Chapter Eleven: Working For A Living

  Chapter Twelve: Karma Chameleon

  Chapter Thirteen: Blackbird Fly

  Chapter Fourteen: A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall

  Chapter Fifteen: When Push Comes To Shove

  Afterword

  Author’s Note