Ragnarok

TEN

Shanghai, China

3 November, 1400 Hrs

Their original destination had been Beijing, but in the time it took for Knight and Bishop to get to China-even at supersonic speed-the field of battle had changed again. Right now, all they had to go on was that giant globes of energy and lightning were randomly appearing in different population centers around the globe. In some cases, the sphere would be present only a short time. In others, it would stay long enough to disgorge a payload of creatures that were vicious and fast. The creatures could be killed, but it was very difficult to do so. Beyond those few facts, Knight and Bishop were going in blind.

On their way to Beijing, the pilot, callsign: Black One, had been informed that the portal that had opened in the Forbidden City had closed unexpectedly, without sending any of the killing creatures into the population of 20 million. Unfortunately, the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace dating from the Ming Dynasty, was carved from the face of the Earth by the devastating effects of the globe’s collapse, just as other cities had been ravaged. But before the Crescent could be set to a new course, reports of another globe effect in nearby Shanghai

had come in through Lewis Aleman, back at Endgame HQ.

News of the giant energy globes had spread rapidly around the world, so when this new globe had begun to appear in Shanghai, people had fled in terror on foot, in cars and on bicycle-by whatever means they had available to them. The People’s Liberation Army had yet to arrive on the scene and even local law enforcement had bailed at the sight of the giant white and yellow crackling sphere.

So it was in relative quiet that Knight and Bishop approached their target. The Crescent dropped them on the street before taking to the skies again with its VTOL thrusters and disappearing. A few injured people lay on the sidewalks and in the middle of the road, but most were still moving away from the site, even if at a crawl. Bishop and Knight might have stopped to help the people, but their first priority was to guard the greater population against the creatures that sometimes came out of the energy globes.

Lightning blasted from the sphere ahead of them, arcing upward to strike the tops and sides of tall concrete, steel and glass skyscrapers. As Bishop and Knight approached the thing, debris from the ruined buildings rained down while streaks of lightning performed a spastic dance accentuated by the booming of thunder. Choreographed chaos.

“Endgame, this is Knight. As far as I can tell, the lightning strikes are completely random. They don’t seem to be targeting us or anything in particular.”

“Copy that, Knight. We’ve already had reports from Egypt that weapons fire into the sphere doesn’t do a damn thing, so hold your fire. If a tank can’t stop it, neither can you.” Lewis Aleman sounded tired and jittery on the small earphone in Knight’s ear. If Bishop was listening in, he made no indication of it. “Also, don’t get too close to the thing. When they blink out, they take everything with them. Remember, you’re there to fight anything that might come out of the sphere. We have reports from a Ranger, whose brother was in LA, that the things are like milky white pumas. They’re damn fast, but initial reports suggest they only go after fleeing prey. So set up somewhere and be ready. If your globe closes, we’ll get the Crescent back to deliver you to another hotspot.”

“Understood,” Knight said. He switched off the microphone on the side of his face and turned to Bishop. “Where do you think?”

Bishop scanned the scene. They were in a section of the city called The Bund. The river was to their right and a huge multi-lane road with abandoned cars was to their left. HSBC Bank and the Customs House, with its distinctive clock tower, were across the asphalt. The sphere was further up Zhongshan Road. The sun still hung overhead, but in a few hours, bright neon lights and spotlights would illuminate everything. The glow from the crackling sphere, which Bishop judged to be about 60 feet in diameter, washed out the daylight with an intensity that made him squint.

“That clock tower looks to me like a good spot for you. I’m just gonna walk along the river here and get closer.”

“Bish,” Knight looked concerned as he stared up at the larger man. “There’s no cover along the river. If those things come out…”

“If I need to, I’ll bail into the water. Let’s get it done.”

Without another word, Knight sprinted across the now empty multi-lane road, carrying his new favorite toy-the EXACTO rifle-strapped across his back. He wondered, as he made his way across the road to the large bank, whether this road had ever been deserted of people since its construction. He figured it hadn’t. He knew Shanghai had something like 24 million people, and it had always been a crowded place.

Knight made his way into the Customs House building expecting to find cowering civilians or possibly even morons still attempting to carry out a normal day’s work despite the inconvenience of a gigantic electrical ball of hellfire just down the road. Instead, he found the place completely deserted. As far as he knew, the energy effect had only started in Shanghai about thirty minutes previously. He was stunned that the Chinese had managed to evacuate the area so thoroughly in such a short time.

As he made his way into the elevator to get to the roof, Knight reflected on the fact that as the only Korean American member of Chess Team, he was their de facto Pacific Rim agent, and yet he had rarely been to China. The last time was to one of China’s new ghost cities, Shenhuang. That hadn’t been a fun mission. Although one positive thing had come from it: his new girlfriend, Anna Beck. She had helped the team once before the Shenhuang mission, and as callsign: Black Zero had now become one of Deep Blue’s right-hand assistants back in New Hampshire. Although things were going well with Beck, he turned his mind away from her, getting his head in the game.

Out on the roof, he made his way to the huge clock tower’s stairway. The structure was nearly 300 feet tall. The perfect vantage point. But as he got closer to the top of the staircase, Knight heard the distinctive boom-boom-boom of Bishop’s XM312-B blasting away.

He was too late.