Cloak & Ghost: Lost Gate Read online

  CLOAK & GHOST: LOST GATE

  Jonathan Moeller

  ***

  Description

  Most of the world knows Caina Amalas as the director of private security contractor Ghost Securities. In truth, she's a shadow agent of the High Queen of the Elves.

  But while the Elves rule the Earth, there are still many wealthy and powerful humans...and Andromache Kardamnos is one of the richest and most cunning. When she needs a favor, it's hard to say no.

  But Andromache's favor involves stopping a nightmare creature from the Shadowlands.

  And to stop the creature, Caina will need the help of one of the most dangerous and unpredictable wizards she's ever met - her fellow shadow agent Nadia Moran...

  ***

  Cloak & Ghost: Lost Gate

  Copyright 2018 by Jonathan Moeller.

  Smashwords Edition.

  Cover images copyright © Brett Critchley | Dreamstime.com & RF License : STANDARD | Print & Web | Unlimited Digital Impressions, up to 250,000 Prints neostock-s010-liepa-medieval-assassin-57 - Original file (2174x4972 pixels) & RF License : STANDARD | Print & Web | Unlimited Digital Impressions, up to 250,000 Prints neostock-s002-catarina-tactical-assassin-014 - Original file (2376x5459 pixels).

  Ebook edition published October 2018.

  All Rights Reserved.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author or publisher, except where permitted by law.

  ***

  Author’s Note

  Over the last few years, people have asked me to write a crossover where Nadia Moran meets Caina Amalas.

  I’ve always resisted doing it because I’ve never really cared for crossovers. Also, I couldn’t figure out a way to write a crossover book that would make sense. Like, does Caina fall through a magic portal or a wormhole or something and land in Nadia’s world? A setup like that always seems contrived and forced.

  Then I thought about Sherlock Holmes.

  The original Holmes stories were set in the 1880s and the 1890s of London (with occasional jaunts into the British countryside), but other writers since have set Holmes stories at different times and places. The Basil Rathbone movies about Holmes, for instance, were set in the 1940s. Recently the BBC made a series about a tech-savvy Sherlock Holmes who lived in 21st century London and dealt with modern crimes like cyber heists and terrorism. There’s a version of Sherlock Holmes who solves mysteries in the 22nd century, and another who has battled the cosmic monsters of HP Lovecraft’s mythos.

  Thinking along those lines, what if Caina was born and grew up and lived in Nadia’s world? What if Nadia met a version of Caina who lived on Earth?

  What would happen when the two of them met?

  We found out in CLOAK & GHOST: BLOOD RING, so it's time for the sequel - CLOAK & GHOST: LOST GATE.

  Enjoy!

  ***

  Chapter 1: An Expensive Party

  Caina had to go to New Robotics Corporation’s executive party, but she made sure to bring two outfits.

  The first outfit was for the party itself. It was hard to go wrong with a classic black dress, and Caina chose a sleeveless one with a tight skirt and an appropriate neckline. She accessorized it with stiletto heels, a silver necklace, and earrings…and also with colored contact lenses, a blond wig, and just enough makeup to alter the lines of her face.

  There was no point in letting anyone at New Robotics Corporation know who she really was, after all.

  Her second outfit she hid within the corporation’s facility. Caina would need it for the real reason she had come to the party.

  For the mission the High Queen of the Elves had given her.

  She arrived at NRC’s facility at 8:00 PM on the night of September 17th, Conquest Year 316 (or 2329 AD according to the old pre-Conquest calendar). NRC had a prestigious office in midtown Manhattan, but the company’s manufacturing facilities needed far more space than could be found in New York City, and so they had built their main factory in northern New Jersey. Caina’s cab drove through the gate in the chain-link fence surrounding the facility, across acres of parking lot, and to the front doors of the sprawling factory. Already hundreds of cars were parked in the lot, and the front doors to the factory’s seven-story office building were illuminated. Uniformed valets stood ready to take their guests’ cars to their assigned spots, and a crowd of men and women in evening wear milled in front of the doors, chatting as they moved into the building.

  They seemed in a good mood. Of course, the guests had reason to celebrate. Things were changing in Conquest Year 316. After the total defeat of the Archons in the Mage Fall and the celebration of the Day of Return, a rumor had begun that the High Queen was going to relax some of the centuries-old restrictions on robotics technology and research. New Robotics Corporation’s stock had soared on the news, and the shareholders of the company had made a tidy amount of money. As it happened, Caina knew that the rumor was accurate, and NRC was about to get a huge order for automated tractors to help with the rebuilding of the Elven homeworld of Kalvarion.

  But the High Queen never really trusted anyone.

  Which, of course, was why Caina was here.

  She paid the driver the rather exorbitant fare for driving her from Manhattan to northern New Jersey, and then got out of the cab. The air felt hot and damp against the skin of her calves and arms. September was over halfway gone, yet summer still held on. Caina didn’t mind. She much preferred the heat to the cold, though she had spent most of her life in places that had harsh winters. Maybe one day she could move to Arizona or New Mexico or perhaps Texas. The dry heat would please her.

  Caina put the thought from her mind and joined the crowd heading for the doors. Two men in dark suits stood watch there, scanning the official invitations with their phones and waving guests inside. An event like this would have many wealthy men and women and a few of the local Elven nobles, so security was tight. The private security had not been hired from Ghost Securities, which was just as well.

  Given that Caina needed to rob the place, she didn’t want to cast any doubts on the competence of her company.

  “Ma’am?” said one of the guards at the door, a solid-looking middle-aged man in a suit. “I’ll need to see your ID and invitation.”

  “Of course,” said Caina, making no effort to disguise her native English accent. Which worked, because her ID identified her as Clara Tyler of London. Caina had donned brown contact lenses and a blond wig to match the picture on the ID card, though the wig made her scalp itch damnably. As it happened, there really was a Clara Tyler who lived in London and worked as a researcher for a robotics company there, though she was twice Caina’s age. NRC had invited some of its competitors to the party, and so it was perfectly logical that Clara Tyler would arrive to size up a business rival.

  At least, Caina hoped so.

  She reached into her purse and drew out both her invitation and her forged ID. Invitations to high-end events like this were often authenticated, with a holographic seal containing a unique identifier number. The guard scanned the seal on her invitation with his phone. Caina waited, her expression calm as she kept the trepidation from her face. Nerina Strake had forged the document for her and inserted its record into NRC’s database. If Nerina had made a mistake…

  The guard checked her ID, nodded, and passed both the invitation and the ID card back to her.

&nbs
p; “Welcome to NRC, Miss Tyler,” said the guard. “You can go right inside.”

  Nerina was very good at her job.

  “Thank you,” said Caina, and she joined the crowd heading into the NRC building.

  The lobby was large and starkly industrial, though the corporation had done its best to make it look like a venue for a sleek party, with subdued lighting, quiet classical music in the background, and servers carrying trays of food and drink. People in formal clothes stood in groups, talking and laughing. The biggest clump of people stood around some Elven nobles who had come to attend. Caina spotted Baron Thronaris of Queens and Baron Valdymir of Princeton among them. She had actually met them both Elven lords several times and kept away from the cluster of people around them and their entourages. Getting recognized right now would be disastrous.

  She circled through the crowd, her eyes picking out details. Two flights of stairs led to the higher levels of the building, one on the left and one on the right, with a pair of elevators on the left. At the far end of the lobby was a receptionists’ desk, currently serving as a station for the waiters, and beyond that a pair of double glass doors that led into the factory proper. Through the glass doors, Caina glimpsed a cavernous space illuminated with arc lights, rows of machines standing like a miniature city.

  “Attention everyone!” called a man in a suit standing near the glass doors. “Everyone, if I could have your attention, please! The first tour of our new production line will begin in five minutes. If you could gather here, the tour will begin in five minutes.”

  Caina took a step towards the crowd gathering near the glass door, and then stopped, feigning confusion.

  “Pardon,” she said to one of the passing servers, a young woman in a black catering uniform. “I’m dreadfully sorry, but could you direct me to the lavatory before the tour begins?”

  “Of course,” said the young woman, pointing at one of the wooden doors next to the elevator. “It’s right over there.”

  “Thanks ever so much,” said Caina, and she hurried towards the bathroom.

  The women’s restroom was large, with twelve stalls facing a counter and a row of sinks. Both NRC’s office personnel and the factory workers used this restroom, and Caina’s preliminary research for this job had discovered that the office personnel and the factory workers frequently butted heads over who got to use which restroom during breaks, a problem that management so far had been unable to resolve. Well, if the High Queen really was going to relax the ban on robotics research, that would be just one of many challenges NRC was going to face in the coming years.

  Assuming the High Queen did not shut down the company, of course. But Caina supposed that depended on how her job here turned out.

  She walked to a far wall, where an opaque window of safety glass looked towards the factory complex. Caina undid the latch and then slipped into the stall closest to the wall. She climbed onto the toilet tank, taking care to keep her balance, reached up, and pushed aside one of the ceiling tiles.

  The duffel bag rested where she had hidden it this morning, and Caina pulled the heavy black cylinder into the stall with her.

  Everything she needed was in the bag, and she changed in haste. She stripped out of her dress and shoes, and instead donned black cargo pants, a long-sleeved black shirt, and a tactical harness and a utility belt that held the tools she needed. An earpiece went into her ear, linked to the radio unit on her belt. A balaclava went over her face, and over it, she donned a set of electronic low-light goggles, currently deactivated. Gloves and black running shoes completed her outfit, and Caina stuffed her high-heeled shoes and dress into the duffel bag, slinging it over her shoulders like a backpack and adjusting the straps until they were snug.

  She felt a little bad about stuffing the dress into the bag. It was a nice dress. Still, at least the dry cleaning was technically a business expense.

  Her right glove went easily over the heavy gold ring with the blood-colored stone on her third finger. But, then, that didn’t surprise her. Part of the ring’s magic was to keep itself concealed, and only someone who wore an identical ring could see it.

  The High Queen thought it less troublesome when her shadow agents could recognize each other on sight.

  Caina eased the stall door open and took a quick look around. This would be the tricky part. Well, one of the tricky parts. The bathroom was one of the few areas in the NRC complex not covered by security cameras since voyeurism was a crime that resulted in the perpetrator ending up in a Punishment Day video. That did nothing about witnesses, but for the moment, the restroom was clear.

  In three long strides, Caina covered the distance from the stall to the window. She flipped it open, rolled outside and into the night, and let the window swing closed behind her. It took all of four seconds, and then it was like she had never been there.

  And she was inside NRC’s main security cordon.

  Caina looked around. On the other side of the office building, she heard the murmur of conversation as the rest of the guests arrived. To her right was the parking lot and the outer chain link fence, topped with barbed wire. To her left was the factory facility, rising over her like a series of concrete and metal rectangles.

  She flipped a switch on her belt radio and then tapped the button on the side of her goggles. Her vision shifted, and suddenly she saw everything in shades of eerie green.

  Her earpiece crackled.

  “Nerina?” whispered Caina.

  “I’m here,” came the somewhat distracted voice of Nerina Strake, the foremost cybersecurity expert of Ghost Securities. The flip side of that, of course, was that Nerina was quite familiar with every form of cybercrime known to both humans and Elves. “You made contact six hundred and thirty-eight seconds sooner than anticipated.”

  “I’m just that efficient,” said Caina. “Any alarms?”

  She heard the faint rattle of laptop keys in the background as Nerina worked.

  “None yet,” said Nerina. “There are security foot patrols, but they’re focusing on the warehouse areas and the production floors.”

  “Great,” said Caina, taking a heavy item from her belt and looking up at the top of the office building. NRC’s network had excellent security, but Caina had broken in and implanted a few malware worms into their servers. The worms would delete themselves and all trace of their existence tonight at midnight, but until then, Nerina had access to their security system.

  Unfortunately, the data Caina had been sent to retrieve wasn’t on their network. It was on an air-gapped server in the research lab. The server wasn’t accessible from the Internet or the rest of the corporation’s network. Physical access was the only way to get at the server’s data. Nerina, for all her skills with cybersecurity, could devise no way of reaching that server.

  But that was all right. Caina was good at this kind of thing.

  “I’m going in,” said Caina.

  She lifted the ascension gun. It was a rectangular shape of black metal and carbon fiber, a winch and coil at one end along with a slot for a gas canister and another for a battery. The thing was damned heavy and dragged at her tactical harness when she wore it, to the point where it sometimes affected her balance. But it was an essential tool for climbing – and, as it happened, for a bit of quiet robbery. Caina squinted at the edge of the roof, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The ascension gun fired with a faint hiss, and it shot a grapnel connected to a thin steel cable. The grapnel hit the roof and opened, locking into the concrete, and Caina drove the spiked end of the ascension gun into the grass. She tested the cable a few times, but it held fast.

  It was time to climb.

  Between her gloves and the cable, it wasn’t the most difficult climb she had ever undertaken during her missions from the High Queen. Caina braced her feet against the wall, the cable grasped in both hands, and walked up the wall. Her legs and arms screamed with the strain of it, but in a short time, she reached the rooftop. The roof was mostly flat, covered in gravel with t
he gray metal boxes of transformers and air handlers jutting from it like tombstones.

  “I’m on the roof,” said Caina.

  “All right,” said Nerina. “I’ve got the camera worm uploaded. Just give the word, and I’ll execute it.”

  “Acknowledged,” said Caina.

  She crossed to one of the air handlers, pried open a metal grate, and crawled into a duct. With her tactical gear, it was a tight fit, but she managed it. Caina went in feet-first, crawled backward down a few meters of the duct, then slid straight down another few meters. She slithered forward, light leaking through the vents, and then came to a vent overlooking an office.

  “It’s time,” said Caina. “Execute it.”

  “Executing it now,” said Nerina, and again Caina heard the clatter of laptop keys in the background. Nerina always typed with such force that she tended to wear down her keyboards in short order. “You’ve got seventeen minutes.” Caina hit a button on a stopwatch attached to her harness. Nerina’s worm would take the last seventeen minutes of video footage from the cameras, replay it, and adjust the timestamps on the files to match. So long as no one manually reviewed the footage, no one would notice anything amiss.

  Caina popped open the grate and lowered herself into an office. It was cluttered, the desk holding three computer monitors, the shelves overflowing with binders and printouts. A table against the window held a variety of half-assembled robotics components. One of NRC’s senior researchers used this office. Caina picked up a binder from a stack on the floor, eased open the office door, and slipped through it. She used the binder to prop open the door and keep it from locking.

  With that, Caina found herself in NRC’s primary development laboratory.