The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Dogs of War

Instead of returning to the small officer's room he had been gifted, Lash found himself in Atrix's glass walled office a few minutes later instead.

"Thinking of finishing our briefing during the recess, Lord Commander?" he asked as the last of the squad that had escorted them, closed the door behind her.

"It had crossed my mind," Atrix admitted, stopping beside the map table instead of her desk. A couple taps on the interface built into the table, and an holographic image of NachtFeuer and its immediate surroundings appeared.

"Mostly, though, to make sure you stay available until the Conclave can be called back in order, instead of being caught servicing yet another lilith," she bluntly continued with a thin smile. "I know at least half of those liliths in that chamber are either in season, or coming into it, thanks to the unusual proximity to each other. As likely the only alpha prime in the vampire world with a direct line of descent from the Ancient One, you will be hard pressed to have time to yourself for the next couple weeks, if I'm reading the situation right."

"Mistress Druzha admitted as much when she came to my chamber a couple of hours before the Conclave was called back into session for that very purpose." There was no point in denying it, or trying to hide it with Silver Legion troopers standing right outside his door.

"I will, of course, submit to their will. However, I'd also like to see our current situation with the White Flames and the Hand dealt with first."

Atrix nodded in appreciation.

"As would I," she said then pointed at the big screen visible through the walls of her office. "The local human authorities have finally gotten the upper hand against the White Flames attacking their assets throughout the city. The rogue human faction in several confrontations fought to the death, leaving no prisoners to question. Others have melted away from the fighting, regrouping out of sight of both their ability to detect, and ours."

She folded her arms beneath her breasts and stared hard at the image of the castle as Lash joined her at the table.

"I half suspect they're regrouping to take a shot at us here. And I'm pretty sure they would've already, if they had any idea of where we were."

"They might, Lord Commander," Lash grimly reported, earning himself a look and a raised eyebrow. "The White Flames had access to air support in Ireland, which speaks towards a capability of monitoring a flight zone. I advised your non-com on the ground to exfil through the Night Market in case they were monitoring the air space around Salzburg. But either you, or somebody in your command structure, sent helos instead against that advice. If they tracked your birds back to base ..."

"Dark Father's beard!" she hissed in dismay as she realized what he was saying. "While I didn't directly make the call, I accept responsibility for it." She leaned forward to touch the interface.

"ASD, this is Atrix."

"Air Space Defense, go, Lord Commander," a voice lifted from the table to say.

"Are you picking up any unusual traffic in and around fortress air space?"

"Negative, Lord Commander. Skies are clean," the responding voice reported.

"And over the city?"

"A number of local law enforcement helos are in patterns over the city, and we've seen several fly bys from human fighter craft, with four in broad orbits around the city. But their flight paths haven't taken them into our airspace."

It was a curious report. While the presence of both helicopters and fighter planes in and around Salzburg air space made sense in light of the circumstance, there was something about it that was triggering his Qos Viran training to see trouble in seemingly logical situations.