Chapter 29 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 29 — The Bamboozle

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 28 — Toyotomi; Agatha is looking for Carl · Next: Chapter 30 — Comrades · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

Our new mercenaries wouldn’t fit in Party Planner.

Summary

The new mercenaries drive the Prism's five transports northwest to enter through Shanty Town, where Li Jun and Li Na will separate NPCs from off-worlders and Li Na will handle the trust problem. Shanty Town is a donut the 107th White Dragons must hold from every angle, with no throne room — it can only be taken by killing Carl — and the enemy have left it alone because Larracos's defences would fire on them. A shack south of the Prism castle has a saferoom door; Carl mines it and he and Donut go home through the doggie door while Louis flies the long way round Shanty Town past the new anti-air towers. Donut names the sneak-attack idea the Bamboozle. The blood bar is back: Carl's is full, eight hours, Donut's half an hour. Rend, level 10 and knee-high, refuses the shower and is put in it. In the flag room the campaign is a hex-map of dread: seven battalions and two dozen special-operations squads; Tran's 102nd and Boomer's 106th back in the southern trenches after filling the enemy's with scrolls and wrecking the batteries, Boomer salty about not taking the naga castle; the 106th mostly heading north; Florin's 101st Crocodiles with the 105th and 103rd holding the north; Tipid's 104th Naughty Little Piggies on the castle; Li Na's 107th bankrupting the coffers on Shanty Town. Carl saw his father in himself with D'Nadia and has no time to process it. Donut has a 1914 spellbook called War Crime that bleeds and cries. Florin is falling back — the enemy has shown its armour and will flow round to the FUPA. Then the silent alarm on the home anti-air battery, an explosion, the hangar destroyed and any parked aircraft grounded, Boomer buzzed by enemy flyers, Tipid: enemy in the base, paratroopers coming through the protections. Donut: Bomo has found a Reaver saferoom door in the situational corridor — 'THEY'RE DOING WHAT WE WERE GOING TO DO […] THE BAMBOOZLE!' A sponsor who once used the bait shop can come back through it, and the bait shop is now inside the castle. Ping shows enemies only outside, but Reid Gunn, a shield mage, is on the casualty list and still moving among his squad as they turn to Xs. Confusion kills. Gondii — Valtay worms. Bucket Boy and a mage drag in a burned yenk; the mage, Charles Andrew, is listed dead; Carl tackles him and beats his face in with the gauntlet until a black-and-white worm named Goldblum tests the air, and stomps it. 'We don't eat our own.' Orders to cross-reference the man on either side with the dead. 'Defend to the death.' 'Unleash Tina!'

Characters

• Carl — Kills a friend's body to get at the worm inside it.
• Princess Donut — Names the Bamboozle and finds it used against them.
• Bomo — Notices the extra door.
• Bucket Boy — Drags in a burned yenk; screams at the worm.
• Florin — Falling back; the FUPA is next.
• Tipid — 'Enemy in the base!'
• Garret — Level 10, showered against his will.

Locations

• The FUPA — The situational corridor, a Reaver door, a hangar in pieces.
• Shanty Town — A donut with no throne room, held by the White Dragons.

Motifs

• Faction Wars — Seven battalions on a hex map; the Bamboozle from the other side.
• The blood bar — Eight hours for Carl, half an hour for Donut.
• The Valtay Corporation — Gondii in the mages' heads; a worm named Goldblum.
• Carl's family — 'I'd seen my father in myself at that moment.'