Chương 100: Through the Door

Claire's phone calls worked faster than I expected. Two days later, a black SUV came up the gravel road and parked at the edge of my property. The woman looked like she was going to war. Not only did she carry enough weapons to make me feel like a hobbyist, but she was also wearing combat armor.

"Sandra Reeves," she said, and showed me an ID with an agency acronym I didn't recognize.

"I'm told you control the gate."

"That's right." I tried not to be annoyed that she would say something so obvious. Toilet trained at gunpoint, huh? Claire had prepared me for this conversation. The deal on the table was simple. The government would provide soldiers to guard the gate around the clock. In exchange, they wanted first access. Before anyone negotiated anything, they wanted to see what was on the other side.

"My followers go with you," I said.

"Animals from my congregation. They volunteered. They can act as scouts." Frankly, I thought it was a stupid idea, but Bambi and Tala had teamed up on me. Tala didn't trust whoever they sent to tell me the truth. Bambi gave me a lot of reasons I didn't believe. One of these excuses was that a few of my followers wanted to be known as the first explorers of another world. Pierre almost fell for this until Shelly shut him down. As for the rest of the excuses, I didn't believe them for a minute. Sandra didn't blink.

"Approved. Anything else?"

"Cameras. I want full footage of everything your team sees." While a few of my guys did have GoPros, we didn't anticipate needing more. Also, they were in big demand everywhere at the moment.

"We were going to record it anyway." She made a note on her tablet.

"We go through tomorrow at dawn. When we come back, we'll sit down and talk numbers." I was proud of the fact that I didn't cock my head to the side or raise an eyebrow. She'd come to my territory armed to the teeth and then said they're going tomorrow. Why did you wear the military gear here today? Whatever. After that, she got back in the SUV and left. Pierre finally worked up the courage to ask me an hour later. He'd been quiet since the briefing that morning.

"I want to go through," he said.

"I want to see it. I'd like to see where they came from."

"Then go," I said.

"I'm curious to see if the champion bond works across planes. If you're over there, maybe I can actually see what's happening instead of standing here guessing."

"Shelly already talked me out of it." I turned to look at him.

"So why are you bringing it up now?" Sometimes, I really wanted to pop open his skull and talk to the little hamster running around in there.

"She made a list." He said, which I didn't doubt.

"If the gate fails, the pack loses its alpha and you lose your champion in the same hour. If the government team gets into trouble, having me die alongside them doesn't help anyone."

"She's right." Still, that doesn't answer my question. Why bring it up?

"I know she's right. That's the annoying part." He looked out at the tree line.

"I guess the first expedition goes through without me." After that, he sighed and wandered away, obviously lost in thought. What the fuck is wrong with you? I wanted to scream and pull my fur out. Why did you force me to have this conversation? God, what is wrong with me? Why did I choose you as my champion? If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I didn't say anything and tried to let my annoyance fade away. Shelly had done me a favor, honestly.

The thought of Pierre on the other side of a door I might have to slam shut had been sitting wrong with me since the briefing, and I hadn't figured out how to say so without insulting him. While Pierre might be a werewolf, a soldier would make short work of him. He just wasn't trained for combat. The companion animals were just as bad. Eight of them had volunteered. Two were wolves. One was a red-tailed hawk named Kess. There was also a badger, a fox, a bobcat, and a coyote. There was even a raven.

That was the part nobody liked, including me. On this side of the gate, I could feel every one of my followers clearly. If I concentrated, I knew their location and their condition. I could even roughly sense their emotions. The moment they crossed to another plane, I was worried that the connection would disappear. I'd been tempted to test it but I was worried about doing anything until the soldiers arrived. I slept badly that night. I really wished they'd just go ahead and do it. I hated waiting.

At dawn we gathered at the breach point. The Moonbound had cleared out the night before, replaced by six soldiers in unmarked gear who'd set up a perimeter. Sandra stood near where the gate would open with three others. All of them were carrying packs, weapons, and cameras mounted on their shoulders and helmets. Pierre stood next to me. Shelly stood next to Pierre, possibly to make sure he stayed there.

"Ninety minutes," Sandra said.

"If we're not back, close it anyway. We'll hold position at the gate site until you reopen." I nodded, and then gathered my mana and pushed it into the gate. It opened immediately, and surprisingly, it actually didn't cost as much mana to keep it open as I'd expected. It wasn't like with the Liminal Lands. Opening a portal there was like holding open a heavy door. This was more like opening a window. I couldn't see or hear through the portal, which was annoying.

"Let's go," Sandra said and stepped through. She was immediately followed by her team. My guys hurried in after that. The faith threads thinned the moment each animal crossed. Luckily, I could still sense them, at least somewhat. Then we waited. I've done a lot of waiting in two lives. However, the idea that my followers might not come back really bothered me. If they don't come back, I'll just have to go get them, I told myself. No one talked for forty minutes.

At fifty-nine minutes, Kess came back through the gate and said, "They're coming back. Nobody's hurt. You need to see what we found." While waiting for the others to arrive, I glared at Kess. Does he not realize you don't shit like that? Shortly after, the rest of the team came through. I quickly shut the gate behind the last one. Sandra pulled the camera off her shoulder mount while the other soldiers did the same. Then she hopped into the back of a van.

A minute later, she popped back out and handed me a flash drive. I stared at it for a moment before I made the connection. Ah, the videos. I'd sort of assumed we'd all watch them together. I hadn't even noticed that Claire had already collected our SIM cards. She was busy copying them on a laptop. Whatever technological wizardry Sandra had used made what Claire was using seem piss poor. Finally, Claire finished downloading the videos and then put them onto a flash drive of her own.

While she was doing that, I ground my teeth. Stupid government. I knew it shouldn't surprise me that they were saving the best technology for themselves. I was also pretty sure they didn't allow tech companies to sell new technology until they had a backdoor into it. They were probably listening using my Roku television. I've heard enough stories about appliances listening in on their owners. As for Sandra, the moment she had the flash drive in her hand, she nodded to me and left without a word.

I literally couldn't do anything other than stare at her as she climbed into the car and left. What the hell? Just use me and leave? No, I love you? No, I'll call you? I was still staring as she drove off. I was tempted to ask the remaining soldiers what her problem was, but they looked busy. In fact, the whole area was getting super busy. In a matter of minutes, more soldiers arrived, and a camp was being created around the gate. Finally, I looked at my companions, ready to complain to them.

However, they were busy themselves. Pierre was questioning the animal followers, at least those who could speak, while Shelly listened in, probably deciding if she was ever going to allow Pierre to go through. Claire was speaking with one of the soldiers. That left me mostly on my own since Tala was holding down the cabin, ready to head to the church if anything happened. Unfortunately, I was starting to get the zoomies. I needed to do something, anything.

I couldn't wait until we got back to the cabin to see what had happened over there.