The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone Omnibus 3

by Michael Anderle

  Probably live a long time because of it. Maybe I should sleep more.

  “Admittedly, this is going to be harder than a normal job,” Heather replied. “But there’s no magic so thorough that it can erase all indirect traces of people, even with some of the new hotshot infomancer-type wizards who have been showing up lately. Even that shit I did with Shay… I might have deleted the videos, but a good hacker who looked into the situation would know something had been there and was now gone. Besides, we don’t have to worry about that kind of thing.”

  James grunted. “Why don’t we? I’m not a hacker, but it sounds like it’s important.”

  “We already know she can’t do that,” Heather replied, her grin audible in her voice.

  “We do? How do we know that?”

  “Yes, we do. Think about it. The fact there are witness statements is proof she can’t erase herself from everyone’s memory, and some of these witness statements are on the net, which also suggests she’s not actively going around removing every reference to herself. Since we have those trails, that means Peyton and I can find something if we just approach this the right way. Especially since she’s limiting herself to Los Angeles and Vegas.”

  James chuckled. “Only Los Angeles and Las Vegas? That’s a lot of people and ground to cover. They aren’t exactly small cities.”

  Heather snorted dismissively. “Maybe, but they represent a tiny fraction of the world’s landmass and population, so compared to some of the searches we’ve had to do in the past, it’s pathetically simple to focus in on.”

  “Glad someone thinks so.”

  “Besides, the Silver Ghost might have a few tricks, but she hasn’t faced two world-class hackers and the world’s toughest bounty hunter before. It’s only a matter of time now that we’re targeting her. I don’t care who she is and what artifacts or spells she might have access to, she’s just one woman. There’s been no information about her having friends, and not even any information to suggest she can teleport or portal, which means she’s limited in her mobility.”

  “Good point.” James grunted. “Concentrate more on Los Angeles. All her big moves have been here, not in Vegas, and the fact she took down the 25K Triad, that gang, and the AET recently in LA makes me think she’s gearing up for more here.”

  “Okay, sounds like a plan. I’ll coordinate directly with Peyton on this.”

  “Good. If you get any hits for Vegas, pass the information directly to Trey for follow-up. He’s still in Vegas for a few days.”

  “I will,” Heather replied. “Anything else for now?”

  “Nope,” James rumbled. “Need leads before we can figure out where to go from here. Talk to you later, but if you get anything, call or text me right away. I want to take this bitch down before she kills a cop.”

  “I’ll do my best to find her.” Heather ended the call.

  James immediately dialed Trey. Hackers were a tool, and a useful one, but he’d had a long career without a dedicated hacker on his team. A man hitting the street and informants would always have a place in the bounty hunter’s arsenal.

  After James finished the explanation, Trey’s response wasn’t unexpected or out of line.

  “Damn, big man. This Silver Ghost sounds like a crazy bitch. I’ve heard a little bit about her from people, but I wasn’t sure she was real. I mean, you know what they say: seeing is believing. You’re on tv and shit, and I haven’t even seen a picture of her.” Trey sucked in a breath. “That shit is crazy though, taking down the AET when she’s supposed to be some sort of vigilante. I’m thinking she was just limiting herself to crooks because she thought the police wouldn’t come after her if she did. Probably just a psycho who likes killing people.”

  “Yeah,” James replied. “That might be the case. I want this shit high-priority. Top priority. Drop any other bounties you’re working there. I don’t give a shit how close you are to finding them, and I don’t give a shit who it is or what they’ve done. I want every man in Vegas working the informants and finding any fucking tiny-ass scrap of information they can get their hands on that might possibly lead us to the Silver Ghost. Heather and Peyton are doing their thing, but they might not be able to find her the usual ways. We need to find the Silver Ghost so I can go put an end to her bullshit. I’ll give a huge-ass bonus to anyone who gives me the tip that leads to her, and I’ll be splitting the bounty among everyone working this job.”

  Trey whistled. “Rare to hear you so worked up. Don’t worry, I’ll let the boys and Victoria know. We’ll track this silver bitch down and let you do your thing.”

  12

  A couple of days later, James and Shay stepped out of her Fiat into Warehouse Two. The loading bay door closed behind them, the rumble of the motor echoing in the spacious warehouse.

  Every time I come here, I can’t help but notice all the wasted space. Shay probably could have gotten by with a couple of warehouses. How much of it is because she needed it, and how much of it is because she thought it was cool?

  Shay headed toward the office, James trailing behind. He looked around, his gaze landing on the orange ball of fur hiding in the shadows. The cat stared at him, a far-too-hungry look in his eyes.

  Fucking cat. Probably planning how to eat us when we die. You can’t win while I’m still breathing, cat.

  James grunted. He didn’t trust cats. A dog was a loyal friend of humanity, but he half-suspected that if cats ever managed to get opposable thumbs, it’d be lights out for the human race. Oddly enough, feline humanoid races from Oriceran, at least the few he’d met, didn’t bother him.

  He didn’t worry about the inconsistency and would admit to anyone who asked that his feelings toward cats could be the result of a bounty hunter’s instinct or the simple bias of a dog owner.

  No other hungry, traitorous pets waited in the warehouse as they closed on the office where Peyton sat at his computer.

  They stepped inside. One of his monitors displayed Heather, a headset on, her hair a mess. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

  James hadn’t done much better, spending most of his time on the streets. He’d been hitting informants of all types, but his efforts had yet to yield any useful new information. As the Granite Ghost, James was a fixture in Los Angeles, a known quantity with known haunts. The Silver Ghost was more elusive, a spectral presence who appeared for a kill and then disappeared.

  “Okay,” Shay began, moving to the far wall. “We need to go over everything we have so far. I know it’s only been a couple of days since we started looking into things, but we’ve been lucky the Silver Ghost hasn’t made another move. Given the scale of her last couple of attacks, the next assault will probably involve a huge number of people. I think we’re at the point where people other than criminals will get killed. She’s already hurt some cops.”

  James gritted his teeth.

  Good thing Alison’s in school right now where she’s safe. I don’t care who this Silver Ghost is. She won’t be able to win against an entire school filled with witches and wizards.

  He nodded. “I contacted Tyler and Kathy to have them look into things on their end. If the Ghost is targeting mostly criminals, that means the underworld should have the most chatter. Kathy’s got her ear to the ground for anything useful, and Tyler’s been trying to listen in about the Ghost since she first appeared, including hitting some of his scummiest underworld contacts. If anything, he’s trying extra hard because I think he figures he’ll be the new Eyes if he can score information on her that no one else has.”

  Shay snorted. “And did he find out anything useful?”

  “Shit so far, or at least, nothing we don’t already know about the Ghost.” James shrugged. “No one knows anything about who the Silver Ghost actually is or where she’s from. They all know her victim list, but there’s no real pattern there. Street gangs, individual thugs and hitmen, and bigger organized groups like the 25K Triad. As far as Tyler knows, there’s no link between the groups.” He frowned. �
�The police are saying the same thing, so it’s not like some woman who got killed in a drive-by and was raised by a necromancer or some shit.”

  “You’re saying there’s absolutely no link at all between the victims? Excluding the AET, of course.”

  James shook his head. “A few had dealings, but only minor, and most of them haven’t had any at all. The only thing Tyler seemed certain of was that everyone’s shitting a brick over her. They’re afraid the Ghost might come after them. The cops are right to worry. Some of the bigger organizations are reaching out for muscle, particularly magical muscle. If they don’t end up fighting the Silver Ghost, they’ll probably end up fighting each other.” He shifted his gaze from Peyton to Heather on the screen. “Maria passed along some more information, but the cops don’t have much either. They’ve been too worried about what she called ‘contagious vigilantism and escalation.’ They’re finally starting to move, but still pretty slowly. I think they want to see what I shake out of the trees before making too much noise.”

  Peyton nodded. “I’ve been able to confirm what the police are saying. There’s definitely missing camera and drone footage whenever the Silver Ghost appears, but it’s not perfect invisibility. I’ve found footage of her in long-range shots. Not exactly great for details, but I can at least confirm where she’s appeared.”

  Shay smiled. “Good job, Peyton.”

  He shrugged. “Not that it does us much good. All it proves is that she can’t fly. We already knew that, but at least there’s no evidence of a helicopter or anything like that picking her up. She just does her thing and takes off, and at some point, the cameras and drones lose track of her.”

  Heather cleared her throat and leaned back in her chair, the strong backlighting in her room shadowing her face. “I’ve been trying to cross-reference everything to confirm the relative frequency of her appearances. Basically trying to make sure she’s been hitting LA more than Vegas, and it seems to be true. About four to one in appearances, although all her big kills have been here. I don’t know what to make of that pattern.”

  Shay frowned and shook her head. “I was afraid of that.”

  Everyone looked her way, but it was James who asked the obvious question. “What do you mean? Afraid of what?”

  “It’s been bothering me since the beginning.” Shay shook her head. “Why LA and Vegas? Why those two cities?”

  “She’s probably from or lives in one or the other.” Peyton shrugged. “They’re close to each other and connected by major highways.”

  “Which describes pretty much every major city in the United States, let alone California.” Shay shook her head. “If it’s just about convenience or distance, why not, say, San Diego? Why Vegas? San Diego’s closer to the border, too, so she could hop over to Mexico and beat on people there. She doesn’t seem to care about following the law, and she’s not a bounty hunter who has to worry about license restrictions.”

  James chuckled. “Maybe she’s stopping off at Jessie Rae’s between kills.”

  Shay spun toward him, a serious expression on her face. “I think that’s closer to the truth than you might want to believe.”

  Peyton laughed. “What? We don’t even know if she eats, but we haven’t found anything that suggests she likes barbeque.”

  Shay shook her head. “James said it himself—the possibility of her being inspired by him, and it’s stuck in my head ever since. I just needed some time to let it work through. A woman who has external armor with a blade and an energy blast who is hanging out mostly in LA and Las Vegas and calls herself the Silver Ghost? It’s too damned close to James and the Granite Ghost. Close enough that I do wonder if it’s a coincidence.”

  Heather looked down at the monitor for a moment, perhaps checking something on her computer before looking up and shrugging. “So what? If she’s inspired by James, that’s helpful how? It’s not like he has a particular hunting pattern we can follow.”

  James nodded. “Yeah, true enough.”

  Shay sighed. “If only it ended there. We have to think of the other big clue in all this.”

  James frowned. “Other big clue?”

  “Yeah. Besides her obsessive focus on Las Vegas and Los Angeles and similar general types of attacks, there’s one huge clue that’s been bugging me, but everyone, including the cops, keeps coming to the wrong conclusion.” Shay let out a grim chuckle. “Of course they do, because it’s a matter of paradigm, and even though I knew better, I still found myself thinking about this the old-fashioned way.”

  What the fuck is she talking about? Am I the only one who is lost here?

  Peyton frowned. “I’m really, really lost, Shay.”

  Huh. Guess not. Thanks, Peyton.

  Shay crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. “The AET team got their ass handed to them because their anti-magic bullets didn’t do anything special and their anti-magic deflectors didn’t work.”

  “Yeah, so?” Peyton shrugged. “James doesn’t have to depend on that kind of thing. If he finds her, he’ll pound her.”

  “Don’t you see? Anti-magic bullets are just normal bullets that pierce magical defenses.” Shay shook her head. “If there’s no magic involved, they aren’t any better than normal bullets. But everyone keeps assuming that the Silver Ghost has to be magical because her attacks don’t make sense otherwise. That’s bullshit, though. It presumes we have only two choices: Earth technology or Oriceran magic. We all know there are third, fourth, and probably fifth, if not infinite, options.”

  James grunted, and Heather and Peyton grimaced simultaneously.

  Shay nodded slowly. “Exactly. A powerful non-magical personal energy weapon that doesn’t require a long barrel or a dish or something? Not something you see with Earth tech, but definitely achievable by an alien woman with access to programmable nanites. When James fought the nanoform, it used different sorts of energy attacks. A mysterious woman who is powerful is sniffing around the places James goes and has non-magical weapons that are well beyond Earth tech. It has to be the alien bitch. She’s scoping out her prey’s environment, pulling huntress shit.”

  “That might explain why she’s so good at jamming drones and cameras.” Peyton scratched his chin. “She must have learned her lesson from Heather and me going after her and isn’t willing to risk anything more than local interference. If we can’t trace her, we can’t find her.”

  Heather’s eyes widened, and she nodded quickly. “Whatever she’s doing isn’t an EMP either, since normal function is restored after she leaves the area. The high level of jamming, considering she has no vehicle to carry around a jammer, would be difficult normally, but it makes sense if she has access to alien tech.”

  James frowned. “I don’t get it, though. If it’s the alien woman, why is she attacking random people? Why not come straight at me?”

  Shay shook her head. “Not random people, violent criminals. I don’t know what the hell happened to her in the past, and she obviously played me with the lance thing, but Erin spent a decade running a refugee charity. She obviously thinks of herself as some sort of champion of the downtrodden.”

  “But what about the cops? AET hunts dangerous criminals, too.”

  “That’s the trick, though. She didn’t go after AET.” Shay shook her finger. “The AET went after her. I read the police report. They even admit in the report that she gave them a chance to run away, and even though she beat them down like a Kilomea MMA fighter taking on a pixie, she didn’t go for the easy kills.”

  James snorted. “Easy? Some of those guys will be in the hospital for weeks.”

  Shay shrugged. “But none of them are dead, which is more than we can say for anyone else who has tangled with the Silver Ghost. You don’t go from chopping heads off and blowing holes in people to not killing a single man in a fight unless you’re trying. Trust me. I know. I’ve been there. No, she let them live on purpose, even if she did beat the shit out of them. It’s her sick idea of justice.”

  “Sh
e’s not a fucking champion of the people just because she didn’t murder a bunch of cops when she got the chance.” James glowered.

  Peyton took a deep breath and typed a few commands into his computer. “Okay, let’s presume it is the alien woman—Erin, or whatever her real name is. What does it all mean, besides her checking out James? She could do all of that without killing a bunch of people in LA and Vegas. Even all that calibration stuff she’s been talking about. Why not go to a war zone and do it?”

  “It’s a challenge to James, maybe?” Heather suggested. “If this is personal, then maybe she’s hoping he comes at her, or maybe it’s just a way to motivate herself.”

  James grunted and shrugged. “Doesn’t fucking matter. If it is her, I know I can win, but we still have to track her down.”

  Peyton nodded. “What about getting Victoria to do some sort of tracking spell, or maybe even Zoe? I get that Zoe doesn’t work for you, but I’m sure Trey could convince her to help.” He waggled his eyebrows.

  James shook his head. “I don’t know if the alien’s got access to anti-tracking magic or whatever, but according to the cops, the PDA can’t find her. The only chance anyone would have at this point would be if they had a physical focus, and no one’s found anything like that. Cops have confirmed they’ve got shit; no DNA, no residue, nothing.”

  “How can she leave nothing?”

  James shrugged. “The nanites probably self-destruct if they get separated from the main body. I saw that in Canada.”

  Shay sighed. “The only thing I’m concerned about is that it’s actually her and not another nanoform.”

  “Doesn’t matter. If it is, I can beat that shit easy. We need to keep up our non-magical search. If she’s not teleporting or portaling, that means she has to get from place to place somehow. We just need to find her when she’s doing that.”