“Right there.” Terra pointed at a two-story house that was still standing only by a miracle of physics.
The roar of a machine gun filled the street. Lin flinched when bullets clattered off the windshield without penetrating. The armored trucks raced ahead, drawing fire and forming a barricade in front of the house. Men and women in body armor carrying machine guns piled out and returned fire.
Something came flying out of the second-story window.
“Grenade!” a SWAT officer shouted.
It exploded just short of the armored vehicle. Shrapnel clattered off the thick steel.
More bullets bounced off the windshield of Lin’s car as he maneuvered into the barricade. He slammed it into park as another fusillade of bullets tore through the air. Lin reached for the door handle, but Terra laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.
“Stay in here. Bullets can’t penetrate the car.”
“Why not?”
Terra nodded toward Clair who was still chanting in the strange language. “She’s created a barrier that stops anything made of earth from passing through. Since the bullets are lead…”
“And the grenades?” Lin asked.
“It’ll stop the shrapnel, but if one goes off too close it might cause the gas tank to explode.”
“Terrific. What now?”
“Depends. Do you want prisoners or do you just want me to stop them as fast as I can?”
Lin shook his head at the bizarre situation he found himself in. There was a firefight going on just feet away. Bullets were clattering off his car like raindrops. Yet here he was having a calm conversation just like nothing was happening.
Another grenade went off on the other side of the SWAT van.
“A quick decision would be good,” Terra said.
“I’m a cop.” Lin grasped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. “I arrest people. I don’t kill them unless I absolutely have to.”
Terra looked out the windshield and raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think this falls into the latter category?”
What could he say to that? It looked and sounded like a war out there. He should know, he’d fought in one. “Do what you have to.”
Terra nodded, her lips set in a grim line. She began to chant in what he now recognized as the language of fire. The words picked up pace and her tone grew louder.
The roof of the flophouse burst into flame. An explosion from the second floor sent a body flying out the window. It landed in the dirt that passed for a front lawn and didn’t move.
A second man stood in the now-missing window. SWAT concentrated their fire and he fell beside his companion, riddled with dozens of bullets.
Through it all Terra never stopped her spell. The flames spread from the second floor to the first. Smoke billowed out the windows. The stream of bullets had slowed to a trickle.
The front door slammed open and a man with a red bandana covering his face stumbled out, firing a pair of submachine guns. A dozen rifles spoke as one and he went down in a heap.
“Where’s the guy from the hospital?” Lin asked.
Terra stopped her spell. “He’s still in there. His gauntlet is holding back my flames. I’m not sure if he’s alone or not.”
“I’ll tell the SWAT team. We’re going to have to dig him out.”
“No! Tell them to keep their distance. He may be able to stop the flames, but in about a minute that house is going to collapse. We can dig his body out of the rubble.”
Lady Raven smiled as she watched her minions in the makeshift viewing mirror. One by one they fell to the police and her former comrades at the Department of Magic. It hardly seemed fair, two wizards supported by a small army of cops taking on five bikers with a flame gauntlet. It was a shame. The Black Skulls had been useful pawns, but they’d played their part and like all pawns, there came a time when a sacrifice was necessary. They were loose ends and they needed to be snipped.
It was an interesting, voyeuristic experience, listening to her servants’ thoughts as they came to realize they had no hope of winning. Lady Raven had always been closely attuned to dark magic and she fed on despair and negative emotions. She focused her will on Iron Skull and settled in to watch the show.
Iron Skull coughed and raised his gauntlet. He’d stopped the flames from reaching them, but not the smoke. The silence from upstairs announced the deaths of Grim and Tough. Beside him Bone had his sleeve over his face, trying to filter the fumes. By the front door Bloody was still blasting away between coughs.
The rafters crunched above them. “We gotta go, boss,” Bone said.
Iron Skull hated running, but he couldn’t deny his lieutenant’s grasp of the situation. “Bloody! Time to go.”
“Fuck that! I’m not running from these pigs.” Bloody roared and charged out the door, a gun in each hand.
The roar of gunfire quickly went silent. So much for Bloody. Iron Skull headed for the little closet that disguised their escape tunnel. He ripped the door off and threw it aside.
His concentration faltered and the flames rushed closer. Iron Skull snarled and mentally commanded them to retreat. The fire obeyed, but like a hungry lion swirled around at the edge of his control, eager to devour him at a moment’s notice.
“Go, Bone. I’m right behind you.”
That surprised Lady Raven. She’d figured Iron Skull would toss his man aside to get through the tunnel first. You found loyalty in the oddest places. Shame she hadn’t had more time to discover Iron Skull’s hidden depths.
The house shook and rumbled as a portion of the roof collapsed. Bone disappeared down the tunnel and Iron Skull leapt in behind him. The dirt walls still looked solid. Ahead of him Bone belly-crawled like mad toward the bikes.
A tremor ran through the walls and dirt clattered off Iron Skull’s head. His breathing sped up as he tried to reach Bone. He needed to stay calm. Mistress Raven’s magic wouldn’t fail them.
Lady Raven laughed out loud at Iron Skull’s faith in her magic. If the biker had any idea what she planned he would have taken his chances with the police. Of course, Lady Raven knew he wouldn’t. Psychopaths like Iron Skull weren’t capable of giving up as long as they thought they had another option. That’s why she’d agreed to help them with their stupid tunnel. It was an insurance policy.
One of the police outside knocked on the cheap motel door. “Everything okay, ma’am?”
Her guards must have heard her laughing. “Yeah, just watching a movie. Thanks.”
Bone had almost reached the exit when Lady Raven returned her attention to the image in the mirror. She spoke a single harsh word in Infernal, canceling the earth magic she’d used to reinforce the tunnel. It shuddered and collapsed, crushing her pawns and burying them all in one go. The police should thank her for sparing them the trouble of a funeral. Another short spell severed her link with the bikers and caused the small hidden tattoos on their necks to vanish, eliminating any trace of their connection to her. If all went according to plan the investigation should come to a dead end, freeing her to move on with the next phase of the plan.
The flophouse collapsed with a resounding crash. The moment it did Terra spoke a short phrase and the fire extinguished and the embers cooled. Behind her Clair fell silent. The fight had been fierce, but short. They had the bikers outnumbered and overwhelmed in terms of both magic and weapons. The confrontation ended the only way possible. It all seemed like such a waste. What had the thugs hoped to accomplish?
Lin climbed out and Terra and Clair joined him. He looked over his car and shook his head. “Not a scratch on it.”
Clair raised an eyebrow. “You sound disappointed.”
“Maybe a little. A few bullet holes would have been a good excuse to ask for a new car. This one’s on its last legs.”
“I’ll remember that the next time we’re in a firefight,” Clair said.
“I’m not complaining.” Lin waved his hands.
“Hey, Lin?” One of the SWAT team members jogged
over. Judging from the bars on his arm he was the team commander. “If you feel the scene’s secure my guys are ready to go.”
Lin glanced at Terra. She closed her eyes and cast a simple light magic spell. There was nothing living in the rubble. “We’re good. It’s a recovery mission now.”
“You heard the lady.” Lin and the SWAT leader shook hands. “Thanks, John. You’re the best.”
John jumped into the back of the SWAT van and a moment later they rolled out. The side of the van was pocked with bullet holes and slashed from shrapnel, but none of it had gone through to the interior. They really built those things tough. Terra slipped her glasses on and found a faint magical aura around both vans. Magical reinforcement helped too.
“Are you two going to hang around?” Lin asked. “Cleaning this mess’ll take a while. We’ll need to bring the bomb squad down along with some heavy equipment.”
“I need to find the fire gauntlet and whatever they had hidden in that niche at the cafe. Until those items are secured a wizard needs to be on the scene.”
“I’ll head back to the office and inform Chief Kane,” Clair said.
Terra nodded and Lin said, “I’ll get an officer to take you.”
While Lin got one of the uniformed officers to take Clair back to the office, Terra walked over to the collapsed building and muttered, “Reveal.”
When nothing immediately popped out at her she slipped the glasses on to magnify the energy. There was a very weak lingering dark aura that matched the energy from the cafe. Those coffers must have been here either before or after they were taken to the hidden storage niche.
She also picked up a stronger fire aura, but not as strong as she would have expected if the gauntlet was buried under the rubble. Terra traced it to the edge of the ruined house where it vanished. Frowning, she walked all the way around the perimeter of the house and found no energy signature strong enough to be the gauntlet. Even under the rubble it should have glowed like a light bulb to her magical senses.
Terra returned to the last place she saw the magical energy. She stood facing the street. It was headed that way when it vanished. Did the biker from the hospital have some sort of suppressing container? There was no way to know without digging down to the body. She’d just have to be patient.
Lin joined her as the patrolmen began setting a perimeter with yellow tape. “I called in the cleanup crews. It’ll take days to sift the rubble and deal with any unexploded ordinance. I don’t suppose there’s any magic that could speed the process along?”
“Despite what some of the more arrogant wizards like to pretend, there are limits to what magic can do. I’m afraid you’ll have to sort this out the mundane way. I’d appreciate it if you started right there.” She pointed at the last place she sensed the gauntlet.
“Considering everything you’ve done for us since this investigation began I think we can accommodate your request.” Lin grinned. “After all, we have to start somewhere.”
7
Party Crashers
“The wizards killed Mort, just like Black Bird said they would.” Michael paced in the close quarters of the tiny apartment that served as the official church of the True Face of God. The four other members of his congregation watched his agitated movements with bright, eager eyes. They knew, as he knew, that the time for their glorious retribution was nigh. “For that heinous act God will punish them. He will punish them through our hands.”
“Amen!” Gabriel raised his hands in praise. Brother Gabriel was always the most demonstrative of his little congregation. He’d lost his job as a demolition worker when the company switched to using magical constructs to pull down derelict buildings. For safety, they claimed, but everyone knew the truth. The wizards had enchanted the weak-willed suits into doing what they wanted.
“Though he wasn’t a member of our congregation, Brother Call was still a fellow traveler on the true path. As a sign of our faith and to honor our fallen brother we will finish the good work he started. We will kill the boy wizard before his powers can be unlocked and his soul condemned to Hell for all eternity. Though it may cost him his life we can still save him from damnation. It’s our duty.”
That brought smiles to the faces of men eager to do God’s work. These were good men, strong both in body and in faith. They couldn’t fail, especially since Black Bird told them everything they needed to know, both when and how to best accomplish their noble mission.
“Brother John.” Michael focused his intense gaze on the youngest member of their group, a man of only nineteen years who’d been denied his rightful place at college due to the foul influences of magic. “Did you bring the item?”
John reached into the pocket of his ragged army surplus jacket and pulled out a small device with a screen and several buttons. Michael wasn’t a technical person, his skills lay in a more divine direction, but Brother John worked at an electronics store and had a gift for cobbling together technology.
“Are you sure this is right? I felt bad about stealing the components from my boss.”
Michael bent down and stared into John’s watery brown eyes. “We’re doing God’s work, son. There can be no crime while we’re acting in his name. Will it work?”
“Yes, sir. I tested it with my phone and it blocked the signal from several hundred yards and weakened it for a third of a mile.”
Michael clapped the youth on his bony shoulder. “Good man. I knew I could count on you.”
John puffed up at the compliment and sat up straighter. He’d do what was necessary. Michael saw it in his eyes.
“Brother Jacob.” Michael turned to the oldest member of the group, a still-spry sixty-year-old who ran a pawn shop and found the True Face of God after surviving a brush with cancer. “Did you bring the weapons?”
“Sure did, though a stranger collection of gear I never seen.” Jacob unzipped a green duffle bag and laid the weapons on Michael’s battered coffee table. First came a baseball bat, then a pair of chef’s knives, a three-pound sledgehammer, and last a wrecking bar. “How come we can’t just take guns? I have plenty of them at the shop.”
“The wizard’s vile magic protects the building. Black Bird says only weapons that are also tools can pass through.” Michael made the sign of the cross and spoke a prayer in Latin. “With God’s blessing these humble implements will see his task complete.”
Ezra snatched up the baseball bat. Heavyset and balding, Ezra had seen some rough years before he found his way to Michael and the church. He caressed the grip of the bat. “I was the star shortstop in high school. Feels good to hold a bat again.”
Michael smiled and folded his hands together. “It will feel even better when you use it to send the heathen to meet his maker. Take up your weapons, brothers. We go to do God’s work.”
The congregation left Michael’s apartment and piled into his white panel van. He settled in behind the wheel and turned the key. The starter whined and refused to catch. He paused and looked to heaven. “Dear Lord, if you wish us to complete your divine work please make this useless pile of metal start up.”
He tried the key again and with a little divine intervention the motor sputtered to life. The guys gave a round of Hallelujahs and Michael pulled out. They drove through the streets, watching the people go about their business, indifferent to the blasphemies surrounding them. That would all change tonight when they announced the abomination’s death on the evening news.
Fifteen minutes later they parked in the garage under the wizard’s building. There were only a few cars at this time of day so they had no trouble getting a spot close to the elevator. Though Michael had no intention of retreating it always paid to be careful.
“Are you sure we should be doing this in the middle of the day?” John asked.
“Of course.” Michael raised his fist. “We will bring judgment in the bright light of day.”
“Besides,” Jacob said. “Everybody’s at work right now. Fewer people to call the police before we finish
our work.”
“That too.” Michael slammed the transmission into park and they climbed out of the van. “Brother John, up to the roof. Call us when you’re in position and you’re ready to activate the device.”
“Yes, Michael.” The young man scurried into the elevator and pressed the button for the roof.
When he’d gone Ezra said, “Shame the kid’s going to miss the important work.”
“John has a gentle soul.” Michael pulled his knife and tested the edge. “He would be a liability to us in a fight.”
“Ain’t going to be no fight.” Gabriel slapped the wrecking bar into the palm of his hand making a meaty smack. “It’s going to be a slaughter.”
Conryu closed the big book of boring magic and banged his head on the cover. He’d been reading at the dining room table in an effort to keep from falling asleep. It had been a week since he began his house arrest and Conryu finally finished the stupid book.
Much as he might complain, if you looked past the mystic mumbo jumbo it appeared magic was nothing more than a system of energy manipulation that you altered to create the effects you wanted. As long as he looked at it that way he found he could wrap his head around it pretty well. The problem was whoever wrote the book liked to couch everything in supernatural terms instead of just saying straight out what she meant.
The alarm on his phone rang and Conryu glanced at the clock. Eleven exactly. Jonny and Rin were supposed to have lunch with him and Maria. Mrs. Kane had gone out of town for a job so they were all going to watch the opening match of the Four Nations Magical Tournament together in Conryu’s apartment. It wasn’t like he could go anywhere.
The Impossible Wizard: The Aegis of Merlin Book 1 Page 15