by S. C. Stokes
Kasey groaned as she fought to extricate herself from Sanders.
Sanders struggled to his feet. "Rest assured, that was no more pleasant for me than it was for you." Motioning at the stairs, he continued. "Care to try again?”
Kasey struggled to catch her breath. "Oh no, this one’s all yours."
The thug started down the stairs toward them.
“Have at him,” Kasey said with a nod.
Sanders looked up as the thug closed in with a wild haymaker. Ducking under the blow, Sanders drove his fist straight into the man's solar plexus. The thug groaned but gave no other acknowledgment of the hit. Instead, he launched another punch at Sanders.
Sanders sidestepped the blow. The thug stumbled forward, sailing between Kasey and Sanders, and punched the wall. His meaty fist shattered straight through the plasterboard. Without hesitating, he yanked his hand free of the wall and turned on Kasey once more.
"Enough!" Kasey shouted, stepping in. She drove her fist straight into the man's kidneys. She launched a second and a third, landing all three punches in quick succession.
The thug swung his right arm to backhand Kasey as he turned.
Ducking under the blow, Kasey puffed as she threw another punch at his chest. As her fist closed the distance between them, Kasey closed her eyes and channeled her energy. Lacing the blow with arcane energy, she chanted "Haearn!"
Her fist hit the towering thug like a freight train. His eyes bulged as his chest caved beneath the thunderous blow. The momentum of her magic threw him back into the wall he'd just drawn his fist out of.
The plasterboard put up little resistance. The thug landed between two beams, wedged into the wall cavity. He barely resisted as he struggled to gain his breath. Kasey suspected that she may have punctured a lung.
Sanders drew back and delivered a thunderous blow to the thug’s chin. The thug collapsed; his weight carried by what was left of the wall as he slumped unconscious.
"He’s going to hate life when he wakes up," Sanders said, staring at the thug.
"Serves him right for tossing me down the stairs," Kasey replied. "And look at this, I just got these clothes today and already they're trashed."
She pointed to a large hole in the front of her hoodie. The material had torn when the thug had dangled her like a rag doll.
"Well, let's hope there's just the one of those, shall we?" Sanders asked. “Because I hate to think of what might have happened if he’d connected with one of those punches."
Kasey brushed back her hair. "Let's hope we never find out."
Together, they started back up the stairs. This time, Kasey took them one at a time, her eyes scanning for threats ahead.
As they reached the top of the landing, angry shouts carried down the hall. The language was foreign to her, but the tone was readily understandable. They were furious.
Kasey peered into the hallway. Like the first floor, apartments lined either side. Since they did not know the layout of the Night Crew’s lair, they would have to sweep the building room by room to find what they sought.
Kasey held her finger to her lips. She listened for the direction of the shouting. She and Sanders crept down the hall to investigate. As they moved, they opened doors, checking each room. The small apartments were completely empty, the tenants having been evicted months ago.
At the end of the hall, they found the last door closed. From within the closed apartment, the shouting continued unabated.
Sanders held up his fingers and slowly counted down with them, one, two, three. Reaching three, he kicked in the door.
The lock broke, and the door swung inward. In front of them sat two tables in what had once been a lounge room. Piled high on each table were packages wrapped in silver foil stacked neatly in tight formations like bricks on a pallet. Each of the tables was stacked almost as tall as Kasey. Standing behind the table were three thugs. One of them was shouting orders while the other two busily tried to load the bricks onto a trolley.
At the commotion, the thugs whirled about.
Sanders advanced on the three thugs. They were shorter than their compatriot on the stairs, but they were heavily armed. The man barking orders drew a silver pistol from his waistband and pointed it at Kasey. The two brutes loading their trolley abandoned their labors and reached for the AK-47s that were draped across their backs.
I’ll never reach them in time.
Sanders called to Kasey, “You shield us, I've got them.”
Kasey nodded and began to chant, hastily drawing a shield around them. The translucent barrier washed over them until it completely enveloped them in its protective embrace.
It shimmered to life right as the thugs unleashed hell. The automatic rifles spat fire and death in a devastating fusillade. The bullets struck Kasey's barrier and ricocheted wildly around the room. The noise was deafening as the leader added his own weight of fire to the fray. The shining silver Desert Eagle bucked as he discharged each shot.
Despite the chaos, Sanders’ focus was second to none. Kasey could not hear his words, but she watched his lips move. The rightmost thug’s jaw dropped open as his weapon began to wheel around of its own accord. The thug strained against the weapon as he fought the invisible force of Sanders’ magic, but the assault rifle continued to fire as it emptied the last of its magazine straight into his companion.
The leader looked momentarily surprised, as if the man had been a traitor, then turned and shot him at point blank range.
He released the magazine on his weapon, dropping it to the floor, and drew a second in the same deft motion. The magazine slammed home and the man was firing again before Kasey and Sanders had the luxury of taking advantage of the situation.
Safe behind Kasey's shield, Sanders chanted once more. The Desert Eagle began to glow. It was subtle at first, as if the weapon was reflecting the overhead light, but soon it turned an angry shade of red. The leader flung it to the floor and shook his hand. His palms were scorched red at their brief contact with the burning weapon.
He turned to run, but there was nowhere to go. Kasey and Sanders, in their shield, blocked the doorway. Behind him, the second-floor window had a significant drop beneath it. It wouldn't kill him, but it would injure him. Before he could make the decision, Sanders closed the distance and drew his own weapon, pistol whipping the thug with extreme prejudice. The man collapsed in a heap.
"Is that what I think it is?" Kasey asked.
"Cocaine," Sanders replied. "A lot of it, too. That much must be worth millions.”
Kasey sighed. "This isn't quite what I was expecting. I was hoping for cash.”
She nodded at the table laden with drugs.
"Me too,” Sanders said. “It has to be somewhere though. With this much product, we’ve clearly found one of their stash houses. If the drugs are here, so is the money. It must be upstairs."
Kasey followed Sanders to the door but paused. Looking over her shoulder, she called to Sanders. "We can't leave all this here. If this reaches the street, it will destroy thousands of lives and fund their activity for months to come.”
"There will always be more drugs. It’s like trying to stop a tidal wave with just your hand.”
"Yeah, but these drugs can still destroy lives now.” Turning, she put out her arms and focused on the mountain of narcotics. "Pêl Tân."
Flames erupted from her outstretched hands before hurtling into the tables. Focusing her mind, she increased the intensity of the blaze.
In a matter of moments, tens of millions of dollars’ worth of narcotics disappeared in the fire storm, leaving only a scorched mountain of ashes.
Kasey cracked a grin. "That ought to help put a dint in the Night Crew’s business."
Sanders pointed to the door.
Kasey hurried toward him and gestured. "After you, Sanders. Age before beauty."
"Ladies first, I insist," Sanders replied.
Kasey shrugged and strode back into the hall.
The sound of weapons bei
ng racked filled her ears.
She halted, looking up.
"Oh, my word," Kasey muttered as her heart stopped.
Chapter Six
At the far end of the hall stood a wall of Night Crew wielding assault rifles.
Kasey only had one avenue of escape open to her. She drove straight back into the room where the Night Crew had been storing their narcotics. As she hit the floor with Sanders, gunfire erupted from the end of the hall.
Hundreds of rounds filled the narrow hallway, turning it into a death trap. If not for her quick thinking, Kasey would have been riddled with bullets.
After a withering round of fire, the Night Crew halted.
"Holy hell," Sanders began. “These guys are packing more firepower than a small army."
"Well, from what I've heard at the Ninth Precinct, most of their hardware is purchased from black-market suppliers overseas. They are certainly the most heavily armed of the gangs currently plaguing New York. On the rare instances that the NYPD do go after them, we normally require a complete SWAT deployment. Our patrols simply end up outgunned. A few months back, one of the units from the Eighth Precinct stumbled onto a Night Crew warehouse. Not realizing what they had found until it was too late, both them and their squad car were cut to ribbons. The Night Crew have no respect for law enforcement. They are far more afraid of their overlords than they are of anything we can do to them," Kasey said from where she remained on the floor.
“Well,” Sanders replied, "I'm not with the police and they ought to be terrified about what I can do to them."
He picked himself up off the ground and approached the door.
A steady advance of footsteps moved toward them. Kasey went to get up, but Sanders motioned for her not to move. At the door, he simply drew his weapon, reached around the door jamb, and emptied the magazine down the hall.
There were shrieks as Sanders’ shots slammed into the Night Crew. Several bodies struck the floor. With the solid mass of Night Crew moving toward them it would have been impossible to miss. In spite of their losses, the Night Crew pressed on, their advancing footsteps still audible against the wooden floorboards of the hall.
Sanders dropped his spent weapon and raced away from the door. In mere milliseconds, the entire door frame was riddled by automatic weapons fire.
The Night Crew alternated between advancing and firing cover fire at the door of the room Kasey and Sanders were now huddled in.
"They aren’t going to give you another chance to do that,” Kasey replied.
"Nope," Sanders shouted between gunshots. “They are going to wish they had, though, because I'm a lot less dangerous with a gun than I am the other weapons I have at my disposal."
"Magic?" Kasey asked.
"You better believe it," Sanders replied. “I just wanted to bait them in, so we don’t have to chase them down.
The thugs were getting closer and closer every minute.
Kasey and Sanders got to their feet.
"We can't go out that way,” Kasey replied. “There is too much firepower. Tanking that many bullets earlier was more draining than I would have liked."
"You’re right." Sanders looked from the door to the apartment wall. “What we really need to do is flank them, and I think I have an idea."
While the Night Crew pushed up the hallway, Sanders approached the wall that divided the stash room from the apartment next door. Reaching the wall, he raised his hands and muttered an incantation. His voice was faint, and Kasey could barely hear him.
Before her eyes, the section of the plasterboard wall, already pockmarked with gunfire and bullet holes, became translucent. As Sanders continued to chant, a section of the wall appeared to vanish entirely.
He gestured toward her. "Come on, Kasey, through here quickly."
Kasey followed Sanders through the portal-like opening and into the next room. He closed his fist and the portal dispersed. Kasey found herself looking at the solid, albeit beat up, wall once more.
"That was new," Kasey whispered. “You’re going to have to teach me that one. Did we just walk through a solid wall?”
"Yes and no,” Sanders replied with a grin. “That particular spell shifts the constituent atoms apart until there is nothing but empty space. Technically, we walked through nothing, but the effect is much the same."
"They didn't teach us that at the Academy,” Kasey replied.
"No, I imagine not,” Sanders answered looking around the new room. “Can you imagine the mischief students would get up to if they could walk through solid walls? As far as I know, I am one of the first to have attempted that particular spell. It’s a blend of magic and science. I've never even seen anyone else try it.”
"You mean you invented it?” Kasey asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not quite. I read about a wizard who was able to do it in an old case file but like many ancient spells, it's something that has been forgotten or fallen into disuse over time. Perhaps because of the complexity of the enchantment. If you get it wrong, the wall can re-materialize with you still inside, and the results would be highly undesirable."
"I see,” Kasey responded, biting her lip. “Still, that could come in handy. You’ll have to teach me later."
Sanders smiled. “I can do that. Keep in mind though that I spent weeks practicing that one in the archives, before I was game to try it in the field. Probably best not to attempt it while we have gun wielding maniacs closing in on us.”
Sanders raised his hands and approached the next wall. “Here we go, in ancient English, the word you want is Naht. I am not sure of its Welsh equivalent. The key is to ensure your mind is clear. Your only thought should be the wall before you and your desire for it to be made up of nothing but empty space. You only want to move the particles for a moment, you don't want to move the wall entirely. For them to return, I would chant Edcierr."
Sanders mouthed the incantation once more and the wall before him moved. In moments, there was simply a shimmering portal into the adjacent room.
"Love it,” Kasey replied, charging into the next room.
Sanders continued guiding them through room after room until they had slipped past the advancing Night Crew in the hallway.
When they reached the final apartment, Kasey headed for the door and cracked it open. She peered out. The Night Crewmen at the far end of the hall were readying to breach the room she and Sanders had been in only minutes before.
Their attention was wholly occupied by the room they are about to storm. Kasey risked a glance to the left toward the stairs. There was no one there. Pulling the door open, she stepped into the hall, Sanders right behind her.
The Night Crew raised their weapons and rushed into the stash room. Silence fell over the floor. A moment later, the Night Crew filtered back into the hallway, muttering amongst themselves. They stopped and turned their attention to Kasey and Sanders waiting for them.
Kasey and Sanders bellowed their incantations in a glorious duet of deadly magic. Lightning leapt from Kasey's outstretched palms, arcing down the hallway at the speed of light. Sanders unleashed a volley of arcane missiles. Together, their spells turned the hallway into a war zone.
The Night Crew didn't have a chance to raise their weapons before the arcane fusillade tore through them. Kasey's lightning collided with their front rank, sending thousands of volts through their unprotected frames. Lightning surged through their bodies before earthing itself into the hallway floor. As the first row of men collapsed, Sanders’ barrage sailed over them and struck those behind them.
The Night Crew might have been the most fearsome gang in all of New York City, but they had never had to face a magical onslaught and their weapons were no match for the energy employed against them. Their faces were drawn, their jaws open in slack-jawed terror.
Those who had been shot by Sanders earlier had got off light.
Kasey may have had compassion for the innocent, but for those who profited from the misery of millions, she had none. She continued h
urling arcane energy down the hallway.
A hand on her shoulder dragged her back to the present.
"Pretty sure that's all of them, Kasey,” Sanders replied. “Let's keep moving. Only one more floor to go. The money must be up there. That’s where these guards came from.”
Kasey sucked in a deep breath to calm herself. Following Sanders, she made for the stairs. Together, they took the final staircase. Kasey searched ahead as she went.
They rounded onto the landing. To their surprise, the top floor of the apartment building had also already been partially demolished and somewhat remodeled. Instead of a hallway with apartments running off it, they found the entire floor was now a single open plan space. The only exception was a large steel room that dominated the back right-hand corner. Around the room laid a series of weapons cases that had been opened.
In the center of the room was a large wooden desk and seated behind it was a Caucasian man in his forties. The man’s sandy blond hair was dappled with the first hints of gray. Wrinkles at the corner of his eyes spoke of terrible stress as did his creased forehead. The man appeared to be unarmed.
Kasey and Sanders approached him cautiously.
“I take it you two are responsible for the destruction below?” the man asked, his voice surprisingly neutral.
"Indeed, we are. Your men resisted and were dispatched as a result. You ought to learn from their mistake,” Sanders warned.
The man raised both hands in submission. "Pray, tell, what brings you to the Night Crew's territory? You have to know that an attack such as this is suicidal. You may have killed a few foot soldiers, but we number in the thousands. We have a veritable army behind us.”
"For all the good these ones did you,” Kasey replied, pointing to the floor beneath.
The Night Crewman smiled. It was unsettling.
“Are you the Night Lord?” Sanders asked.
The man chuckled. "Heavens, no. I'm merely a Lieutenant. So, if you've come for him, you are going to be bitterly disappointed. Who are you, anyway? Assassins? Rival gang members? Feds?"