by Jamie Davis
“Thanks, Victor,” Winnie said.
“I’m sorry we weren’t able to get your mother in time.”
“It’s not your fault. We had to get Cait, too. And judging by her voicemail, she was already in custody. We probably weren’t going to get her in time, no matter what we did.”
“Thank you.” Victor’s expression softened. He smiled. “I’ve got to go. Keep in touch.”
“We will,” Winnie said.
She and the others watched Victor drive off, then the small group of refugees headed into the small white house to plan their next move.
CHAPTER 18
Cricket was waiting inside, watching a small TV on the kitchen counter. Winnie walked over, stood next to the diminutive charm runner, and saw more coverage of the buses preparing for their drive to the safety camp.
“Anything new?” she asked.
Cricket pointed to the screen. “There’ve been buses pulling away in twos and threes for the last half hour. More have come to fill in the line as they left. Before each bus leaves, it’s boarded by a team of Red Leg enforcers. They must be searching the passengers one final time because every now and then they haul someone off when they disembark.”
“Who are they pulling off?”
“I’m not sure,” Cricket shrugged. “Newscasters are speculating that techs have been caught up in the sweeps, and they need them to run things here in the city. I’m guessing the newsies are right.”
Winnie watched the coverage for a few minutes, trying to get a handle on what was happening. No new buses were coming to join the ones in line. That meant they had little time to fully plan this operation. Still, the team was almost all here. They were missing Tris, but Winnie didn’t think they had time to attempt a rescue and reach the buses in time.
“We need to get to where they’re staging the buses before the last ones leave,” she announced. “Find where they’re taking these people, and fast. What if Kane has another Harvester out there somewhere … or something worse?”
Cait had been pacing from room to room, looking out the windows since. She turned to the group. “We also can’t stay here too long. Places like this always have at least one snoopy neighbor. It won’t take them too long to decide we don’t belong, especially if they’re watching the news like we are. I’d like to load up, get moving within fifteen minutes. Sooner, if we can manage.”
Danny turned to Winnie. “So, what’s the plan? We can’t just follow them in a plain white van all the way to camp. They’ll spot the tail for sure.”
“I may have a solution,” Winnie said. “Something I’ve been working on for a while. I think I’ve ironed out the kinks.”
Danny said, “Don’t tell me you figured out how to make the van fly.”
“Let me worry about it for now. You and Cricket sweep the house. Grab anything you think we’ll need if we manage to find the camp. Load everything into the van. We’ll need to smash and grab if given the chance. Cait can keep watch. Now go. I’m closing the garage door so any nosy neighbors won’t see us loading up, or how many people are on board.”
The team split up and started on their assigned tasks.
Cricket grabbed a few large trash bags, handed one to Danny, then started pulling crackers and other assorted food boxes from the pantry, before dropping them all in the bag.
Danny headed upstairs; Winnie headed through the kitchen to the attached garage, then went to pull down the overhead door. She saw a woman walking her dog. Winnie waved, smiling before she closed the door all the way.
Cait was right. They were way too visible here. They had to get moving.
She checked the van. There were several like this stashed around the city. They were used by her runners for transport and were always supposed to be kept gassed up. She turned the engine, just to make sure.
The van was larger than she would have liked. But Danny was right — they would stand out like sunlight at night if they followed the buses onto isolated back roads. Winnie hoped she had the power to pull this off. So far, she’d only tried this particular spell on things the size of a toy truck.
She closed her eyes and saw the van in her mind. She tried to think of it as a toy truck.
Winnie lifted her hands, called on the magic as she opened her eyes.
Her vision now tuned to the magical spectrum, she conducted the colored ribbons in the air to twist and bend around the large vehicle. The trick was to get the magic itself to do the work, enticing the flows to do something they didn’t want to do by prevailing on creative inclination rather than fighting to lace and weave the magic like she used to.
It took five long minutes, waving her arms and twisting her fingers despite her protesting joints. She finished, and vented a long breath, her T-shirt soaked with sweat.
She looked at the van, still in the magical spectrum, and saw fresh magic wrapping the surface.
One more thing to do.
Winnie pointed all ten fingers at the van, then brought them together, folding her hands so they were inverted. Ribbons and threads quivered around the van, then with a flip inverted in on themselves, portraying a mirror image of their prior form, all laid atop the van.
Winnie nodded and closed her eyes, shifting back to the visible spectrum.
She saw the van as it was before, but something nudged her gaze away, as if it didn’t want to be seen.
“What did you do to the van?” Cricket asked from the kitchen doorway. “It hurts my eyes to look at it.”
“That’s because you’re a chanter. To a middling, it will be unnoticeable. They’ll see the van, but it won’t seem important to them and they won’t remember it being there, even if they see it again.”
Danny entered the garage with a bag slung over his shoulder. He circled the van, passing Cricket. “Where did you want me to put this? I forget.”
“See?” Winnie said to Cricket. Cricket laughed.
“See what?” Danny asked.
“That’s a good trick, Boss-Lady. You just invented invisibility.”
“It’s not invisible, it’s un-noticeable. We should be able to follow the buses to camp without anyone realizing we’re there.”
Danny scratched his head. “Wasn’t there a van in here?”
Winnie laughed, looked at Danny’s puzzled expression, and laughed harder. She walked to the side of the van and opened the sliding door.
Danny saw the interior appear out of nowhere and smiled. “You made it invisible.”
“You’re proof that it works. I knew I kept you around for a reason.”
Danny and Cricket started loading their bags. “Gee, kid. I thought she just kept you around for your looks … ” Cricket pointed to the driver’s seat. “And your driving skills.”
He had become the crew’s default driver. He couldn’t use magic, so letting him gig as their getaway man just made sense.
Cait poked her head into the garage from the kitchen. “Dog-walking lady is going by for the third time, guys. Time to split.” She squinted at the van, then looked over at Winnie. “What did you do to the van? It hurts my eyes.”
“I’ll tell you on the way. Let’s get the rest of the stuff loaded.”
“I think we should load all the surplus military gear we have stashed in the garage, too,” Cait said. “There’s some surveillance gear in there we might be able to use later.”
“Good idea,” Winnie said. “Grab it.”
Ten minutes later, they were heading west toward Security Boulevard. The old road had gone mostly unused after the big interstate highway heading west from Baltimore was built. Now, it was a multi-lane parking lot for buses filled with captured chanters.
There were only seven buses left when Danny pulled the van into a side street off the boulevard, just outside the staging area. They watched the first four buses in the line pull away, then drove up the nearby ramp onto the interstate.
“Looks like that last three will be the final batch. We got here just in time,” Danny said.
Winnie was se
ated in the front seat beside him. She nodded, watching a group of Red Legs board the final bus. “There … ” She pointed at one of the officers. “Just like on the news shot. They’re searching passengers for anyone they don’t want to send away. Be ready, Danny. We’ll only have one shot to slip in behind them.”
Winnie was hoping that Danny could get close enough to attach a magical tracking device to that last bus in line, just in case they lost them on the highway. But she didn’t think they would slip away from them. Danny was an excellent driver.
Winnie turned back to Cait. “Have that tracker ready, Cait. You’ll have to activate it before you make the shot so I can direct the flows to follow once it’s attached to the bus.”
“Got it, Win,” Cait said, preparing what looked like a shotgun with a round, bulbous mushroom cap attached to the barrel’s end.
“They’re done searching.” Danny pointed at the disembarking officers. “It’s go time.”
The buses headed toward the ramp. Danny pulled out, accelerating to match the buses as he approached from another direction. It was time to see if there were any of Kane’s secret chanters in the group. They’d see the van immediately, since Winnie’s spell stood out to any chanter looking their way.
She hoped none of the passengers drew attention to the strange vehicle.
Danny pulled in behind the final bus. This was as close as they were going to get. Cait opened the sliding door and leaned out. Cricket held on to her belt, keeping her from falling out of the vehicle.
Cait aimed, then shot, firing the mushroom cap tracker at the back of the bus. Then she pulled the door shut behind her as Cricket tugged her back inside. The projectile inverted in flight to form a suction cup, striking the bus just over the rear bumper. Between the suction and the adhesive on the tracker’s surface, it stuck and held.
The tracker was about the size of half an orange, and could magically blend into whatever surface it attached to. The device faded from view. Winnie smiled.
She closed her eyes and drew in some energy. Then she opened them directing a series of flows at their windshield.
A transparent overlay of their route appeared on the glass. Danny gasped. There were blinking red and green lights on the overlay. He could still see well enough to drive, but now he could also see where the bus — the red light — was in relation to their blinking green beacon.
“That’s pretty cool, Win,” Danny said. “But next time, a little warning. It isn’t cool to surprise the driver like that.”
“I’ll remember that,” Winnie said, pointing to the overlay. “We can pull back a bit, now that the tracker’s in place. Just follow the red dot, and let’s see where these buses are headed.”
CHAPTER 19
They drove for hours, until well after dark.
They finally left the interstate, heading along a dirt road, hanging well behind the bus. Winnie didn’t think her spell would hide their headlights and Danny needed to see the twisting mountain road. The tracker was working, though, and they saw the bus clearly on the map on the interior of the windshield.
She looked behind her. Both Cait and Cricket were stretched out, asleep, on the bench seats. She wasn’t sure how either of them could sleep. Cait had once told her that in the army, you learned to sleep whenever possible — you never knew when the next opportunity might arise. She didn’t know what Cricket’s excuse was, but it might be a man thing. Danny could definitely fall asleep nearly anywhere.
“Winnie, they’ve stopped.”
She looked at the tracker map. The red dot had stopped moving.
Danny slowed the van and found a place to pull over so he didn’t catch up to them. “We need to get off this road. Those buses will have to come back this way at some point. They’re bound to see our lights unless we find some cover.”
Winnie looked at the overlay. It showed a few lines on the map that could be other paths off this main road, but their van wasn’t meant for off-road. They had to be careful. She pointed to a short offshoot just ahead, between them and the flashing red dot. “Drive up a little farther, Danny. Let’s see if we can pull off there.”
Danny nodded then slowly pulled forward.
They reached the spot on the map and found a small dirt track off the main road, barely wide enough for their van between the thick brown brush on either side. Danny carefully turned off the main dirt road onto the narrow path and drove until they could no longer see the road behind them.
He killed the van’s lights, then the engine. “Now what?”
“Now we wait for the buses to drive back out,” Winnie said. “Once they’re past, we can move up and see how close we can get to the camp. It’s only a few miles ahead.”
Danny yawned and looked back at Cait and Cricket.
“If you want to get some sleep, go ahead,” Winnie said. “You’ve been driving a long time. I’m wide awake and I can take the first watch. I’ll wake Cait up if I get tired. Go to sleep.”
“I think I will.” Danny took her hand. “Don’t worry, Win. We’ll find your mom. I promise.”
She smiled and squeezed his hand.
Danny reclined the driver’s seat. Winnie watched the darkness, her eyes on the faintly-glowing overlay waiting for any change. Their plan had gone well so far, especially considering how quickly they had pulled it all together. The team usually had a few days or weeks to plan their operations. Still, their fluid operation paid off when it counted. Winnie hoped it would still work that way, going forward. They’d need all the luck they could. In her mind, preparation and teamwork made helped you make your own.
Winnie settled back, listening to the soft snoring as it filled the cabin, watching and waiting.
She felt certain that, soon, everything would change.
———
The sun was just starting to rise when the red dot finally moved.
Winnie watched it come back the way it came, past them, back toward the interstate.
“Rise and shine, people,” she loudly announced. “It’s time for work.”
Cait popped up, scanning her surroundings for threats before looking at Winnie with a smile. The men were slower, slowly gathering their bearings as they woke.
Winnie waited while everyone stretched. She was tired but energized. She wanted to find out what lay ahead so they could figure out a way to free her mother. She also wanted to figure out what Kane was up to. It was impossible to believe that these camps were designed to keep chanters safe and their magic away from cities and middlings. He was up to something. She refused to believe that he’d surrendered his quest to hoard all the world’s remaining magic for himself.
Cricket and Danny climbed out of the van and went into the surrounding brush to relieve themselves. Cait leaned forward and looked at the overlay and saw the red dot headed back to the interstate.
“What now, Win?”
“I’m thinking we could use some of the surveillance gear in that military supply cache we grabbed from the safe house,” Winnie replied. “It’s all magic-enhanced. Between you, Cricket, and I, we should be able to get it working. Maybe we’ll be able to see what’s happening inside that camp.”
“I never thought I’d use all that training again after leaving the service.” Cait shrugged. “Who knew the world was going to turn upside down like this?”
“Not me. But at least we landed on our feet. I could never have done any of this without you and Tris.”
“I wish she was with us.”
“Me, too. At least we know she’s safe in Baltimore. We’ll figure out how to free her from wherever they’re keeping the techs once we’re back.”
Danny and Cricket returned. Winnie and Cait took their turns in the brush before returning to the van.
“Here’s the plan moving forward,” Winnie said, taking charge. “We’re going to drive forward and see what we can of the camp from the road. Then, we’ll find a spot out of sight, closer to the camp. We’ll use some of the extra surveillance gear from the safe
house to figure out what we’re facing.”
“Will we try and force a breakout?” Cricket asked.
“Only if some unusual opportunity presents itself. I think this will require a lot more planning than what we’ll be able to do with our limited resources, so I doubt it. First, we find my mother. Then we’ll figure out what Kane is planning for the people in the camp. He’s up to something. There might be another Harvester machine, or something like it. Finally, we’ll look for a way we could break everyone out. But it all depends on what we find out while here.”
Winnie looked at each of her companions in turn, meeting their eyes to make sure that they all understood. Each gave a small nod in affirmation.
“Let’s get moving,” she said.
Danny got behind the wheel, with Winnie riding shotgun. Cricket got in the bench right behind them while Cait stayed in back, opening military cases and sifting through their contents. Danny carefully backed the van to the main road. Winnie disabled the overlay.
It didn’t take long to find the camp. There was a massive radio tower rising over the hills ahead. It looked like a larger version of the ones around Baltimore that carried cell signals. An array of parabolic dishes and antennas were fixed to the tower’s top and sides. Some were pointed down towards the camp, and others up at the skyline.
Then, rounding the road’s final bend leading into the valley, the crew glimpsed what they would be facing. Danny pulled over.
There was a perimeter fence around the entire camp, all topped with rolling coils of barbed wire. The valley floor was packed with buildings, divided into sections with wire fencing between each. A main road turned off the dirt track, leading to a main gate next to outbuildings that must have been barracks and offices for guards and staff.
“It’s huge,” Cait observed, staring out at the sprawling camp laid out on the valley floor. “There’s more than just the people from Baltimore here. This camp is big enough to hold all the chanters from every eastern city.”
“This will be more challenging than I thought,” Winnie said. “Look how the camp is split into sections. I’m guessing there are different areas for chanters from various cities.”