God, I Pity the Violins by StarSpray

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Chapter 9

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"Stop fiddling with it, you're going to lose it," Nile said as Maglor poked at the radio piece in his ear for the umpteenth time during their hike through tangled honeysuckle toward Turralba's headquarters.

"It feels too big," Maglor replied, but he lowered his hands in favor of bracing himself against a large mossy rock as the mountainside suddenly acquired a very steep incline. Nile scrambled down with the nimbleness of a mountain goat—and the confidence of someone who would recover instantly from a broken neck. Maglor watched her path and followed it, more or less, at a more sensible pace.

"It's not that big," Nile said once they were at the bottom, and the land evened out a little bit. "You were wearing ear buds on the plane with no problem."

"Those were attached to a cord," Maglor said.

"Are you two in position yet?" crackled Joe's voice through the ear piece on question. Maglor grimaced.

"Not yet," said Nile. "Almost." She and Maglor clambered up another slope, from which they had a decent view of the back of the compound, which was fenced in, with a clear stretch of land between the fence and the forest. Inside the fence was an extensive obstacle course, and smaller buildings to simulate urban battlefields, and other buildings and contraptions that Maglor could not identify. Nile settled in on her stomach and pulled out a pair of binoculars. "Damn," she remarked, "that's a helluva setup."

"Feeling nostalgic for boot camp?" Maglor asked as he lay down beside her. Nile made a face. "There doesn't seem to be many people down there."

"No," Nile agreed as she pressed the binoculars to her eyes. "They've got guard stations around the fence line, but it looks like just two guys to a spot." She paused. "Ah, with high powered rifles."

Maglor let her survey the perimeter while he trained his gaze on the main building itself. It was somewhat taller than he had expected, made of concrete and glass, all hard angles and straight lines. "Who decided that this design was attractive in a building?" he muttered as he squinted against the sun glare on the windows. "Nile, someone is arriving." A trio of SUVs was pulling into the drive.

"Nicky, do you see them?" Nile asked.

"I see them. I think it's the party that tried to take Maglor at his house. They don't seem too happy." There was a pause as Maglor watched a small figure with a hood over their head stumble out of the back of the middle SUV.

"Calwë," he said, as they were led in through a small side door, away from the main entrance.

"Took them a while to get her back here, if it is," Nile said.

"Took them a while to get themselves back here," Maglor replied. He looked at the sky. It was clear blue and cloudless, in spite of the forecast for later that afternoon and evening. The day was warm, and the woods were heavy with the scent of pine and honeysuckle. Somewhere not far away behind them he could hear the trickle of water. He looked back at the compound. Daeron was in there, somewhere. "How deep do you suppose their basements go?"

"Are we calling them basements or dungeons?" Nile replied.

"Depends on what they're keeping in them," Andromache said. "We found the power generators. Are we sneaking in to dismantle them or has Maglor found a good rhyme for wire?"

"Anaië, cair, sedair, fire, expire, quagmire, shire, lyre, spire—"

"Jesus H. Christ, okay, we get it."

"Though speaking of fire…" Andromache trailed off, sounding thoughtful. Nile huffed a sigh.

A noise behind them made Maglor turn, and he found himself staring into the face of an extraordinarily large black bear, who looked just as surprised as he was to find people up on the hillside where they should not have been. "Nile," Maglor said, very calmly.

"Yeah?"

"If we were to start making a great deal of noise, would we be heard from down there?"

"Depends on the noise, why?" Before Maglor could answer the bear snorted, and Nile turned, and froze. "Oh. Shit."

For several long seconds they stared at the bear, and the bear stared at them. Nile said out of the corner of her mouth, "Can't you ask it to go away?"

"You mistake me for my brother," Maglor hissed.

Nile glanced over her shoulder toward the compound, and then grabbed a stick and threw it at the bear, who turned and fled. Maglor rolled onto his stomach to peer down at the building, but if anyone had seen the movement, they were not alarmed by it. "Make a note, guys, there's bears," Nile said.

"Just black bears," said Andromache, and Maglor could imagine her waving a hand in dismissal.

Easy to dismiss the thought of a bear when you weren't staring one in the face. Although it could have been worse—at least there were no grizzly bears in New York. Maglor peered down the slope, and then said to Nile, "I am going to get a closer look."

"Wait—" She scrambled after him, and together they made their way down to the edge of the trees. Maglor crouched down in the shadows of a large and old pine, and squinted at the closest watch station. One of the men left it to walk along their portion of the fenced perimeter. At this distance he couldn't tell whether the fence was electric or not, though the curls of barbed wire at the top were discouraging enough. Were they to keep people out, or in, Maglor wondered.

As he and Nile headed back up the mountain to meet the others, Maglor asked her, "Do you think it's possible they have others held captive?"

"You mean like other elves?" Nile asked.

"No. Well—yes, I suppose. But not necessarily. I assume they are doing some sort of experimentation…"

"Yeah, same."

"But are they using their own people, or…?"

Nile grimaced. "God, I hope they're not just snatching people off the street."

"I suppose it depends on what kind of experiments they're doing."

They reached the place where the car was hidden; Radoriel dropped out of a tree as they approached, and after a few minutes Quynh and Andromache also joined them. Joe and Nicky were going to remain in place for a few more hours, observing patterns, and watching who was coming and going. Nile asked Andromache what she felt about the possibility that there were others besides Calwë and Daeron in need of rescue.

"If Quynh weren't dreaming about him getting drunk in Paris," Andromache replied, "I'd be worried that they've got Booker in there." Nile shuddered. "What we really need to worry about is whether everyone we're rescuing can get out on their own two feet."

They retreated to the rented cabin to study blueprints and satellite photographs again. Nile looked into missing persons cases in the area, but statistically there was nothing out of the ordinary (although the ordinary numbers were alarming enough, in Maglor's opinion). And if other Elves had been taken there would be no reports anyway. Maglor spent most of the afternoon outside with his flute. Hathellas joined him with a guitar after lunch, and they played until it was time to return to the compound. Clouds gathered as Andromache tossed a bag of weapons into the back and the rest of them piled in; Lumorn remained behind, with a radio in one hand and his laptop and cell phone on the table; he would be their link to the rest of the world, in case some news or new information was discovered while they were inside the compound. It was quiet as they drove back to the place where they had parked before. Joe and Nicky were waiting for them, lounging beneath a tree, Joe resting his head on Nicky's shoulder. When Maglor got out of the van he tilted his head back and inhaled deeply. It smelled like rain, and the air was charged. A storm was coming—and as he had the thought, thunder rumbled.

"Perfect," said Andromache.

"I will wait here," said Radoriel from inside the van. She waved the radio at them. "Keep me updated, so I know when and where to meet you when you're done!"

"Don't worry, I'm not going in with you," said Hathellas when Andromache frowned at her. She hoisted a rucksack onto her shoulders. "I will wait outside. But you may need me if someone is hurt."

"Speaking of hurt," said Nile, "where's your vest, Andy?" Andromache rolled her eyes, and reached back into the van, pulling out a compact Kevlar vest. Then she pulled out another, slightly larger one and tossed at Maglor. He caught it and pulled it on, keeping his expression impassive, though he was relieved that he wasn't going to have to deal with any gunshot wounds—at least to his torso. He stretched his arms, and his wounded shoulder twinged a bit, but it wasn't too bad. Meanwhile, the others loaded themselves up with weapons. Maglor saw several grenades of various kinds, a ridiculous number of guns, and both Nicky and Joe carried swords, while Andromache had her ax. Quynh carried an absurd number of knives as well as a sword and several pistols.

"May the stars guide your steps," said Radoriel, and with that they headed off into the darkening woods. Maglor saw better than the others in the dark and so he took the lead, until they drew closer to the compound. Then Andromache and Quynh moved ahead, and everyone who had a gun drew it. They crept around the tree line to the place where the power generators were, and settled in to wait for the storm to begin in earnest.

"You do actually have a magic song to cut the power, right?" Joe asked, bumping his shoulder against Maglor's.

"Yes," Maglor said.

"Are you sure it's going to work? Because we don't have a stealthy Plan B."

"What is Plan B?" Maglor asked. In reply, Joe held up a brick of plastic explosives. "Ah."

"Shh!" Andromache pointed to a guard walking the perimeter of the fence. They all shrank lower to the ground, though they were shrouded in tree-shadows, and it was swiftly growing dark with both night and cloud.

"There's the rain," Hathellas said softly as raindrops began to patter on the leaves above them. It began with just a few drops, and then a sudden downpour that drenched them all in seconds. Lightning flashed across the sky and a loud crack of thunder rattled the very air.

"Better start singing," Andromache said.

"Don't interrupt me," Maglor warned, and crept forward a step or two, without leaving the trees, closed his eyes, and began to sing, softly at first but with firm purpose, turning all of his thought and the power of his voice to the generators. He could feel them humming with electricity, as though he were standing in their midst. The hair on his arms stood up. Lightning and thunder split the sky above him and he wove them into his song, and the rushing rhythm of the driving rain and the howling of the wind as it picked up, tossing the tree branches and slanting the rainfall almost sideways. Maglor reached out and clenched his fist as his song reached its crescendo, and he opened his eyes to see the lights in the windows go out. A few flickered back on, dimly, but the vast majority of the building remained silent.

As he had been singing Joe and Nicky had darted forward with wire cutters, and Maglor hurried behind Quynh and Nile and Andromache to slip through the opening. As they passed the generators toward the nearest entrance he murmured a few words, and the night-shadows drew in and wrapped around them like a cloak. Inside they hurried down a narrow, dark corridor, their boots squeaking slightly on the tiled floors. It would not matter before long that they were leaving a trail of water behind them, but Maglor spared a brief moment to hope that no one would find it before things started to blow up.

"Okay," Andromache said as they came to a stairwell. "Joe, Nicky, we go up. Nile, Quynh, Maglor, you go down."

"I'll take point," said Nile, and headed for the stairs. Maglor followed, and Quynh brought up the rear. They met no one on the stairs, which only went down one floor, to Maglor's surprise, but there were several white-coated figures in the hallway outside the door. Nile prepared to go in shooting, but Maglor held out a hand.

"We aren't the ones meant to make a fuss," he said. "Let me." He pushed open the door and spoke two words as the figures turned at the sound. They dropped soundlessly.
"Are we going to just leave them?" Quynh asked as they cautiously left the stairwell.

"Drag them in here," said Nile, opening a closet. She broke off the handle when they had, and they moved on, pausing at each door they encountered to peer inside. Most looked like laboratories of various kinds, with vent hoods and Bunsen burners, and microscopes and other machines and tools that he did not recognize. Maglor stopped at one room and stared at what lay on a work table. Like a handful of stars, gemstones gleamed in the darkened room.

"Hey, what—" Nile began when he pushed opened the door. "What are those?"

"Fëanorian lamps," Maglor said, as he picked one up. "The art was lost long ago. Where can they have found these?" There were four of them, one cracked down the middle and considerably dimmer than the others. Quynh picked one up and turned it over in her fingers, making the light flicker over her face and in her eyes as it brightened at her touch.

"Are they dangerous?" Nile asked, standing at the door with one eye on the hallway.

"No." Even so, he did not like the thought of them here-these people did not deserve them. Maglor scooped them all into a pocket, and then he and Quynh made a thorough search of the room in case there were other ancient things in there. Quynh pulled out a drawer and then a box from that drawer. Inside was a pile of jewelry.

"Take that," Nile said, catching a glimpse of it. "Jewelry is always dangerous."

"Only rings, really," Maglor said mildly as Quynh slipped the box into a bag. "And their power died with the One."

"Yeah, well, doesn't mean no one's made any weird rings since then," said Nile. Somewhere far over their heads was the sound of a muffled explosion. "Come on."

They began to search each room as they came to it, just in case. They found nothing more until they reached a room with a great big machine like a large white tube inside, and a smaller chamber just off of it, with two people scowling and poking at buttons and clicking at screens. Maglor peered at the large machine and spotted a pair of legs sticking out, strapped to the bench.

"What is that?" Quynh breathed, eyes wide with horror.

"It's an MRI machine," said Nile. "It doesn't hurt, but it really sucks if you're claustrophobic." Quynh shuddered, and Nile winced.

"What does it do?"

"It takes images of your organs and stuff." Quynh looked even more horrified.

"I think that must be Daeron," said Maglor.

"Don't kill the scientists," Nile said to Quynh. "I have some questions." Quynh nodded, unsheathing a knife. Then she and Nile burst into the room and into the control room before anyone could react. Maglor glanced up and down the hallway to ensure it was empty before following, going instead to the MRI machine itself. It was off, thanks to the power going out. The restraints were not the sort that needed a key, so Maglor ripped them off Daeron's legs and then his wrists as he pulled him out. There was a piece of duct tape over his mouth, his thick dark hair was all in a tangle, and his eyes glassy.

"Daeron," Maglor said, as Daeron blinked up at him. "It's me. Can you walk?" He pulled the tape off, hearing a muffled and cut short protest from someone behind him.

"Maglor?" Daeron blinked again. "What…how are you here…?" His words slurred slightly, and his voice was little more than a rasp.

"What did they drug you with?" Maglor asked as he hauled Daeron into a sitting position. Daeron swayed dangerously once he was upright. Quynh appeared at Maglor's side with a water bottle, which Daeron took a drink from gratefully. "Can you stand?" Maglor asked.

"Probably," said Daeron, sounding a little better. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," said Maglor. "And someone else was taken, as well. Come on." He hauled Daeron up, pulling his arm over his shoulders to support him.

Nile was waiting for them in the hall. "There's another level below this one," she said. "Stairs are this way."

"I knew there had to be more basements," Maglor muttered.

"That's where they've been keeping me," said Daeron, as he squinted at Nile and then at Quynh. Nile darted ahead as Maglor murmured a few words to cover Daeron in his cloak of shadows. "Sloppy," Daeron said.

"I would like to see you do better," said Maglor as they turned a corner. Up ahead were two people in white coats and another person in fatigues. Nile was on them before they knew it, and then they were past, reaching a stairwell and hurrying down—or Nile and Quynh hurried, at least. Maglor and Daeron remained at the top. There was no guarantee there would be another way up, and Maglor shuddered at the thought of being trapped down there. At the top of the stair, hidden behind the door, Daeron slid to the floor and closed his eyes. Maglor crouched beside him. "Can I do anything for you?"

"It's wearing off," Daeron said without opening his eyes. "How did you know to come looking for me?"

"Turralba tried to take me, too. Only I had a warning."

"Who are your companions?"

"Quynh and Nile. Upstairs somewhere are Joe and Nicky and Andromache. Waiting outside are two of Thranduil's daughters."

"Oh." Daeron opened one eye. "Who warned you?"

"His name is Copley. He works with Andromache and the others. It's rather complicated." Maglor rose to peer out of the door, but the hallway remained clear. "Do you know that Turralba wants with us?"

"Something about immortality, something about better soldiers. I stopped listening long ago. It sounded like Númenor all over again."

"Yes, that is what I thought."

"They know the old histories. One would think they would have learned from them."

"I suppose there will always be someone who believes they are better, or different enough. I only hope we can raze this place low enough that they will be unable to come after us again—or after Quynh and the others." Because they had what Newman and his people wanted.

"What's taking you so long?" Andromache barked in Maglor's ear. He grimaced.

Nile answered, "It's a fucking maze down here. We've got Calwë and are coming back up."

"Come to the fourth floor," said Nicky.

"What's on the fourth floor?" both Andy and Nile asked.

"Weird shit," Joe replied, before he was drowned out by a hail of gunfire.

"What kind of weird shit?" Quynh wanted to know.

"I don't know, weird."

"Do you know what kind of weird shit they might be keeping here?" Maglor asked Daeron.

"No."

Nile and Quynh reappeared a minute later, bringing a tall elven woman with them. Her dark eyes swept over Maglor and Daeron with wary curiosity; her inky black hair was bound up in tight braids woven with river pearls, and in her hand was one of Quynh's knives. "Calwë?" Maglor asked.

"You are Maglor," she replied, and it was not a question.

"I am." Maglor hauled Daeron to his feet and they hurried down the hall, Nile giving an update to Andromache as they went. These lower floors remained mostly empty; whatever the others were doing, it was serving its purpose: no one realized that this was a rescue.

"What are you planning to do with the one in charge?" Calwë asked as they took the stairs.

"If we happen to meet him," Maglor said, "I have several questions."

"Then we can always defenestrate him," Nile added cheerfully. "That's what we did to the last asshole." Quynh glanced at Maglor, who shrugged.

They made it to the fourth floor with surprisingly little trouble. The hallway outside of the stairs looked like a war zone. "Joe, where are you?" Nile asked as she crouched to grab an extra clip off of a body.

"Down here." Joe's voice echoed oddly as it came through the radio and through the air, as he poked his head out of a doorway down the hall. Maglor grabbed Daeron's arm to steady him as they picked their way over.

The room inside was a strange cross between a museum and a bank vault. Turralba took pride, it seemed, in the old things it had manged to find. There was a copy of the Red Book beneath a box of glass—nearly as old as the one Maglor had had in his keeping. There were more Fëanorian lamps and a few rings under glass that Maglor supposed Newman thought must be rings of power, though they looked like ordinary rings to him, not even of elven make.

"That's not the weird shit," said Nicky from down the room. He stood by another case, in which an orb of dark glass or stone was set. Maglor's breath caught in his throat as he approached. The orb did not reflect the light of Nicky's flashlight, but seemed to absorb it, but for an occasional flicker of light or color deep within it. "What is it?" Nicky asked. Behind them Maglor heard the door open, and Andromache's voice barking at everyone to get moving, but he ignored her.

"It is a palantír," he said. "But—they were lost, all of them, long ago. How can it be here?"

"Same way your friends can," Nicky said. He lifted his gun and smashed the glass with the butt of it. A red light illuminated over their heads and an alarm began to blare. Somehow they had missed the backup power. Maglor ignored it and seized the palantír; he had forgotten how heavy they could be. He dumped it into his bag and turned to see Quynh taking the other Fëanorian crystal lamps, and Daeron and Calwë seizing the copy of the Red Book. He also saw Joe and Nile breaking glass, but did not see what they were taking.

"Looting was not part of the plan," Andromache barked from the door. "Come on!"

"Trust me," Maglor said as he joined her at the door, "you do not want some of these things in Turralba's hands."

Quynh appeared at Andromache's shoulder. "Where is the one in charge?" she asked. "Newman?"

"Probably upstairs," Andromache replied. "Assholes like him always have a penthouse."

"He could also have fled," Maglor replied.

"Hathellas is watching the road. She would've warned us."

"I have not seen him," Hathellas confirmed over the radio. "Is everything all right?"

A dozen soldiers rounded the corner down the hall. Maglor dropped to a knee as Andromache and Quynh opened fire. "Fine," he said. "All going according to plan."

"I hope that was a joke," Daeron said behind him.

"Clear," Andromache said. She wiped blood away from a slim cut on her cheek, leaving behind a smear of bright red. "Come on, let's go. If Newman's in the building he'll come down with it."