Chapter 116 – Diana.

Diana was leaning back in a folding chair with her feet propped on an ammunition crate and her eyes closed.

She wasn't asleep. It was impossible to sleep with all the noise around her.

The tent was large. People were moving back and forth, operators shouting coordinates in front of screens, someone talking into a radio at full speed, someone else running cables across the floor, and at the far end a man in uniform repeating the same question every few seconds.

"Where's Hawk Three's signal? Does anyone have Hawk Three's signal?"

No one did.

Diana opened one eye, looked at the chaos for a second, and closed it again.

Not her problem.

She had been recruited for something else. They had pulled her out of her job, offered her an amount of money that couldn't be refused, and told her that her role was simple: stay at the base and defend it if any of those vampires ever showed up here.

As long as none of them showed up, Diana could stay in her chair.

"Diana."

Footsteps stopped beside her. Diana opened her eyes. An older man, in an immaculate uniform and with the face of someone who hadn't slept in three days, was looking down at her with a folder under his arm.

"Captain," she said, without getting up.

"I need you to go out."

"Where?"

"A helicopter's leaving to pick up Hawk Three's pilot. He lost his plane and he's on the ground. You're the escort." The captain pointed the folder toward the tent entrance. "You and the other mage. If anything tries to get near the helicopter, you deal with it."

Diana let out a long sigh. She took her feet off the crate and sat up in the chair.

"He seriously lost the plane?"

"That's what he said."

"That plane is the best thing the government has for this," Diana said. "Nobody was supposed to be able to catch them. How do you lose something like that?"

"We'll discuss that with the pilot when he's here," the captain replied, his expression unchanged. "Right now he's still in enemy territory, and every minute he spends out there is one minute too many."

Diana nodded.

"Get ready. When they're back, we pack everything up. We're moving."

Diana stared at him.

"Again?"

"Again."

"That's the fourth time we've moved the base."

"I know. We have to be careful," the captain said. "If the reports are right and they ever find us, we can't afford to lose the equipment. What we have here isn't easy to replace."

"The equipment?"

Diana got up from the chair.

"Do you people really still not get it?"

Diana pointed at the screens, at the people running around, at all of it.

"This equipment is useless. Normal weapons are useless. Those crazy women use magic. You've already tried everything, bombs of every size, and not one has gotten through the castle barrier. Not one."

"Diana…"

"If they really want to get serious, they should send something nuclear. A blast like that throws off everything in the air around it. That would actually do something to them."

A couple of operators turned their heads toward them. The captain didn't raise his voice.

"We don't choose what we use," he said. "We get what they send us. And this operation isn't entirely official, you know that. Getting something like that isn't an option. Besides, the target is near the castle. If we used something like that, the person we came to rescue wouldn't come out alive."

"This operation is ridiculous," she muttered.

"Maybe. But it's still your job."

"Diana!"

A boy came running into the tent, dodging two operators and tripping over a cable. He was young, thin, with messy hair and a backpack hanging from one shoulder. He looked around in a hurry.

"Diana! Where are you? The helicopter's ready!"

Diana raised a hand without much enthusiasm.

"Over here. Coming."

◇◆◇

The helicopter took off a few minutes later.

There were five people inside. The pilot, up front. Two men in uniform sitting by the side door, with helmets, headsets and weapons that Diana knew would be useless if anything real showed up.

Diana settled in with her arms crossed and looked at the boy. He was sitting on the edge of his seat, back rigid and hands clasped on his knees.

Between his fingers there was a small blue light that turned on and off, on and off, over and over, without stopping.

And he was pale.

"What's wrong with you?" Diana asked with a smile. "You look like you're about to throw up."

The boy looked up.

"Nothing's wrong with me."

"Your face is green."

The boy looked at the light between his fingers and sighed.

"I'm just still not used to this place..."

The boy moved his hand and the light grew a little bigger before going out.

"There's too much mana everywhere. If I'm not using magic all the time, I feel like my body's filling up and I've got nowhere to let it out."

"Oh, that."

"That? What do you mean, that?"

Diana laughed.

"It's normal. It happens to every rookie mage who doesn't know what to do when their body soaks up that much mana, so they overload."

Diana shrugged.

"Same thing happened to me. Relax, you're not going to die. What you have to do is…"

"We're here!"

One of the men in uniform had turned toward them, one hand on his headset.

"We're over the position. We need you to help bring the individual aboard."

Diana got up. She grabbed one of the ceiling bars and leaned out the side door, which the other man was already sliding open.

The rotor wash rushed in and whipped her hair all over the place.

Below, among the trees, there was a small clearing.

And in the middle of the clearing, a man in a flight suit, no helmet, raising both arms and waving them back and forth.

"There he is…" Diana said, extending a hand toward the man.

The pilot stopped waving his arms all at once. His feet left the ground.

First a few centimeters, then a meter, then more, and the man began to rise slowly, floating in the air, his arms stretched out to the sides and the face of someone not enjoying the experience at all.

Diana guided him with her hand, slowly, unhurried, until she had him level with the door.

The two men in uniform grabbed him by the arms and pulled him inside. The pilot landed sitting on the floor of the helicopter, breathing fast.

"Thanks," he muttered, although his face didn't look very happy.

Diana didn't hear him. She was still leaning out the door, her hand still slightly extended, because while she was lifting the pilot, she had sensed a strange presence, but she couldn't spot anything strange in the sky.