The Andre Miller Saga

Andre Miller 39 The Deadline

Z minus 1

5 am ticked around and the earth elementals that had been summoned arrived, right on time. Andre and Caleb passed the locations to each earth elemental and told it that in two hours to drop the vehicles or containers at the 20-foot depth mark and encase it in 6 inches of stone. At the same time, they sent the storm elementals to bring a rain storm of biblical proportions upon the entire city and suburb area. As the rain started to fall and the earth elementals left for their duties the two elder summoners had nothing to do but wait. It would be 5 hours, 2 hours to the sites, 1 hour to drop and encase the bombs, and 2 hours back before they knew if it would work. They paced, talked, checked their messages, and talked with the others who were safely away in Huntsville. If things went exactly as planned all 22 bombs would be contained and that would be the end of that threat. No one believed that would be the end of Fontaine's trickery, but her ace would be out and her trump exposed.

As the time ticked closer to 7 am the rains continued to increase, they were set to crescendo at 7 and hold till 11. Nervously each man kept checking the news feeds of various local channels for word of explosions. But the only coverage was of the unseasonable and unusual storm hanging over Birmingham and the surrounding cities area.

By 8 am the nervous energy in the room could be cut with a knife. The news channels lit up with the news of an explosion in Trussville, another corrupted mana bomb had exploded destroying part of the building it had been parked in front of, but because of the rain, the mana cloud didn't get more than a block and was immediately washed down the storm drains. There were some casualties but they were mostly from the explosion itself and not the mana cloud.

"1 out of 22, I hate to say it, but that's acceptable losses." Said Andre. "Those deaths are on our hands because it detonated early as well as Fontaine's for planting it. I'll own that. Come judgment, I'll own that."

"You and me both brother." Added Caleb.

Andre's phone rang, it was from Houseton, Reba, and Kline. "It's her."

"You going to answer it?" asked Caleb.

"Not yet. I want those elementals back here with their reports. She can sit and listen to a ringing phone." Andre turned his ringtone down to the minimum and left it on a shelf nearby. It kept ringing for over an hour.

As 10 am hit the 1st of the elementals began coming in and reporting mission accomplished. The 3rd elemental that returned was injured. The bomb had detonated at 15' below the ground, it was contained but had done a considerable amount of damage. The 4th through 9th elementals reported success as planned. As each reported the pins on the map were removed. The 10th elemental reported that it had reached depth, had started encasing it in stone and then it had detonated. There was no damage, but it reported only partial success. The 11th to 21st reported similarly to the 10th, they had reached depth, started to encase them and they had detonated, all at roughly the same time. The 22nd elemental never returned. It had been the one sent to Trussville.

As each returned it was thanked and discharged. The storm elementals returned at 11 am and the storms continued for another hour but were dying in intensity as the storm elementals were no longer driving them.

Finally, at 11:15 am Andre answered his phone. "You lose." He said as he answered.

"You bastard! What have you done!" Fontaine screamed over the phone; all illusion of composure was gone. "You think you've won, Trussville still detonated! 14 of them detonated, you think you stopped me, you stopped nothing!"

"If 14 went off, where are the other news reports? We got 21 of 22. Trussville is blood I'll wear for the rest of my life. But you will too. No more mana bombs. Over a ton of corrupted mana, down the drain. Quite literally."