Succubus Ascendant: An Urban Fantasy (The Telepathic Clans Saga Book 4) (7 page)

“If we called a general mobilization, we could quadruple that,” Collin said. “That would include all of the retirees under a hundred twenty years old, and probably a lot of older ones. That means people like Jeremy who officially aren’t Protectors any longer.”

“And we’ve got five thousand renegades in Scotland and Northern Ireland,” Brenna said. “What are we going to do about them?”

“We can’t just stage a frontal assault,” Thomas said. “The shipyards are right on the River Clyde in Glasgow. Any kind of military operation would be much too public. We need to draw Hugh out and overwhelm him.”

“And he knows that and has no reason to come out and fight on our ground,” Collin said. “For now, he has the upper hand.”

“Blockade it,” Rebecca suggested. “No one in, no one out. Surround him and bombard the people inside with propaganda. Let them know they’re trapped and their families are under our control.”

“That would assume we controlled Glasgow,” Thomas said, “which we don’t.”

“How many Protectors would it require to take the city?” Brenna asked.

“To totally control the city? Probably between three and five thousand,” Devlin answered.

“The majority of the people who work at the shipyards live in Dunallen, a small town on the outskirts of Glasgow,” Thomas said. “It’s an O’Neill town. The government and constabulary are all telepaths. We can take control of it and the workers’ families.”

Brenna was silent for several minutes, then looked at Collin. “Do it. Shut off the shipyards and evacuate all of their families to Edinburgh. Mobilize all the retirees in the British Isles from all three Clans. I’ve checked with Fergus, and he’s given me the authority, subject to Devlin’s veto on any plans that might make O’Byrne less secure. Set up internment camps for the mutineers’ families. I’m not going to play their damned game. I want peace restored and I want it done as soon as we possibly can.”

“You can order a mobilization of O’Neill,” Collin said. “You don’t have the authority to mobilize O’Donnell without Seamus’s approval.”

“That’s what I was just doing. A three-way with Seamus and Fergus. Do it,” she said, rising to her feet. “I want to see a plan to cut off Hugh’s rebellion by this time tomorrow. And don’t forget Finnian and Andrew. Find them. I want them shut down, too.”

Immediately, all communications in or out of the shipyard were cut off. Customers and suppliers were notified that routine maintenance originally scheduled for two months hence had been moved up, and the production lines would be idle for a month.

~~~

Chapter 6

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. - George Bernard Shaw

That night when they were alone, Collin told Brenna, “I think there’s a critical piece of knowledge you haven’t been told about the O’Donnell Clan. The statistics Callie has compiled about how Gifts are distributed don’t accurately reflect the Irish Clans, and especially not O’Donnell.”

“Statistics? I don’t understand what you mean,” Brenna said.

“Worldwide, about fifty percent of all telepaths have only one Gift. Remember that statistic? Another twenty-five percent have only two Gifts?”

“Yes, that’s what I was told.”

“Well, that doesn’t apply to the Irish Clans. When Seamus immigrated to the States, the people who went with him were among the strongest telepaths who were sworn to him. They were a small group, and that’s why we’re so aware of the need to avoid inbreeding. In the O’Donnell Clan in the U.S., only about ten percent have a single Gift. About seventy-five percent have five or more. That’s why we can field such a large Protector force.”

“You said those statistics don’t reflect the reality in all the Irish Clans.”

“That’s correct. Telepaths in Ireland also are much stronger than those in the rest of Europe. From what we know about Africa, it’s rare to find people with as many as five Gifts. Look at Carlos. He’s strong enough to be a Clan Chief in South America, but he isn’t strong enough to be considered for the O’Donnell Protector force,” Collin said, referring to Rebecca’s husband.

“Do the other Clans know that?” Brenna asked.

“They know that O’Donnell Protectors are elite,” Collin answered. “There are strong telepaths among our enemies, but on average a hundred of ours will kick ass on five hundred of theirs.”

“And what good does that do us in a civil war?”

“I’m hoping we don’t have a war,” he answered.

~~~

The following day, word came that an O’Neill factory in Dumfries, Scotland, had been damaged by a car bomb. Over forty people were killed and a couple of hundred were injured. An hour later, another car bomb went off at an O’Byrne facility in Wales, with an even greater loss of life.

In notes left at the scenes, Finnian claimed responsibility for the Scottish blast, and Andrew took responsibility for the Welsh explosion. The lists of demands contained in the notes were almost identical. Collin’s experts determined that the bombs were of identical manufacture. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Finnian and Andrew were working together.

Security at all three Clans’ facilities in the British Isles was boosted to levels normally seen at military bases. It was difficult to conceal such measures in the large cities, such as London. It was even more difficult to deal with the English and Scottish police who swarmed over the bombed sites. And then there was the press, who broadcast news of the bombings and speculated that the IRA, or maybe Al-Qaeda or the Mafia, were responsible.

The police were frankly baffled as to who would want to bomb those particular targets. Neither of the sites was the type of place normal terrorists would strike. O’Neill and O’Byrne corporate representatives were besieged by both the police and the press seeking answers.

“We can’t have too much of this,” Collin said to a meeting of Brenna’s security officers. “It brings too much attention to the Clans.”

“That may be what they hope,” Rebecca said. “But they can’t expect that we’ll meet those ridiculous demands.”

“They’re delusional,” Thomas said. “Hugh might have some hope that he could succeed Brenna if she stepped down, but the Clans would never accept those two fools.”

“Perhaps they’re hoping we’ll offer something to buy them off,” Brenna said. “Hugh may be hoping I’ll give him Scotland.”

“That’s possible,” Collin conceded. “He’s obviously been building a base of support in Scotland for years.”

“Hugh was the O’Neill in Scotland for the past twenty or thirty years,” Thomas said. “Corwin rarely traveled, and I doubt the younger people there have ever met him.”

“Have we heard anything from him?” Brenna asked.

“Yes, he’s said that he would allow you to exit gracefully,” Thomas said. “We’ve shut down two printers in Belfast that were printing up a manifesto to distribute. In it, Hugh says that O’Neill has never been subservient to O’Donnell, and it isn’t going to start now. It’s a call for rebellion.”

“That probably has some appeal,” Brenna said.

“Yes, it might,” Thomas acknowledged, “but the bombing in Dumfries throws a spanner into his argument. He can’t be happy with Finnian. No one in the Clan wanted this to come to bloodshed, and those spilling our own blood won’t be very popular.”

“The statement you put out after the bombings has been very well received, especially in Scotland,” Jeremy said, referring to a statement drafted by Brenna’s advisors and posted in all O’Neill and O’Byrne facilities. It was also posted on the Clans’ websites.

“Any support Andrew might have in Wales has evaporated,” Devlin said, “and your support in Dublin and Wicklow has grown. No one wants to get blown up, and Andrew made a mistake by claiming responsibility. Those who know him think even less of him now.”

Jared spoke up. “Andrew made a major strategic mistake. If he’d waited until Lord O’Byrne stepped down, his actions could be interpreted as a strike against you. But by throwing in with Finnian and striking now, it’s rebellion against his father. Everyone likes Fergus, and in spite of his kindly country lord demeanor, he’s tough as nails. There’s a manuscript in the O’Byrne library that your mother wrote about the campaign he led in Italy during the Silent War. Very interesting reading.”

“Yes, Andrew is a fool,” Devlin said. “Lord O’Byrne is mad as hell. He’s issued a kill-on-sight order against Andrew.”

~~~

Additional incidents involving snipers firing on Protectors and small explosive devices on roads to the estates in Wicklow and Tyrone occurred over the next week. They were more in the line of nuisance attacks, but there were no more large events that drew the press.

By the end of the week, Protectors were staged around the village of Dunallen and the roundup of the mutineers’ families began. The blockade of the shipyard was put in place at the same time. Anyone wanting to leave the yard was taken into custody and shipped to Ireland. The families were shipped to warehouses that had been prepared to house them in Edinburgh.

A majority of the five thousand telepaths living in the Glasgow area resided in Dunallen. That included shipyard workers and their families, as well as merchants and those who worked for other businesses in the Glasgow area. The town’s administration and constabulary were all O’Neill Clan members. All of the realty agents in the town were telepaths, and all home sales and rentals were only advertised locally.

Rebecca was on hand to observe the operation as Brenna’s representative. The new Clan Chief was very concerned that none of the people involved were abused or mistreated in any way. Before her life with the Clans, Rebecca would have marveled at the quiet efficiency involved in evacuating most of a town. There was no shouting or arguing, no violence. Protectors drove lorries into a neighborhood, broadcast their orders telepathically, and people left their homes and boarded the trucks. The Protectors encountered only a few instances of resistance, and the troublemakers were surrounded with air shields and carted off.

The names of all the mutineers inside the shipyard were known, and the locations of their family members were known, too. By the end of the third day, less than two thousand inhabitants remained in Dunallen. The number of workers remaining inside the shipyard had also shrunk. When the roundup started, three hundred people simply walked out to the Protectors surrounding the yard and asked to join their families. All of these workers were told to drop their shields and submit to interrogation. Two hundred were allowed to join their families in Edinburgh, the rest were escorted to a ship for transport to Ireland.

Two of the workers abandoning the yard resisted. One used Neural Disruption against the Protectors and was shot dead. The other was subdued and transported.

Attacks by insurgents outside the yard began the evening of the second day after the blockade began. These were hit-and-run attacks against Protectors and occurred at multiple locations all over the area. Interrogated captives revealed that some of the insurgents were loyal to Finnian, others to Hugh. It was unclear whether the two forces were coordinating with each other.

A car bomb was stopped half a block away from the main O’Neill offices in the Glasgow city center. Unfortunately, the driver managed to detonate the bomb, taking out a block of the city that had nothing to do with the Clan.

Rebecca had taken part in numerous small operations and tactical battles, but she’d never been in the middle of such a large operation before. She moved around the area, checking in with the evacuation forces, then traveling to the shipyard, and occasionally checking in with the operation’s headquarters at the town hall. Brenna checked with her every hour wanting to know what was going on.

Finally, Rebecca told her sister,
*Look, you’re driving me nuts. I’ll call you when I have something to report. Okay?*

*I’m worried. I need to know that you’re all right,*
Brenna responded.

*I understand that. But you’re a distraction. Just cool your jets and I’ll stay in touch.*

Brenna reluctantly agreed, but Rebecca found out later that she just switched her constant badgering to Padraig O’Malley, the operation commander.

The fourth morning, about two hours before sunrise, Hugh’s forces counter-attacked out of the shipyard. Seven hundred rebel Protectors hit the Clan forces at three points. With heavy equipment and air shields as cover, the rebels used telepathic and conventional weapons to drive their advance.

One group contained a large number of electrokinetics. Drawing on the massive electrical capacity of the shipyard, they drove a hole through the blockaders’ line. A second group flooded the area outside the main gate with fire. Even an air shield couldn’t protect a person from the heat of the flames and fireballs if he was exposed long enough. The air inside an air shield could heat up beyond what a person could survive. The blockading Protectors were forced to retreat.

The third group used a combination of Neural Disruption, Empathic Projection and Dominance to clear a path to the River Clyde. Reaching the docks, they commandeered two ships and sailed away downriver to the sea.

The offensive was preceded by an attack on Clan headquarters in the town hall. Between fifty and one hundred fighters shut down all electric power to the hall and used a combination of conventional and telepathic weapons to breach the main entrance doors.