"How's Gina?" I asked.

"She got the first loop of the knot yesterday," he said, "it's all downhill from that point."

"Excellent," I returned.

The first loop of the Soulguard knot is always the hardest to accomplish. It's the one where you are working completely on the belief that it can be done. Once you attain the focus needed to do it and you have the faith that it can be done, then you can loop your knot.

After the first one there is a great deal of difference in the physical power of the body and the faith is rewarded. There is so much difference in the belief that an act is possible, and the knowledge that it is indeed possible and already been done. The rest of the loops of the Soulguard knot were much easier. They only relied on the focus of the person doing the knot.

It had been incredibly easy for me, but I had been able to actually see the knots of Kharl and Kyra and I could see my own stream with my own eyes. I never had to deal with the belief aspect at all.

"She'll start weapon training fairly soon, then," I said.

"Yep, and I'll be glad when that's done so she can come back down here," he said, "I know it's a little mushy, but I miss her."

"I know what you mean," I said with a smile, "By the end of the year, we'll probably have the training being done here instead of Montana, anyway. So you may get to see her even sooner than you expect. We don't need to hide anymore so our training doesn't have to be all the way back in the mountains."

I watched his happiness at the thought. It seemed that the incorrigible Ivan Jacobs had fallen in love. Who would have thought it?

Chapter 22.

I sat at my desk looking at the sketches I had drawn of how I would like the battlefield to be laid out. If the Kresh waited long enough, I thought we may just contain them. But I knew that if they come back here it would be with a vengeance.

There really wasn't any way to tell exactly what to expect. All we could do was the best we could and hope it was enough. What worried me more than anything else was the fact that the Wraith had said there were seven gates.

If the Kresh did what I would do, it would be to come through at one of the Gates that we know nothing about. But I was counting on their arrogance to send them here, first. I just hoped I was reading them the way they were and not just the way I want them to be. I thought they would be pretty pissed about their loss of a whole army and would want to step on us hard.

The layout I had planned involved four facilities with up to a thousand Guards and Mages stationed inside them on a temporary basis. There would be five hundred Guards on duty at any given time inside each facility. The facilities would hold up to a thousand each. But I was pretty sure that, after the four facilities were finished, that two thousand Guards on duty would be able to hold a line around the Gate until the others in Hillsboro reached them. There were other things I would like to have in place before then, as well, but I had no idea if I would get the time to build the other projects I had in mind before they came.

I had a meeting in two days with an engineer who I was going to go over the specifics of my Soullance. I wanted to make something mechanical that I could assign Mages to. Something that would work much as my shields did to channel my power. If all went well, there was the possibility that support Mages would be able to man, for lack of a better name, their own laser cannons.

Rictor would have a ball with that. He already blames Star Wars for so many of the new things I've come up with. Of course, he might have a point.

I looked up to see Ric enter my office. His face was pale, and I opened my Inner eye to see pain and grief rolling through his aura. There was a great deal of anger as well.

"What is it, Ric?" I asked with a feeling of dread.

"The Shak'Tar hit us again," he said, "Duke stopped two attacks before they could hit us but one got through. Boss, they got Luis."

It felt like there was a knot in my chest and I could feel the Rage coming. Luis was one of the men who had been by my side throughout my career from the day I was sent to Knoxville.

Luis Ramirez was one of the Guards that had supported me while I was in a Source Coma. He was one of the best Guards I have ever served with and he was my friend.

The rage blasted across my mind as I ripped the Oak desk in front of me in half. I beat the rage back down a bit but it wouldn't stay. It kept trying to surge forward. It wanted to be let out and I think, if I hadn't walked out of my office and out of the building, I might have hurt someone.

Rictor was only steps behind me as I stepped out the door.

"I need a few minutes alone, Ric," my voice was shaky.

"What if they come after you?" he asked, "When you're alone."

"Then God help them," I returned as the rage tried to escape again.

He nodded and stepped back.

I saw the world slow as I shot forward, north, toward the Gate. As I neared the hulking ruins of Gasper's tanks, I let the rage out.

It came with a howl of fury that didn't quite sound human, and power surged from the Source as I Pulled. I blasted the wreckage in front of me and tore at it with my hands, ripping and tearing metal as power flowed through me.

I have to say, I lost myself for a little while as I became the rage. When I found myself standing directly in front of the spot where the Gate had been, the plains behind me were afire and the wreckage of the tanks was scattered in much smaller pieces across a good half mile of fiery grassland.

I stood there a long time, wishing for the Gate to open. I wanted to kill them, I wanted to destroy their world, I wanted them to come at me now. I don't know how to fight these assassins, I know how to kill Kresh.

"Come on!" I screamed at the empty air, "Bring it to me!"

But there was no answer and the Gate remained closed. My friend remained dead, and the war would continue without him.

"One day, I'll step through into your world, you bastards," I said softly, "and when I do you'll learn what Rash'Tor'Ri truly means. I swear it."

"Son?" a voice rumbled from behind me, "Are you alright?"

I turned to find Kharl standing behind me with a whole squad of his new Jaeghernauts. Daphne Cavanaugh stood directly behind him and the twenty of them stood in a v formation, ready for battle.

"I will be," I said sadly, "I needed to vent a little."

Daphne looked at me with one eyebrow raised. She looked back at the burning grassland and the scattered hunks of metal.

"A little?" she asked, "I don't think I want to see a lot."

"I don't either," I said softly, "Believe me, I don't either."

We walked toward the base and Kharl strode beside me, "You wanna talk about it?"

"The Shak'Tar got Luis, Dad," I said, "This has to stop. But I don't know how to make it stop. I need a target. If they can give me a target, I'll end it, but I need the target."

"I see," he said, "It's hard to lose friends, Son. I know, I've lost a great many in the last hundred years. It doesn't get any easier as you get older. And it shouldn't ever get easier. The only thing I can say is that we'll avenge him and when these Shak'Tar are located, we'll all stand beside you and we'll call up hell from below. We'll destroy them just as we'll destroy their masters."

"Amen to that," Daphne said from my other side, "And when you get ready to step through that Gate into their world, we'll be right there with you. One day we'll bring those bastards down."

"Thanks," I said. It was the only thing I could think of to answer that. I knew that the Guard would follow me into the abyss if I chose to go there. I don't really understand why they are all willing to do such, but I know they are.

We met Ric and Prada about halfway back.

"Get me Duke, Ric," I said, "I need details about these Shak'Tar. I may be able to give some insight as to how they think since we share the same blood."

"I already called him," Ric returned, "He's on his way. Be here by tomorrow morning."

"Good man," I said, "Sorry if I flew off earlier. I needed..."

"No explanations needed, Boss," he said, "although you need a new desk and some walls repaired in your office. Probably easier to just move to another office."

"I guess I shouldn't take bad news inside,"

"Probably a safe bet," Prada said.

Chapter 23.

"Tell me how Luis died," I said to the man who sat in a chair across the desk from me in my new office.

Jim Duke looked at me a moment, "You knew Ramirez, personally, didn't you?"

The knot formed in my chest again, "He was my friend."

He nodded and said, "He actually wasn't even the target. The target was a Russian Mage named Sergei Ivanof. He is the head of the Russian Academy. The whole hit team was destroyed but your man was killed in the fray."

I nodded.

"The attack occurred close to the Academy and their initial action was much like they used in China. They did something that scrambled the brains of all the Mages and Guards in a certain area and walked in with some heavy bore pistols to unload into the unconscious forms."

"Only, they hadn't planned on Ramirez," Duke said, "He had been out late and was returning at just the right moment to intervene. He ran in at that crazy speed you guys have, and fried all of the Shak'Tar except one who was close enough to slam Ramirez with the telepathic attack. Ramirez was shot seven times by this man but the Shak'Tar was also picked off by one of the initial Mages who was still alive. It was short and ugly but your man saved seven of the ten in the initial group and killed almost a complete hit squad of the Shak'Tar."

At least Luis hadn't gone down easy. I could easily see him intervening in an attack as well. Everything rang true about the whole scenario, but it still called forth the rage in me when I thought about it.

"I need to know where these guys are based, Jim," I said, "Have we gotten any closer to finding the bastards?"

"A little," he said. "They're based over in Europe or possibly the Middle East. I'm narrowing down the choices but it's still an immense amount of territory to search. We're pretty certain they have to come into the country from outside to do their hits here. The ones in Europe always seem to happen before the ones here, and we figure it is a matter of travel time."

"You have no idea how much I want those fuckers," I said with a snarl. "Is there anything I can do to help you? I have the same Demon blood in my veins. I honestly don't know if I could help with how they think, I was raised completely different than they were. The only commonality is the Demon blood."

"Actually, they think more like someone in my line of work would," he answered, "That's how we've stopped several attacks already. We anticipate and meet their teams. Their telepathy doesn't affect a sniper who is several hundred yards away from them and, I'll be honest, some of them are just plain sloppy."

"How so?"

"A lot of the teams rely on the telepathy too much," he explained, "They project to people around them somehow. People just don't notice they're there. But, like I said, a sniper who is several hundred yards away can pick them out with ease. But, as with any force, there are also some that are very good. These use positions like we would and the telepathy is a secondary skill which they use very well."

"I would say those are much harder to interfere with," I said.

"All too true," he said with a nod, "Sadly, my Russian teams were too late. I'm truly sorry about your friend."

"I'm not trying to place blame on you or your teams, Jim," I said, "You guys are doing wonders already, but I just want you to know that I'll help in any way I can. If you need me to look at a group you suspect, I can tell by sight if they are Demonblood. Just contact me if you need me to actually look and see."

"I hadn't really thought of that," he said, "How close do you need to be to see their Souls?"

"Maybe a mile if I'm in a plane looking down," I answered, "Maybe more. I haven't really experimented with that so much."

"I'll definitely keep that in mind," he said, "It would be quite useful at times."

"Call me with any updates," I said as Jim stood up to go, "and as long as they aren't launching a full blown attack like last year, I should be available to do some distance spying for you."

"Will do," he said as he turned and exited my office.

Part of me still hurt at the loss of Luis but I was also proud of the man. He'd taken out the hit squad before he went down. I also know that it's how he would have liked to go out if he had to go. Swinging with both fists in the act of saving others.

I truly dreaded the fact that I would have to tell his family about his death. He'd had three sisters still living and a whole slew of nephews and nieces. It would be a sad day when I flew down to Florida to tell them. It's not something I wanted to say over the phone. Family deserves more than an impersonal call.

The base in Kansas was growing rapidly. When the government actually backed us we could move at a greater speed than before. The first shield was up around the first facility out by the gate and the second facility was in the beginning stages. There was a great deal of construction equipment working twenty four hours a day digging the great big hole that would house a concrete and steel bunker.

There were independent power supplies to each facility in addition to the buried cables that brought in the primary source of power. Ventilation had been an issue when we had begun this project. My shields would sever any tunnels that weren't buried very deep.

When I had sunk the shield into the earth to anchor it, there had been a couple of incidents where my shields had crossed ventilation shafts and cut them off. It wasn't too hard to fix, I just had to actually enter the shafts until I reached a spot where I could see the shield across the shaft. When I had reached that point, I had opened a hole in the shield to allow the air to pass.

I have learned that my Soullord skills allow me to fiddle with almost any flows of the Source. Shields literally are putty in my hands. The first time I had realized this was when I ripped a hole in the shield surrounding Kevin Graves. I had just reached out with my mind and changed the flows of a shield tied directly to the Source.

At the time I hadn't really thought much about it, but the implications were truly astounding. If I can manipulate any flows of the Source, there aren't many things I couldn't do to a person's Soul if I chose to do so. That is terrifying to someone who is constantly fighting a monster that lives inside them, and is always trying to claw its way out.

This day, by some stroke of fortune had left me with some free time, and I was about to use that free time to go into Wichita, and find some quiet restaurant where I could try to relax for a few minutes and enjoy a good meal. Rictor and Prada were both working with Kharl and I seemed to have the time completely to myself.

I walked out toward the area where they kept the vehicles. It seems that we have to be a bit more formal now that we are constantly in contact with the US National Guard. I don't just go jump in one of the SUV's and drive out. I have to sign for one and pick it up at the Carpool.

"What can I do for you, Sir?" asked the woman who had Carpool duty for the day.

"I just need a car for a few hours to go into Wichita," I said, "I haven't signed one out before and have no idea how I'm supposed to go about it."

"Not very complicated, Sir," she returned, "I just need the tag number of the vehicle you want to sign out and your signature. Sometimes an ID is required but everyone knows who you are so it won't be required."

"Ok," I said, "I guess I just need a car or a pick-up or something."

"Will you be needing a driver, Sir?"

"I don't guess so," I said and chuckled, "Those come standard with the vehicles?"

She smiled and answered, "Yes, Sir."

"Nah, I'll drive myself," I said.