by Ken Lange
He shrugged. “They’re not, but some of the staff are in there cleaning up. I’m sure they won’t mind us using a booth while we talk.”
We walked around front, and Vasile knocked on the door. A man in his mid-sixties came to the glass, shaking his head. “We’re closed, boys. Come back tonight.”
Vasile reached inside his leather jacket and produced a wad of cash. “We just want to rent a table. We don’t need any food or drinks.” He counted off five hundred dollars and placed it against the door. “All we want is a place to sit.”
The old man stared at the money then glanced between us before opening the door. “Want me to put on some music?”
Vasile grinned. “That’s probably not a bad idea.” He handed the cash to him. “There’s another five hundred for you if we’re left alone.”
A minute later, we were seated in a booth on the far side of the bar.
I leaned my arms against the table. “Okay, what’s so awful that you needed to pay a grand to make sure I’m sitting down?”
He grinned. “I forget how young you are. You’ll come to realize that money is like any other tool. It’s nice to have, but it’s purpose is to be used, not hoarded.”
A chuckle escaped my lips. “Okay, so a philosophy lesson?”
His expression hardened. “I wish, but no.” He pulled out his phone. “A few months back, you were in New Mexico, right?”
And there went my good mood. New Mexico had been a freaking nightmare from the word go. Between the horde of zombies and some crazy assholes using blood magic to gift me a new set of scars, I wasn’t interested in rehashing the details. “Yeah.”
Vasile spun the cellphone on the table. “Since that didn’t instantly tell you what I’m talking about, you should brace yourself for what’s next.”
Not a single fiber of my being was comfortable with where this conversation was going. “I was there, so I doubt you’re going to tell me something I don’t already know.”
He pulled up a video. “Knowing what happened and seeing it are two different things. Trust me, I’ve been on the other side of this conversation.”
A second later, he pushed the play button. The little gift shop Diana had run in Grants came into view shortly before all hell broke loose. Alexander, Dean, Sam, and myself turned as people poured through the door. Everything went hazy for a moment before Steve summoned several specters. While I hadn’t noticed it at the time, there were cuts on his hands that fueled the summoning with blood magic. The Grim ripped chunks out of the spirits before pulsating with power and tearing them to shreds. A moment later, the building exploded.
The film cut to an aerial view of Ambrosia Lake, where thousands of chindi were coming our way. I was wearing black armor with blue highlights. Until this very moment, I hadn’t realized I’d summoned it. With a wave of my hand, a massive column of blue fire dropped from the sky to incinerate a large group of the undead. Another gesture sent huge chunks of ice tearing through their ranks.
My stomach turned. The video was mostly lies. It wasn’t that I hadn’t done those things, but from the way it was pieced together, you’d think I was singlehandedly dealing with the incursion of undead. It didn’t show how badly we were outnumbered, nor how desperate the situation had truly been. If this was all you had to go on, you’d think I was closer to a deity than some schmuck who barely knew his ass from a hole in the ground.
Having had enough of the video, I stopped it. “Where did you get this?”
Vasile grimaced. “It was sent to all the prefects and vigiles around the world a day or two after the incident took place.”
I frowned. “That didn’t answer the question.”
He nodded. “True, but I thought you should get a feel for the scope of things and the impact it’s had on our community.” He held out his hand to stop me from asking again. “As for who sent it, the email was from a Mr. Smith.”
There was that goddamn name again. Who the hell was this guy and why was he constantly in my business?
Sighing, he said, “While the video was very impressive, the fact that someone had all our contact information concerned me, so I took the liberty of trying to find the guy. But I haven’t had any luck.”
I pushed his phone toward him. “And no one thought to tell me about it?”
Vasile’s gaze hit the table. “None of us knew how to broach the subject.” He shifted in his seat. “Think of it this way. You see your new boss taking out the enemy by the score in some cryptic email. What are you supposed to do…walk up to him and say, hey, is this you?” He grimaced. “No one was sure how you’d take it, or if it was your subtle way of sending a message. What happened to us if you got pissed?” He gestured at the cell. “I’d prefer not to be on the receiving end of that type of ass whipping.”
He had a point. “Fair enough. But before we go any further…are there any more of these emails circulating that I need to know about?”
He shook his head. “No. Why do you ask?”
I sighed. “This Mr. Smith has recently popped up on my radar. In fact, when this is over, could you help Heather Broussard with what you’ve been able to uncover?”
Nodding, he said, “Sure.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “You’re good, right?”
I unclenched my jaw. “I’m fine. You should know something, though.”
He gave me a curious look. “And what’s that?”
I gestured at the phone. “We were in deep shit. Whoever spliced that work of fiction together did their best to make me look good. To be honest, if we hadn’t had some unexpected help, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Vasile chuckled. “It doesn’t matter. You were giving out a world-class beatdown on a scale most of the Archive can’t possibly begin to understand. There are only a few of us who even come close to that level of destruction.”
My cheeks burned. “Well, let’s leave that in the past. Today, we have other issues entirely.”
Vasile nodded. “That we do.”
He took a deep breath and delved into the reason he’d asked for help. As far as he could tell, everyone holding Cole hostage was human, but there were several of them. He was being kept sedated in a room at the far end of the house. But the Gotteskinder, being who they were, had rigged explosives around the property. The door to Cole’s room was wired to explode if anyone opened the door without the remote to turn it on and off. So, that would be fun.
Taking a deep breath, I asked, “What about Darius?”
His face darkened. “He’s the man in the photos at the house?”
I shrugged. “Probably, since it is his home.”
He nodded. “Well, then, he’s the leader of this group of whackos. If I had to guess, that’s how he got the drop on Cole.”
Shit. I hadn’t been expecting that.
Sighing, I said, “You know, the last few days have gone very poorly for me and the Archive in general. It’d be nice if things stopped going to hell in a handbasket sometime soon.”
He nodded his agreement. “It would be. Why was Cole up here anyway?”
I rolled my eyes. “To bring Darius to see his injured son.”
The corner of Vasile’s lips twitched downward. “Takes a special type of asshole to neglect his own or, worse yet, use them as a pawn in some game.” The bitterness in his voice suggested he had more than a little experience with the subject.
Vasile got to his feet and walked over to the old man he’d spoken to before. He reached into his pocket and produced another five bills.
Chapter 16
We left the saloon and ducked around back. After a little convincing, I armored up. What happened next caught me completely off guard. As I blinked, he stepped toward me, wrapped an arm around my waist, and pulled me tight against him with a strength I hadn’t anticipated.
Gravity tugged at me, and it was nearly impossible to breathe as we were suddenly airborne. Even with my armor, the g-forces tore at my body, and pain coursed through me then st
opped as quickly as it’d started. I’d been in fighters where pilots were simulating combat and hadn’t experienced anything like this. By the time my mind caught up with the rest of me, we were descending. We landed on a trail in China Gulch about six miles from Silver City.
Stepping back, he grinned. “Enjoy the ride?”
I chuckled. “The last part, sure—the takeoff, not so much.” My armor dissipated, and I stood there dumbly for several seconds. “So…you can fly.”
He stifled a laugh. “Obviously.” Gesturing to town, he said, “I really didn’t want to hike all the way out here.” He pointed up the ridge. “We’ve still got a way to go, but the whole flying thing saves us a ton of time.”
I gave him a thumbs-up. “All right. I guess we should get to it. What are we looking at up there?”
His expression darkened. “Once we top the ridgeline, you’ll be able to see the back of the house they’re staying in.”
I blew out a derisive snort. “I wouldn’t really call a tin shack in the middle of the woods a house, would you?”
Vasile chewed on his lip. “This isn’t what you’re expecting it to be.”
My smile faded. “Huh?”
He waved for me to follow. “We’ll walk and talk. I’m not sure how they managed it, but somehow they’ve built themselves a mini-mansion up there. Don’t ask me how they kept it a secret from the local gossipmongers, but they did.”
Gesturing at the path ahead, I said, “How many guards do we have to worry about along the way?”
He shook his head. “None. They’re supremely arrogant about their hidey hole. Good for us, bad for them.”
I nodded. “At least getting there won’t be an issue.”
Vasile’s brisk pace forced me to push myself to keep up with him, and he was probably holding back. My gifts did allow me to move at superhuman speeds when I was powered up, but that wasn’t the case right now. And I was betting that, even topped off, keeping up with the guy would be a near impossibility.
Which made the following twenty-minute hike my cardio for the month. Finally, we found a comfortable patch of ground next to a nice-sized boulder overlooking the sprawling compound below. The house itself was a modern single-story building made of white cement. At a guess, the place was probably somewhere around four thousand square feet. Luckily for us, the side facing the ridge here was made entirely of glass, making reconnaissance rather easy.
I pulled a pair of binoculars out of my bag and zeroed in on the room they were holding Cole in. It was just like Vasile had said; the door was rigged. Worse yet, they’d attached Symtec to his bed. That could prove problematic as I couldn’t be sure if the trigger was weight sensitive or hooked to the machines pumping shit into his arm. Either way, I’d have to be quick.
Scanning the room, I didn’t find anything else that’d be a problem. With luck, we could make it in and out without killing Cole. If the others died, that’d be inconvenient, but I’d definitely get over it pretty quickly. Somehow, a bunch of fanatics blowing themselves up without hurting innocent people didn’t bother me in the slightest.
There were eight guards…even if the term barely fit. They came across like regular folks playing soldier for the weekend…which was probably just what they were. But, their inattentiveness worked in our favor today. It was obvious they didn’t have any training and were winging it, as they were spread across the entire property, playing on their phones. The worst offender, however, had to be Darius.
He’d just walked into the kitchen and carelessly tossed what I guessed was the remote for the explosives onto the counter. The idiot then stopped to check his reflection in the glass. Running his hand over his Kevlar vest, he grinned stupidly as he tried to quick draw his gun but damn near dropped it instead. Frowning, he laid the pistol on the counter and opened the refrigerator.
Given his ineptitude with a firearm, he had to be the brains of the operation. Wow, were they ever in for a world of hurt.
Rolling onto my back, I sighed. “These guys are fucking nuts. If Darius keeps tossing that detonator around like that, he’s going to kill everyone there, including himself.”
Vasile sighed. “They do appear to be dumber than a box of rocks.”
I shook my head. “He sure as hell is. The others seem like weekend warriors though. Not sure how much of a fight they’re going to put up. They’re terrible guards, but they look like mini MMA fighters.”
He shrugged. “They won’t be too much of a problem.”
I gave him a once-over. “No offense, but what do you intend to fight them with? They’re all wearing body armor, carrying AR-15s, along with pistols and eight-inch Kbars.”
Sunlight danced in his eyes and a dark smile crossed his lips. “That doesn’t exactly give them an advantage over me.”
Yeah, I didn’t doubt that for a minute. “So, for the record, you’ll be fine?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
I tucked the binoculars away. “Okay, we can work this a couple of different ways. We could try to take them and then rescue Cole. Or, and this is my personal favorite, we rescue Cole and then take them.”
He frowned. “Just how do you plan on doing that?”
I pointed at the house. “Well, I can pop over and pull him out, but once I do that, things are going to get dicey very quickly.”
Squinting at me, he shook his head. “Wait—back up a bit and explain how that’s going to work, because I really don’t understand.”
I grinned. “Unlike some of my other talents, this one isn’t on film for the world to see, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
Placing his hand on his heart, he said, “I’m not going to tell anyone.”
I chewed on my lip. “I have the ability to teleport to any location I’ve ever been to before, or that I can see.” Gesturing at Cole, I said, “The fact they’ve left the window open for me makes this easy.”
He blinked. “That’s pretty damn neat. So if that’s the case, what’s the problem?”
Handing him the binoculars, I said, “Look under the bed there. I haven’t got a clue what’ll trigger it. I imagine it’s either weight sensitive or hooked up to that godawful machine attached to his IV.”
Grimacing, he nodded. “Either of those sounds like a safe bet.”
“Anyway, my plan is to grab the shit they’re pumping into him just before moving him out here. Once I do that, there’ll likely be a boom. That’ll be your signal to do whatever you’re going to do. If I can, I’ll pop back and grab Darius.”
He nodded. “Okay, sounds good.”
An instant later, I was in Cole’s room. Taking a knee, I studied the explosives and found that whoever had hooked them up were amateurs. It took me less than a minute to disarm the thing and stick the Symtec into my bag—it’d be a shame to waste the stuff since it had proven to be very helpful in the past.
Now that I had the time, I flipped off the alarms on the machine next to Cole’s bed before removing the IV from his arm and stuffing the bag into my pocket. I checked the room to ensure I hadn’t missed anything then popped back to the hillside next to Vasile.
His eyes narrowed. “No boom.”
I thumbed over my shoulder. “Disarmed it and took the explosives for myself.” Glancing down at Cole, I sighed. “We’re going to need to make this quick. I’d like to get him some help in the near future.”
He gestured at the guard who’d stepped outside for a smoke. “I’ve got him.”
Getting to my feet, I nodded. “I’ll tend to Darius.”
Vasile crossed the distance in less time than it took the flames to envelop me. I couldn’t be sure what happened to the guy but if Vasile hit him at the speed he was traveling, he wouldn’t be one of the ones I’d be questioning later.
The moment I appeared in front of Darius, he dropped his half-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich onto the counter as he scrambled for his gun. Snatching it off the counter, I planted my boot into his gut, knocking him into the cabine
ts behind him. He let out the most pathetic wail I’d ever heard.
Getting to his knees, he grabbed the detonator and held it up in front of his face. “Back off, or I’ll blow us up.”
I cocked my head to the side. “You don’t seem to have the conviction to back that up, otherwise you would’ve just done it.”
His hands shook as he lifted his thumb to press the button. “I’ll do it.”
I flicked my hand. A shard of ice about the size of a number two pencil sped across the distance to spear the controller and pin it against the far wall. “For the record, I already don’t like you, so if you continue to irritate me, I’m going to hurt you.”
He pulled his Kbar out of its sheath and lunged at me. Sidestepping the man, I slapped the back of his head. Darius stumbled into the island headfirst. His knife hit the floor and clattered away as he slumped to the ground, motionless.
I walked over, knelt, and took his pulse. He’d live, despite his stupidity.
By the time I carried the lard-ass up the hill, Vasile was waiting with three of the guards splayed out on the ridge next to Cole. I took the liberty of zip-tying their hands and feet to make sure they wouldn’t be a problem.
I gestured at Vasile. “Could you watch the others for a minute? I’d like to get someone to look Cole over and see if they can counteract the shit they were giving him.”
He nodded. “Where ya taking him?”
I thumbed over my shoulder. “New Orleans, but I won’t be more than a couple of minutes.”
He grinned. “And here I was thinking flying was the best way to travel.”
I laughed. “Back shortly.”
Seconds later, I was standing in my uncle’s living room holding Cole in my arms.
Andrew jumped to his feet. “Are you okay?”
I glanced down at Cole. “He’s the one I’m worried about. Could you get someone to give him a once-over? He was being held prisoner and given a cocktail of drugs.” I pulled out the IV bag I’d confiscated. “This was the shit they had running into him. Hopefully, it’ll help.”