The sudden light made Rowan jerk and wake up.

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty,” Grace patted his cheek. “You slept with this on?” she waved the sleeping mask she pulled off from him a moment earlier.

“You said to keep it on until you say to take it off.”

What was up with her? First, she scolds me for not following her instructions and then, she’s upset I obey them?

“So… how was last night, did you like it?”

“Oh, yeah, baby!” Rowan felt suddenly energized, trying to grip her wrist, but getting a mild slap on his hand instead.

“Tell me, did you like it?”

“Of course, what kind of question is this? You were… so energetic… I felt like…” For a moment he considered saying: Like I was hit by a truck, only in a nice way, but changed his mind. “Well, it was intense.”

“Do you like it more like usual, or the new… technique?”

What technique? There was no technique, it felt so raw and primal…

“I don’t know… I like both. I suppose it’ll depend on the mood. Like for a good drink. I love Bourbon and rye, but sometimes a raw Islay is just what you need, right?

Gretchen’s Question has been activated.

“H-haha h-ha… I-Isla…? What ab- about I-Isla?…” Grace blurted a forced laugh and stuttered.

Oh, I get it. She’s worried I’m fantasizing about Isla during our love-making sessions.

“Islay, not Isla. They make famous whiskies.”

“Shower, dress up, and come downstairs. The beast wants to talk to you.”

Throwing the blindfold in his face, Grace snorted and left the room. He took a little more time to shower, feeling sour after the previous day and night, noticing his muscles were perfectly defined. Not ginormous, like for a bodybuilder, but looking somehow… he couldn’t find a word. How he looked made sense, it reflected on the outside how Rowan felt on the inside. More assertive.

Arriving in the open space, he hugged Lizzie and smiled at Grace. His wife had also changed, he realized. Gone were the tired eyes and she had more muscle and a straighter posture.

“Morning, Isla, Dmitri,” he saluted, serving himself a portion of pancakes.

“Morning,” Isla mumbled, looking into her coffee.

“She came early to say hi before her shift,” Grace offered unrequited information, as Isla was coming and going into their home as she pleased.

“So, where’s Cora?”

“Coming!” the Nekojin yelled, descending the stairs two by two. “Sorry, I had to check my suit. It’s fully recharged, thank goodness.”

“Grace told me you want to talk.”

“Yes. Take a look at what my drone discovered.” With a brief gesture, Cora summoned a map overlapping the table. “There’s a large force north of our County, an Awakened faction we’re not aware of. About one hundred large mecha suits, various support vehicles, and a couple hundred Classed. They passed Parsons an hour ago, then stopped. Other groups are joining, coming from several directions. Military, about two thousand troops, with tanks and rocket launchers.”

“The government?”

“I guess so.”

“How can you tell they’re Awakened?” Grace leaned over the table, pointing at the first formation.

“Because they are split into groups of four people.” Cora zoomed in to show them what was she talking about. “Parties. A Tank, a Healer, and two DPS, melee and ranged. Standard stuff. Not the best choice, which is six, to have redundancy, but they have numbers on their side. Logic eliminates the known factions. Rome is on our side, Vladivostok is busy taking over Russia, the two polities in Korea and Japan, Donghae, and Hagi have a beef with each other, and none could field these kinds of numbers. That leaves the sixth active Town Core that I detected but was unable to pinpoint its location yet. It must be in the US too.”

“I feel worried,” Grace said. “My premonition says incoming danger, but not impending.”

Strategic Sixth Sense activated. There is more danger that can be seen at first sight.

“It will become impending soon. If they’re coming, they have a way to break in. What if once inside, they launch nukes? Core, can our shield absorb nukes from the inside? Show your answer only to the adults,” Rowan added. There was no point in worrying Lizzie, who was sitting on the couch, coloring in a book.

“To some extent,” Cora started, then the Core intervened over her.

[Randolph County Call Center]: If I'd be level 100, I could detect and disable mass destruction weapons. The System can do it at any moment, but if it chooses to allow the attack, it means it won't intervene. In these conditions, I can lower the forcefield’s height to two hundred feet, above the ground, absorbing most of the energy. A secondary forcefield can be raised above Elkins City. The latter can absorb any number of nuclear explosions, but the outer county will suffer major damage after a few strikes, depending on the yield.

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Rowan grabbed his chin, beginning to walk back and forth.

“How much time do you need to attune somebody for a Rezz?”

[Randolph County Call Center]: ATM, I can execute that task in one hour and ten minutes.

“Call Bree, inquire if she made her choice, and if she decided to join us, start attuning her and her children, and tell her to come here. We’ll travel together. She’s stronger than any of our fighters, except I and Isla,” he told the others.

“My rockets beg you to differ,” Cora snorted.

“Melee fighter, I mean. Grace, could you contact Rome, and ask them to send reinforcements? Classed or normal military, doesn’t matter. Isla, please arrange for transportation, a car or two big enough to fit us in. We’re going up there. We’ll talk details and plans on the way.”

“But you promised to teach me how to ride a bicycle!” Lizzie’s voice interrupted Rowan’s feverish plans. “I don’t have school today.”

“Sweetie, Daddy has important business to take care of,” Grace said.

“What about we have a half an hour lesson?” Rowan proposed.

“Go, I’ll take care of organizing things,” Cora said.

“I’ll help her,” Isla added.

“Come, sweetie. I’ll make you a freestyler in no time,” Rowan said, taking Lizzie in his arms.

“Don’t you even think about it,” Grace yelled as the two left the room.

----------------------------------------

Two hours later, they watched the wannabe besiegers from just a hundred feet away. On the other side of the Border, groups of Engineers busied putting together a twenty-foot-tall contraption, which was supposed to make a breach in the barrier. Contrasting with the mild autumn weather inside, it was winter out there, a blizzard blowing at full strength.

“Hello!” Thomas waved his hand. There was no answer.

“They don’t see us,” Cora said. “The Core projects a false image on the outside, showing an empty road. That’s the beauty of a multitasking forcefield.”

“They’re quite squeezed together,” Isla said. “If we—”

“They have people on those heights, securing the sides and the back” Rowan pointed to a forested hill. “They’re not stupid.”

“I have brought good people with me. We take them out.” Leading the reinforcements from Rome, Carla looked eager for a fight. A few hundred yards in the back, a large column of Carabinieri was deploying on their hills, carrying mortars and mountain guns.

“Let them open the gate, allow some to pass, and we hit them hard while the rest are on the other side,” Grace said. “My Tactical Planning tingles positively thinking of it.”

[Rowan to Grace]: Looking forward to tingle your Tactical Planning tonight.

[Grace to Rowan]: Men! Life or death situation, and all can they think about is sex!

[Rowan to Grace]: Love, not sex.

“Cora, tell me, if we destroy that thing, how hard will be for them to make another?” Rowan asked.

“Not hard. See the trucks out there? Portable Shields and Rezz tanks, and I bet parts for barrier breakers. Primitive, but functional. They’ll move forward a shield and work from cover.”

“I see…” Rowan nodded. The enemy's strengths began to roll in his head. Classed outnumbering them four to one, mechanized robotic weapons, well-trained US soldiers with good weaponry. The County’s assets were the terrain advantage, superior numbers in normal fighters, both from the county and Italy, plus Rowan and his friends. Their weaknesses were the fewer Classed and the unaffordable price of the county being nuked. That had to be avoided at all costs.

He inspected the enemy with a binocular. A hundred yards down the road were a group of people and vehicles, protected by a forcefield. Military and Classed, standing at the ready, guarding a smaller group, half wearing uniforms and half some sort of weird hazmat suits. Trucks were parked behind them, the Rezz tanks, giant translucent globes, four of each on each of the four trailers carrying them.

“Cora?”

“Yes, Rowan.”

“Give me the Sensor.”

“What? Why?”

His furrowed brows made her stop asking questions. She extracted the eerie sparkplug and offered it to him. Then, he made a call, which got through at the third ringtone.

“Viscardi?”

“Rowan?”

“I’ll send you an email with the Sensor you gave us in the attachment. I’m besieged by some punks and the US military. If they win, you keep it. If I win, you send it back and help me search for cores. We need to move faster. Pick your best people and I’ll take them on my team.”

“Do you want me to send you reinforcements?” Viscardi asked. “If you need a hand, I help.”

“Things will be decided long before they arrive. I just wanted to make sure the device is safe, that’s all. Email sent. See ya later… I hope.”

Cora was looking at him with a cute befuddled face, and Rowan patted her hair, an instinctive gesture he regretted immediately, as she began purring.

“Thomas?”

“AYE!” the boy roared, saluting with what he imagined was a military salute.

“This is not the average bring your kid to work, so I need you to leave your mom be. She and I will make a sortie. I want you to stay on this side of the border at all times to protect Carla and the Italian officers. They’re our best shot if the sortie fails. Understood?”

“OK,” the boy shrugged.

Core, I want you to open passages each time one of our people tries to get through the barrier.

[Randolph County Call Center]: Understood.

“Bree, Isla, Cora, with me.” Walking back to their vehicle, a 4x4 Hummer, he searched for their eyes. “We’re going to attack their command and the Rezz pods. After we take those out, hit the shield generators.

“They already have a shield up. How are you going to pass through that?” Isla asked.

“I have an ability that allows me to travel between dimensions. It holds for thirty seconds, but unfortunately, I have only a single stack available today. I don’t expect us to survive, but we’ll be Rezzed back in town.”

“Will it work?” Bree asked, her eyes showing the fear of losing again what she had lost.

“The Rezz is guaranteed,” Cora said. “Your Mana and Physical Bodies have been painstakingly attuned to a pocket dimension inside our Town Core’s Inner Sanctum. The chance to be resurrected is over the Quantum certitude threshold. It means the System itself will make it happen. Only exceptional circumstances or environments can prevent a Rezz, and this is not one.”

“Excuse her nerdish. Short version: yes, it will work. I wouldn’t ask this from you if I had somebody with half your grit, but I don’t. Now, let’s go. We’ll take the car.”

“I want to come.” Grace had followed him.

“No. I’m appointing you and Carla as my second-in-command. If they break through, do your plan, but also send some commandoes outside, to harass their flanks.”

“But I can snipe—”

“Can you just do what I’m asking, please,” he snapped. “It’s not because I fear for you, or doubt you. It’s because I respect your abilities. You’re the best tactical leader on this side. If I could send someone else in my place, I’d do it, because strategy matters too, but it is what it is.”

“Very well,” Grace fondled his shoulder. “But because you yelled at me, tonight you’ll wear that sleep mask again.”

“But I didn’t yell!” Rowan fussed.

“See? Yelled again. Make it all week,” she waved her hand as she walked away.

“Cora, can you tear off the doors? I need us to be able to jump out of the car.”

“Why tear?” Cora produced an extensible screwdriver and in seconds, the doors were properly disassembled and orderly piled on the margin of the road.

“Good job, that will make some car parts dealers happy. Everybody get inside, Cora, put on your suit and get up on the roof. When I say go, jump out of the car and start bashing things.”

“I’ll take the front seat, I’m car sick,” Isla hurried to occupy the chair.

“For fuck’s sake, take off your seat belt. That’s the last thing you need.”

[Rowan to all]: We’re going for a sortie. Everybody clears the road. Carla, coordinate further actions with Grace.