“I don’t think we have anything we can use,” said Hadron. He looked around the

forward base. “All I see are screens and computers.”

“We can break a couple monitors open for parts,” said Cho. “The main problem is we

don’t have any storage if that storm is caused by turbulence.”

“We might have a problem,” said Ishmael. He checked the reports coming in from the

small radar he had set up to monitor the dust cloud outside his tent headquarters. “The

storm is coming our way.”

“How fast?,” asked Marty. He had a dragon he could call up, but he doubted he could

carry everyone to safety.

“A few meters per second,” said Ishmael. “It will hit the tents before we can get the

heli into the air.”

“Get cover,” said Marty. “Under desks.”

He went to the door of the tent. He waved the soldiers inside. He didn’t know how

many were out there, but he didn’t want them to be flayed alive in the face of what

they were facing. He looked for any stragglers before closing the tent flap and zipping

it tight.

“The wind is going to hit the tents and try to bury us,” said Marty. He started pushing

one of the tables towards the others. “We need a temporary cover to let the sand flow

over us without killing us.”

“Turn some of the desks up,” said Ishmael. “Use the gear as a brace. We will have to

dig in to avoid the brunt.”

In a few minutes, the group had built a shelter with desks and tables as shields. The

desktops and monitors were placed to block the anticipated wind, but it was a better

than even chance they would fly away on impact. A hound appeared to dig into the

ground so sand was piled around them while they were in a pit under the tables.

The tent flew away, pulling the tent poles with it. Sand blasted their cover. Some of

the furniture started to shift to fall on top of them. A small gorilla caught the desks

and held them in place the few minutes they needed.

The wind retreated from their position. Marty waited at the bottom of the pit for the

all clear before he thought about exposing his head.

“Is everyone all right?,” asked Ishmael.

A chorus told him that most of the group had come through the attack unscathed. He

just needed to fight clear of the pit and figure out the next move. And now that he

knew something intelligent was behind things, he could use that to get cooperation

from the other parts of his government to do some thing about things.

Marty got to his feet, shaking off the sand that had covered him. He looked around

at the damage of the destroyed base. Everything light hit by the wind had been thrown

for yards. The makeshift cover from the furniture had saved their lives.

“Where’s Ren?,” he asked. A visual search said his friend was not half-buried with

them.

“I don’t see him,” said Ishmael. “Could he be buried?”

“The wind took him,” said Hadron. He shook the sand out of his hair. “We’re going

to have to go in there and get him back.”

“Into the storm?,” said the bureaucrat. He looked at the whirling wind at the edge of

their camp.

“Yeah,” said Hadron. “We need access to your shop, Ishmael. Then we’re going to

try to solve your problem.”

“The vehicles look down,” said Ishmael. He started out of the pit. “We’re going to

need fast transport.”

“I got that covered,” said Marty. “What are we doing?”

“Harry and I are going to put together lamps so we can cut our way through that

cloud,” said Hadron. “Then we’re going to see what’s behind this, and where your

friend went.”

“You think there is something intelligent behind this?,” asked Ishmael.

“I would be surprised if there isn’t,” said Hadron. “We won’t know what’s going on

unless we go in and look for ourselves.”

“I’m for that,” said Marty. “I don’t want to explain to Corona how I lost her

husband.”

“So let’s do the plan,” said Hadron. “The first step is to let Milton and Dyson know

that we have some kind of thing behind this. Then we get back to the workshop to get

some kind of gear together. Then we come back and disperse this.”

“All right,” said Marty. “You’re going to have to hang on tight.”

“We‘re ready,” said Cho. “Let’s get this over with. I told you things would get bad

but I didn’t think it would start this soon.”

“Something changed,” said Hadron. “Maybe whatever is behind this sensed Ren and

took him because he was a threat.”

“He is kind of a magician like Scry,” said Marty. “That might be why he was

targeted.”

“All right,” said Hadron. “That makes sense. So the cloud either needs magicians to

work, or there is a magician inside of it that doesn’t like rivals. That means we have

something we can deal with once we’re properly armed. Let’s get started.”

Marty raised his hand and a dragon expanded out of the air. It looked down on the

group with yellow eyes. A flap of its emerald wings sent sand into the air.

“That’s impressive,” said Ishmael.

“I’ve been working on Daisy for a while,” said Marty. “Climb aboard.”

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Ishmael gave orders for the soldiers to leave everything and fall back. No one else

needed to be hurt if the cloud decided to rip into them. They could salvage their gear

and vehicles later after everything was dealt with by the Lamplighters.

“Next stop is Tel Aviv,” said Marty. Daisy lifted him up so he could perch on her

head. “You’re going to have to give me directions when we get closer.”

“It’s not in the city proper,” said Ishmael. “The ministry didn’t want me to work on

my things where something could go wrong and blow down a city block.”

“That’s some foresight,” said Cho. He smiled as he clutched his hat to his head. Daisy

had allowed him and Hadron to climb on her shoulders. “How are you doing this?”

“I don’t know,” said Marty. “I’m going to say practice. I used to only be able to

summon small animals, then I worked up to bigger animals, then imaginary animals.”

“Could be tapping the turbulence somehow,” said Hadron. “Internal wants, external

energy.”

“As long as it does what I want it to do,” said Marty. “It doesn’t matter how it works.”

“It could kill you,” said Hadron.

“That will make my wife very mad,” said Marty. “Let’s go, Daisy. Up, up and away.”

The dragon flapped its wings and leaped into the air. Within moments, they were high

in the air with the passengers clinging on tight. Marty smiled as he rode on the head

of the beast.

“This is a lot more exciting than what I usually do,” said Ishmael.

“Another day at the office for us,” said Cho. He smiled at the Israeli.

“The cloud expanded,” said Hadron. “That’s why it took Ren.”

“Corona won’t like that,” said Marty. “I have to start bringing everybody to these

things. I didn’t think the cloud would be magic.”

“We’ll get him back,” said Hadron. “It’s the only way to shrink the cloud, and that’s

what we need to do.”

The dragon soared through the sky. Ishmael called ahead to prevent problems. There

were some vigilantes operating in Israel, and they were wanted, so cutting through

the confusion so they could get to his workshop without having to deal with the Air

Force seemed the best way.

“Land next to the gray building on the right,” said Ishmael. He pointed at the clear

space below.

The dragon descended, gliding in a circle to cut speed. It thumped down and folded

its wings. Hadron and Cho staggered away from the landing. Ishmael slid down the

side of the beast and jogged toward a warehouse across from the gray building he had

used as a landmark.

“Good job, Daisy,” said Marty. “Hold on because we have to fly back.”

The dragon nodded. It settled down in a circle to wait for its passengers to return.

Marty climbed down and followed the others to the brick building. Ishmael let them

in with a swipe of his identification, and the press of his thumb.

“You said you have electronics here?,” asked Hadron.

“I have a general collection downstairs,” said Ishmael. “I don’t always know exactly

what I might need, so I keep a lot of general parts for building something mission

particular.”

“All right,” said Hadron. “Let’s get to work, Harry. We might not be able to build full

lamps, but we should be able to get some rifles out of this.”

“Got you,” said Cho. He pushed his hat back. “Let’s see what we got to play with

here.”

The two of them searched the shelves, bringing the parts they needed to a work table.

It took them minutes to put together a pair of rifles made from calculators, tubing, and

wiring. They hooked the rifles to boxes that should work the same as their lamps but

they wouldn’t be able to measure things while they were going about their business.

Hadron hooked his sensor to the rifle he planned to use so he had an idea of what

spirit needed to be extinguished first.

“Don’t try to use these once we’re done,” Hadron told Levram. “Throw them in the

ocean, or bury them somewhere you know people won’t dig them up.”

“Dangerous?,” asked Levram.

“If I said you could lose the city, would that be the best explanation?,” asked Hadron.

“I see,” said Ishmael. “And we’re going to be using these?”

“Harry and I are going to try to cut a path,” said Hadron. He nodded at his partner.

“Marty is going to come in after us to make sure we don’t get killed by whatever is

there. If we can get Ren back, that will shrink the cloud. I am sure of that.”

“That will make Corona happy,” said Marty.

“The source?,” asked Levram.

“Either we destroy it, or we find out enough to destroy it on a second try after we can

get Milt and Dyson here with better equipment,” said Hadron. “We’re going to have

to lance this before it gets big enough to wreck the entire region.”

“I will write you a check when this is over,” said Ishmael. “This expertise is what I

needed to get things done.”

“All right,” said Hadron. “We have to get back to the cloud and see what we can do.”

“I have to call Barry and let him know what’s going on,” said Marty.

“We have to call Janie so she can get the guys to get ready,” said Harry.

“I have two phones we can use,” said Levram. “I mainly use them to request

supplies.”

“Do you have pictures of the area before the cloud materialized?,” asked Hadron. “I

would like to look at those while the guys are leaving their messages.”

“I have some I requested from the American intelligence agencies,” said Ishmael. “I

asked for them when I saw the radar readings.”

Levram retrieved the pictures from a file cabinet on the other side of the room. The

murmur of Harry and Morgan talking on the phone drifted to Hadron but he was

already thinking about other things.

The Lamplighter went over the pictures with a glass from the desk. He frowned at

what he saw. He checked each picture, laying them next to each other. He frowned

as he straightened.

“The guys are getting ready,” said Harry. “It will be hours before they can get here.”

“I asked Barry to pick them up,” said Marty. “He was going to need to refuel before

he could cross the Atlantic, so I asked him to get your guys too.”

“I will tell Airport Security to pass them when they arrive,” said Ishmael.

“This is a manmade thing,” said Hadron. “So when we go in, we have to look for

Ren, and the guy behind this.”

“Are you sure?,” asked Ishmael.

“There was a guy almost center of where the cloud would be,” said Hadron. “He

didn’t leave according to these photos.”

“So he caused this cloud with a power?,” asked Marty.

“Or he took advantage of the nearby turbulence to boost himself up,” said Hadron.

“Whichever one it is, we’re going to have to take him if he tries to stop us from

getting Ren back.”

“I better arm myself,” said Ishmael. “Are you sure we can handle this without the

others?”

“We don’t have to fight it out,” said Hadron. “We just have to complicate his plan

enough so he can’t get it done before the others get here. Then we can try for a full

push on him and clear him out of wherever he hid in the sandstorm.”

“Corona and Barry will be here,” said Marty. “That will increase our firepower.”

“I have a feeling that it is essential that we get Ren back before we do anything else,”

said Hadron. “If Ren can be used to expand the effect of the cloud, it will eventually

reach parts of the country essential to life.”

“Which will reduce the greener lands to more desert,” said Ishmael.

“At the very least,” said Harry. “We are talking about what happens when a giant belt

sander meets human beings without protection.”

“Let’s go,” said Marty. “Daisy can get us back. Then we can do what we have to do

to stop this.”

“And after that, you’re going to have to get rid of this makeshift equipment in such

a way it doesn’t hurt anybody when it blows up,” said Hadron.

“You have my word,” said Levram. He held up a hand.

“Let’s see what we can do,” said Hadron. “At least we’re here ahead of whatever

disaster might have resulted if we weren’t here.”

Marty led them back to where Daisy waited. The dragon perked up and lifted her

upper body, spreading her wings and giving them a testing flap to ready for flight.

“We’re going back to where we were so we can stop the cloud,” said Marty. He patted

Daisy on the head.

The humans climbed aboard so their living aircraft could take flight.