Infernal Games (Templar Chronicles Urban Fantasy Series) Read Free Page B

vanished into
thin air.
    With a last, uneasy glance around the
wreckage, Riley ordered his men back up the embankment.
    Once they had all returned to the relative
safety of the road, Riley moved a few feet away from his men. He pulled his
tablet from his pack, fired it up, and then placed a video call to the man who
had ordered him out on the hunt, Preceptor Johannson.
    “The bus was attacked; there’s no doubt about
that,” he said, when the Preceptor’s narrow face filled the video screen. He
went on to explain what they had found while searching the wreckage and also to
detail the efforts they had made to find the missing transport team.
    The Preceptor frowned when Riley had finished
speaking. “Any sign of the prisoner?”
    “No, sir. Not a trace.” Riley waited for
the Preceptor to ask about the transport team that had been assigned to the
bus, to no avail. The lack of concern for the missing men infuriated Riley,
but he kept a lid on his anger. He answered several more questions the
Preceptor put to him about the condition of the wreckage and then agreed to
wait for the clean-up crew to arrive before returning to the commandery.
    As Riley slipped the tablet back into his pack,
he shivered visibly and not just with the cold.
    ––––––––
    H undreds
of miles away, Preceptor Johannson disconnected from the call with Captain
Riley and leaned back in his chair, his mind racing at a furious pace. The
next forty-eight hours were critical and he knew he needed to bring all of the
Order’s resources to bear if he wanted to recapture the escaped prisoner before
something serious happened.
    He
turned to one side, where his aide, a man named Hennessey, stood waiting.
“What’s the status on strike teams two and four?”
    “They’re
up and ready, sir. Standing by on a five minute alert status.”
    “Good.
Make sure the team leaders have been briefed on the prisoner’s capabilities.”
    “Yes,
sir.”
    “I
want a scrying team assembled immediately. Have the prisoner’s blood and DNA
samples pulled from storage in case they’re needed. That will be all for now.”
    “Right
away, sir.”
    Hennessy
was halfway to the door when Johannson called out to him.
    “One
more thing, James. Inform Commander Williams that he has been reactivated,
effective immediately, and assign him to the pursuit of the prisoner.”
    “Sir?”
    Hennessey’s
tone was full of the doubt that the Preceptor himself was feeling, but
sometimes unusual problems called for unusual solutions. “You heard me,
James. Reactivate Commander Williams. Restore his network privileges and
access codes while you are at it so that he can access the mission briefing and
Captain Riley’s report when it is available. No sense sending the man out
half-cocked.”
    “Of
course, sir.”
    As
Hennessey left the room, Preceptor Johannson considered the decision he’d just
made. It hadn’t been an easy one; there certainly wasn’t any love lost between
him and the former Knight Commander. One of Williams’ men had been captured in
the wake of the battle with the Chiang Shih several months before and the
Preceptor had refused to allow the Echo Team leader to attempt a rescue,
instead ordering the portal to the Chiang Shih stronghold in the Beyond sealed
for safety’s sake. Enraged, Williams had tried to strangle the Preceptor.
Only the swift action taken by then Sergeant Riley, the same man now in charge
of the Echo Team, had saved his life, but Riley had then turned around and damned
himself by not arresting Williams when ordered to do so.
    Oh
what a tangled web we weave, Johannson thought with wry amusement. Williams
had disobeyed direct orders, taken an armed force back through the portal to do
battle with the Chiang Shih a second time. The Templars had emerged victorious
but both Williams and Riley had been lost in the fray. Johannson had kept his
mouth shut when the two men were honored posthumously and their empty coffins
buried with honors,