Josie frowned as one of the birds split off from the cloud she had released. The pings

Jack had destroyed had cleared some of her spell for her. She had a choice now. Did

she chase the solo bird, or go after the rest of the flock heading off into the distance.

“We’re going to veer off and see where that lone bird is going,” said Josie. “Then

we’ll locate the rest of them.”

“Where do you think that’s going?,” asked Fass.

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “Do you think one of the planners is living out here?”

“How far away do you think we are away from the central capitol?,” said Josie.

“I have no idea,” said Fass. “At least a tenday of travel by horseback. This craft is

faster than anything I have ever seen. I think we could get there in a few hours like

we did the first raid we did in this machine.”

“All right,” said Josie. “I want to see where this bird is going. Then we can get back

on track. I have a feeling the rest are going to organizers in the government.”

“I wonder what the rationale for this is,” said Fass.

“Out of everything, I am willing to put money on not knowing what could happen if

the goblin trees start bringing dead people back to life to fight,” said Josie.

“I like the shock tactic effect,” said Budd. “They can overwhelm diminished

resources if they turn an army of monsters on the country.”

“I don’t think they know, or are ignoring what could happen, if things go wrong,”

said Emily. “Has anyone seen an idea like this before?”

“Not like this,” said Case. “It has something of instant warriors to it.”

“Really?,” said Emily. “Instant warriors?”

“When Hurley was fighting the king of Rigna, he cornered the king and his general

on the battlefield,” said Case. “The king used his general to hold Hurley off while he

used some magic to create a small army to fight Hurley. It didn’t stop Hurley, but the

Shemmarians could be trying to do the same thing with these plants.”

“I like the idea of it,” said Josie. “It depends on if these monsters will take orders. If

they do, then we have to worry about what orders they are given. If they don’t, what

happens to the Shemmarians?”

“And then what happens if the monster army expands across the border?,” asked

Budd.

“Depends if they move slow and act with intelligence and how tough they actually are

to put down, or if they spread like wildfire and draft anyone that gets in their way,”

said Josie. “One gives us a smart enemy that will act like a normal army that we can

maybe outthink and overpower. The other gives us a spreading disease that won’t

stop until everyone is them and they can win the war of attrition by the spreading

numbers.”

“These goblin trees have to be put down,” said Budd. “They are the source of things.”

“And someone obviously found one and handed it over to the government to use as

a weapon,” said Josie. “Maybe they know they are playing with fire, maybe they

don’t. So far the job hasn’t gone away, so the Lich Queen could still pop up at any

time while we try to figure out what is going on.”

“The bird landed on that cottage,” said Lou. He pointed at a cottage through the

window. “We should see who lives there.”

“All right,” said Josie. “I’m going to land. We are going to need a guard detail for the

quinjet so we can get home.”

“I got it,” said Lou. “Once I raise the gangplank, nothing will be able to get inside

with me.”

“All right,” said Josie. She looked for a clearing not too far away from the little

house. She found one and hovered down to a landing. She changed into Zatanna long

enough to produce a letter. “If something happens, call us. I’ll get everyone together

and come back.”

“I will keep an eye on things,” said Lou. He put the letter in his belt, next to his

sword. “I think all the smart people will stay away from this roaring beast.”

“Be careful,” said Jo. “The last thing I need is Jack complaining about how I let his

baby blow up because I let some amateur stay behind.”

“It will be fine,” said Lou.

Josie led the way off the quinjet. She watched as the gangplank lifted back into place.

The only thing they had to worry about was Lou taking the thing on a joyride. He

seemed better than that.

“The house was over that way,” said Case. “I didn’t see movement when we came

down for a landing.”

Josie watched the trees as she fell into the middle of the group. Anyone could be

waiting for them. The moment they started taking fire, she planned to zap them back

to the quinjet and then handle any attacker who didn’t flee from her.

“I don’t see any people,” said Case. “All alone out here?”

“Maybe,” said Fass. “Budd, take half and circle to the left. Emily, take everyone else

right.”

Josie and Fass walked up to the cottage door. The bird said someone was home.

Maybe she was at the rear of the house working in the kitchen.

Josie knocked on the door and listened. She didn’t hear anything moving. She

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

knocked again after a few seconds.

Footsteps closed on the door. Josie waited, hands clenched together. What kind of

threat would they be facing?

An old man looked at them with a long nose, and short chin. Most of his hair had fled,

the rest turning snow white. He frowned at them with caterpillar eyebrows.

“I don’t think I know you,” he said. He blocked the door so they would have to knock

him down to step inside.

“We’re here about the trees, sir,” said Josie. “The project has been destroyed by

sabotage.”

“That’s impossible,” said the old man. “I set up everything myself. What destroyed

them? There were five sites, an orchard, and the main source at the headquarters of

the Army.”

“There is a source at Headquarters,” said Josie. “That is good to know.”

“And it is on our list of places we have to visit,” said Fass. “We might as well visit

it next before we talk to our new friend’s benefactors.”

“You’re not the Army,” complained the old man. He tried to shut the door in their

faces.

Josie kicked him in the shin, and then pushed him out of the way so she could step

inside. She looked around but didn’t see a bodyguard.

“We’re interested in the plants,” said Josie. “The Robby Reed Appreciation Society

believes they are a danger to the continent, and asked me to look into things. My

associate is here to help me with various things.”

Fass helped the old man to a chair and let him sit down.

“I have never heard of this Society,” said the old man.

“I doubt many have,” said Josie. “They prefer to only let their agents know what their

interest is and task us with handling that interest. And our interest is in the destroyed

facilities and the goblin tree orchard. We think the chance of wiping out all life on the

continent to be a little high.”

“Nonsense,” said the old man. “I told the Army people that they must never build

more than one at a time and only use the subject for assassinations.”

“That’s what you told them?,” Fass asked. He stood back with his arms crossed. His

eyes roamed the one room building. Shelves for books and plants were everywhere.

A table with two chairs took up what could be the cooking area. The hearth took up

one part of the wall there.

“Yes,” he said. “I laid everything out for them. The grand marshal has the plan, and

knows the limits.”

“I’m afraid that the grand marshal built a facility to load dozens of seeds into women

he stole from across the continent,” said Josie. She looked around. No chairs for

visitors. “That is what led us to you. What was the actual plan?”

“I reported that I had found a rare tree during one of my explorations,” said the old

man. “I took a few seeds and a cutting. I worked on them but the only thing they

would take was blood. As soon as I procured a supply, my first tree sprouted and

grew up into a small bush. I worked on it until I had a regular looking tree. One of my

assistants breathed in the seeds and became violent. It took everything I had to put her

down. I turned over all my research to the local commissioner. The grand marshal and

members of his staff arrived and asked me a number of technical questions about

everything. I outlined everything to him and told him that more than one of the things

would be dangerous since my assistant didn’t seem to feel pain when she attacked me

and I fought her off.”

“Apparently the grand marshal didn’t listen to your words of caution,” said Josie. “I

expect they will come back to you to replace their trees. I am going to need to know

where your example tree is, and where the original stands. They are going to have to

be destroyed.”

“I’m not going to tell you that,” said the old man. “I might be able to do more with

it with enough time.”

“We’re not here to give you enough time to do anything like that,” said Josie. “We’re

here to shut everything down, destroy any tree out there, and talk to the grand marshal

about his plan of using manufactured monsters made from women and girls to

spearhead an invasion. Your project is over. The only thing left is how much you

have to pay for what you did.”

“I did nothing,” said the old man. He frowned at her, thick eyebrows coming down.

“I told him the risks of using the tree as a source for soldiers.”

“It would have been better if you had kept everything to yourself,” said Josie. “Now

I have a mess to clean up and people to deal with unpleasantly.”

The old man jumped up from his chair, blade in hand. He stabbed at Josie. She

knocked his arm away and kicked him in the shins. He collapsed on his knees, knife

falling to the floor.

“You had a chance for mercy, maybe working with plants in some other way,” said

Josie. “What do you think would have happened if you had succeeded in stabbing

me? Fass would have cut you down in a second.”

“You can’t take my plants,” said the old man. “They are all I have.”

“I think you need to see what your actions may have done,” said Josie. “Then you can

tell me what is more important.”

Josie kicked the knife away. She reached for her watch and dialed through the names.

She wondered if this was the right choice. She frowned. If it wasn’t, she would have

to move on to the next persona to suit her purpose.

She took on a figure that looked made of clocks. The hands moved, and the gears

turned. She nodded at the persona.

“I will be right back, Eric,” said Josie. “The goblin tree could be hidden nearby. I will

have to send out a bird to look for it after I take our gardener for a ride.”

Josie extended her new persona out. She and the old man stood in place as the cabin

fell apart around them. At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Then lines of forces

met each other several times. One was regular soldiers wielding fire in bottles and

axes. The other was naked men and women covered by cuts and marks. The unarmed

combatants almost pushed the professional soldiers off the field as they resisted the

effects of wounds, and fought through fires lit on their skin.

“I don’t understand,” said the old man. He looked around at the devastation as the

fires burned around them.

“You caused this,” said Josie. “You created the walking dead. You gave your plan to

someone who didn’t understand the danger of what he was using. Everything got out

of control because no one stopped it in time. Now twenty years in the future, the site

of your cabin is a battlefield as the normal humans try to push the monsters back.”

“This has nothing to do with me,” said the old man.

“You are the root cause of this,” said Josie. “If I went back and killed you before you

made your deal, I would force the future away from this but I don’t know what kind

of future it would be. I might lose something important fixing your mistake. Instead

I think you should fix this future if you can.”

“What do you mean?,” said the old man.

“I am going to give you a gift,” said Josie. She vanished, leaving him on the field. She

returned a second later with a ring. “This will help you until the world is safe again.”

Josie vanished after dropping the ring on the ground. She appeared in the cabin and

let the persona go.

“What did you do?,” asked Fass.

“I left him to take care of some people,” said Josie. “It might improve on his

empathy.”

“He’s alive?,” said Fass.

“Yes,” said Josie. “He might even be able to come back here if he figures out how to

make my gift to him work better than it normally does.”

“You gave him a gift?,” said Fass.

“I gave him a duplicate ring that he could use to help out the people around him,” said

Josie. “We’ll see if he changes his mind about how well his plan worked out for him.”

“All right,” said Fass. “Do you really think he counseled the grand marshal to only

use one of the Goblin Tree women as his assassin?”

“Yes,” said Josie. “But I don’t think he gave everything to the Army. A guy like him

would have held something back for his personal use.”

“He would have copied his notes and handed over the copies,” said Fass. He turned

to look around the cabin.

“He would have kept the original tree, or his newer tree,” said Josie. “He knew what

he was doing, but he didn’t think about what would happen if things got out of

control.