Burn, Baby, Burn

by R. J. Blain

  “If you say so,” I replied, picking up my pace and following my trail so I could make my way back to Quinn.

  Quinn

  I found nothing of use within the main dome of the mining complex, but the auxiliary buildings proved to be a treasure trove of death, destruction, and treachery. Three vats, the kind I recognized as suitable for the mass production of gorgon dust, were filled with a smoking dark fluid.

  Within them, I expected to find the bodies of gorgons. In time, the fluid would turn gray, and as it dried, it would become a chalky dust. A little magic from a live gorgon—or the right chemicals—would finish the process and transform the residual organic matter into a virus capable of transforming a human into a gorgon—one capable of infecting other humans with the virus that would strip victims of their humanity.

  The only good news was that none of the vats had turned gray yet; until the color changed, until they reeked of gorgon, the developing dust couldn’t hurt anyone.

  Sighing, I trotted through the remaining buildings before returning to the broken fence. “Tiffany, please call Marshal Clemmends. Notify him I’ve found three vats suitable for the production of gorgon dust. The batches aren’t complete yet, but we’re going to need more napalm.”

  Tiffany’s brows rose. “More? How many tankers are on the way?”

  “Not enough to coat this entire mine, and I don’t know if the pit has any decaying gorgons in it, either.” I sighed. “It’s a pity we’re in a dry state. This would be much more convenient if we had a lot of water on hand.”

  “I’ll call him. Are you contaminated?”

  “No. I would shift if I were.” I flattened my ears at my unfortunate tendency to shapeshift when exposed to any significant gorgon magics. “The dust is in development, and I don’t know if the heat from the napalm will finish the batch, so also request a secondary containment shield. There’s a lot of potential dust in there.”

  Janet stared at me, her eyes narrowing. “Do you think this is related to the 120 Wall Street event?”

  “Anything is possible at this point, but I don’t think Winfield became involved until later. My feeling for him was he was out for revenge over what happened at Wall Street. It does make me think Audrey was involved; she’d been involved with a live batch of dust when she kidnapped Bailey. And she’d tried to infect her brother with dust, too. Is there someone else behind the dust production? That I can’t tell you. But hopefully this will be the end of it.”

  Janet nodded. “That makes sense. It does make me worried Morriston is involved, however. He would’ve known you married Bailey and that she had been a major player at 120 Wall Street. If he is angling for your job, Winfield would be an ideal accomplice.”

  “We could just be creating conspiracy theories, too,” I muttered.

  “That’s also true.

  “What about the rabies incidents?” Tiffany asked.

  “That’s a good question.” I considered the various options, marveling how anyone would treat life as though it were cheap and readily replaced. “It really depends on what the motive is. Unless there is a mass outbreak, it’s easy to treat humans. It’s much harder to treat gorgons. Maybe someone’s out to trim the numbers of both species? If gorgons are easily infected with rabies, humans can be infected with gorgon dust, a large-scale epidemic could be triggered in a very short period of time. That would leave humans naturally resistant to the gorgon virus as the sole survivors. The cream of the crop, so to speak.”

  “That theory is disturbingly sound but ambitious. Neutralizer does mess with gorgon biology,” Tiffany stated. “So it’s harder to cure because the neutralizer isn’t as effective on gorgons. Correct? But it can work; your children are evidence of that. Glass coffins can work on gorgons.”

  “Along with divine intervention. The question is this: which divine helped the children?” I shrugged. “I’ll ask some of my relatives if they can shine some light on this. My grandfathers have meddled some. The rabies shouldn’t be an issue moving forward, from my understanding of the situation. I hate not knowing.”

  “Your job must drive you insane,” Tiffany muttered, shaking her head. “I’ll call that asshole, but I’m expecting special treatment from you in the future.”

  I snorted flame, amused over what I knew would happen over the holidays. “An arrangement can be made.”

  “See, Janet? This is how you handle police chiefs. You demand bribes to do unpleasant work.”

  “I get a paycheck. Apparently, that’s the only bribe required for me to do unpleasant work.”

  Whinnying a laugh, I spun around and resumed my search of the complex, hoping I wouldn’t find anything else.

  I had enough trouble to last a lifetime. Maybe once Bailey returned, I’d be better equipped to handle additional trouble. Then again, Bailey brought extra trouble wherever she went.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Bailey

  The trail led deep underground to a cave filled with floating crystals that shed golden light. The warmth of the afternoon sun flooded the place. My magic guided me to a crystal nearby.

  “Welcome to a nexus,” Anubis announced. “The last time I was here, there weren’t any crystals, just balls of light. I suppose change comes to even us.”

  I peered at the crystal wrapped in my sparkling magic. “This lead to Earth?”

  “Yes.”

  “You make trouble for fun,” I accused. “I wait until sunrise near Quinn? Then ride sunlight?”

  “Sunny would make it easier for you—and allow you to return faster. Or you could use that pretty bracelet of yours to forge a connection with little Samuel. Either would work. My grandson was properly forged into a conduit for your use.”

  I regarded the divine with narrowed eyes. “Forged? That sound painful.”

  “The Devil decided to involve himself and may have exposed little Samuel to copious amounts of hellfire while he was a cindercorn. Add a little angelic magic in the form of your bracelet, and you can home in on him. I am disappointed I didn’t think of such a trick myself. I merely acquired Sunny for you and made certain she could reach you no matter where you went—and provide a way back to Earth. She’ll be here soon.”

  “My puppy? Here? Soon?”

  “It took her a while to give the Devil the slip. He is rather persistent and wants you to use his magic rather than mine.”

  Divines. I could trust them to be competitive idiots.

  Anubis barked a laugh. “Indeed.”

  Damned mind-reading divines.

  “That, too.”

  A howl drew my attention to the stairwell leading back to the surface, and several moments later, a golden wolf barreled down the stairs. She crashed into Anubis, bounced off, and plowed into my legs. The animal’s tail beat against me, and she yipped her excitement. I lowered my head and sniffed the animal, who didn’t seem like much of a puppy to me; she came up to my belly at the shoulders.

  “She’ll be more of a puppy back on the mortal coil,” Anubis promised. “She’s in her prime here.”

  “What I do with her?”

  “Sunny, shine,” Anubis ordered.

  The wolf sat, lifted her head, and barked once. Then her fur began to glow with a golden light, and she radiated warmth.

  “That it? I use this light?”

  “Visualize who you want to go to, and her light will shine there. But note that this only works between here and the mortal coil. Some limitations can’t be circumvented. This is one of them. One-way street.”

  “So I can go to Quinn?”

  “Yes.”

  “And nothing bad happen?”

  “You’ll startle him, I’m sure.”

  I liked the sound of that. “We go now?”

  “You can go now if you’d like. Give it a try. I’ll nudge you along if you need help.”

  I scoffed at the thought of needing help to ride a beam of sunlight, even when the sunlight radiated from my puppy. “Okay. Sunny come, too?”

  “She�
��ll follow you. Your magic will leave a trail she can ride, much like you ride sunlight.”

  “You coolest puppy ever,” I announced, nuzzling the wolf.

  Of all the magic I’d ever done in my life, concentrating on Quinn came easily.

  In all ways, he was the center of my universe, even when I refused to admit it and struggled with the basics, including telling him just how much I loved him.

  Words were never enough.

  Quinn

  In the three hours it took the tankers and mages to arrive at the mine, I found little evidence of use, although I did find a laptop, several wallets, blood samples, and the frozen body of a gray wolf encased in plastic.

  I dragged everything to the pile of evidence to be checked over and taken away for examination. When a CDC representative in a hazmat suit approached, I pointed at the stash. “This is everything of potential importance I found that probably isn’t contaminated with gorgon dust. Check for gorgon dust and rabies, please.”

  The representative nodded, turned on his scanner, and went to work.

  The evidence showed no signs of contamination from gorgon dust, but the scanner squealed when he tested for rabies. The wolf proved the primary source of the virus, but it also contaminated the other material.

  “Is the wolf virus the same as on the wallets? I tried to avoid cross contamination, but I’m somewhat limited right now.” I eyed the wolf body, wondering why the gorgons had kept such a thing so close to their hive. Had the wolf been brought in before or after the hive had been infected with rabies? The presence of rabies on the rest of the evidence indicated the hive had been wiped out by the illness.

  I wondered if John Winfield was the idiot with aspirations to become a god. The ampoule of ambrosia implied he was the kind crazy enough to wield the divine essence as a weapon—or as a tool to become divine.

  No matter how I turned the situation over in my mind, I couldn’t figure out how the pieces fit together.

  The CDC rep fiddled with the settings on the scanner and held it over the pile of evidence. It squealed and began to beep. “There are four distinctive strains of the rabies virus present.”

  “Is that device sensitive enough to determine if any of those strains have the capacity to be airborne?”

  “Rabies is bad enough without the risk of it becoming airborne,” the representative complained, but he fiddled with the device again. “One virus sample is still alive, but I have no way of knowing if it might be airborne.”

  “Seal everything and treat it like it’s airborne. Just in case. Make certain no gorgons are exposed to the virus.”

  “Such as yourself?”

  I snorted flame. “Do you think the virus will survive exposure to napalm?”

  “No. I don’t.”

  “I’ll be fine. But you can have me dunked in neutralizer if it makes you feel better. No glass coffins, though. My wife will rampage if you put me anywhere near one of those.”

  “We could distract her for the three hour session. Or have her go in for a run, too. She just loves glass coffins.”

  I considered the rep. “You know Bailey?”

  “I teleported from Washington, sir. I’m one of her trainers.”

  I flattened my ears. “Bomb trainer?”

  He laughed. “I’m Roberto Dascurne. I’m not one of the bomb techs. I’m specialized in infectious diseases, and I’ve worked with her on immunity tests.”

  I relaxed. “How’d she do? She threw a party when her last batch of evaluations was finished.”

  “Great. I’ve figured out what causes her immune system to crash.”

  I lifted my head. “You have? What is it?”

  “When she’s overexposed to neutralizer, one of her genetic markers switches from on to off; the marker is the one responsible for the production of antibodies. When this marker is off, the antibodies she currently has cease to function. It’s the same basic idea of how angels can become infected with human diseases at will—and purge them at will. They flip this specific marker on and off at will. Bailey isn’t capable of switching the marker on and off at will. Neutralizer is essentially a form of solidified magic.”

  “But she doesn’t have any angelic blood.”

  “No, but she has a great deal of divine DNA. The ability of angels is divine in nature. But, now that I have a good idea of what’s causing it, it’s an easy fix.”

  “What do you mean? How is it an easy fix?”

  “If her immune system fails, just give her an injection of ambrosia. That will turn the gene marker back on and reboot her immune system. Her immune system will then purge everything from her body. Hey, can you do me a favor?”

  “What favor?”

  “Convince Bailey to let us do a rabies test on her. The next time she finds a rabid puppy in a dumpster, don’t start treatments right away. Give it a week. After we can confirm infection, we’d like to flip the gene off for twenty-four hours and then flip it back on. We want to see if she’ll purge the virus like angels do.”

  The CDC needed to employ Tiffany full-time. She would be right at home with the crackpots who wanted to do research on my wife. “Write up a full report of all issues you expect, pitch it to Bailey. If I have to adopt another rabid dog or cat because of this, the CDC will be responsible for helping me find a bigger house. And the CDC will provide a trainer for exotic animals so we can both be licensed.”

  “I heard about the ocelot.” Roberto nudged the wolf’s corpse. “This is useful, as we do have that small pack of rabid wolves; if this virus sample matches their strain, we might have a good lead on the investigation. One of the wolves might be a suitable animal for your adoption.”

  “Why?”

  “She likes humans too much. She’s not a good release candidate.”

  “What are the odds she could become a wolf ambassador for the general public?”

  “Pretty high.”

  I sighed. “I’ll talk with one of my dog trainers, and we’ll see if we can work with the wolf. Send word along the line we’ll take responsibility for the wolf if there isn’t a better placement for her elsewhere.”

  “Excellent. I’ll let you know, and I’ll send trainers for wolves and large felines in the next few weeks so you can be fully licensed. In the meantime, I’ll have temporary permits issued for you.”

  “Call me after we get this mess dealt with. Best time would be in early January. What’s the ETA on the tankers being ready to flood this place out?”

  “Give me half an hour to get this evidence contained and into our truck, then we’ll need twenty minutes to get the water tankers converted and start pumping. Try to avoid eating too much napalm, Chief Quinn. However amusing it is to watch a unicorn get drunk on flammable materials, you will not appreciate the hangover tomorrow.”

  “If my wife shows up, all bets are off.”

  “The last thing anyone needs is two cindercorns hopped up on napalm.”

  I whinnied my laughter. “Then tell the CDC to get on finding reliable ways to light this blend of napalm. If you could do that reliably, you wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”

  “I would’ve asked for a phoenix feather, but the last time we went that route, we got the whole damned birds, and that’s even worse than drunk cindercorns.”

  “Well, maybe the next time my wife requests napalm, you’ll listen. When she has to get creative, she gets really creative.”

  “Trust me, we know. We’ve learned our lesson. I wish you the very best of luck containing her in the future. You’re going to need it.”

  Bailey

  Unlike when I hitched a lift on a sunbeam, time distorted. I supposed distance factored into it; light only traveled so fast, and I had no way of judging how far of a gap I had to cross to travel between the divine realm and the mortal coil.

  I disliked the darkness, but I looked forward to seeing Quinn.

  Had I been thinking, I would’ve realized life rarely went my way. Instead of my usual, somewhat graceful land
ings, I popped into existence and crashed directly onto my target. I squealed, Quinn crashed to the ground beneath me, and had he been human or been a gorgon-incubus doohickey, I would’ve crushed him.

  The peppery spice of napalm filled my nose, and after a stunned moment, I realized the gel-like fluid surrounded us.

  “So nice of you to drop in,” my husband muttered. “Could you please get off?”

  “Oops.” I rolled off him, splashed into the napalm, and scrambled to my hooves. Then I licked napalm off my husband’s nose. He tasted even better when drenched with the sparkly gel. “Best present!”

  Quinn groaned and rolled to his hooves, and the napalm dripped from his coat. “Welcome home. Enjoy your trip?”

  A flash of golden light drew my attention, and a moment later, Sunny landed on my back. “Yes! Look! Puppy.”

  Quinn reached over, seized Sunny by the scruff of her neck, and waded through the napalm in the direction of a bright light. I realized someone had set up a spotlight near several large tankers, which were hard at work flooding the area with my favorite treat. I trailed behind Quinn, prancing in the gel while he delivered my puppy to Tiffany.

  “Please make sure there’s no napalm in her coat,” Quinn said, releasing my puppy once certain Tiffany had a good hold on her. “Thank you.”

  Tiffany held my puppy in one arm and waved at me. “Nice entrance, Bailey.”

  “Nice? I squish Quinn,” I wailed.

  “He handled it with grace. He hasn’t been completely squished. He’s only slightly tenderized. Right, Sam?”

  “I’m fine, Bailey. You startled me. We have to light up some napalm now. You can rub my back later as penance for landing on me.”

  Quinn’s recommended ‘punishment’ caught my attention, and I regarded him with a hungry look. “Will need baby-sitter. Will take long time to rub back.”

  “I’m sure I can coerce one of my relatives to watch the kids for a while.”