by Dan Willis
Alex knew better than to argue. Sherry could read people with just a touch, and if she thought Carmen had an affinity for alchemy, then she did. It was clear Carmen needed some direction in her life, and both Grier and Kellin could use the help.
Alex and Iggy showed the group to the door and watched from the stoop as they got into Danny’s car and drove away.
“You got lucky,” Iggy said as they headed back inside.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked. “I had everything covered with my brilliant plan.” He wasn’t being serious, but he wasn’t taking Iggy’s criticism seriously either.
“I mean that Randolph expected you to have a rune on your body,” Iggy said, poking Alex’s good shoulder. “That’s why he had you strip down to your birthday suit. If you’d tattooed it on like normal, he’d have seen it and probably would have shot you right then.”
Alex had to admit, Iggy was right about that.
“Thank goodness linking runes are invisible when you write them correctly,” Alex said. “You should have seen the look on Randolph’s face. He was so smug, thinking I was defenseless. I told him that just because you can’t see something, it doesn’t mean it’s…” Alex hesitated as something brushed past his memory.
“It’s not what?” Iggy prodded.
“Just because you can’t see something, it doesn’t mean it’s not there,” he repeated, feeling as if he’d just been struck by lightning. Without a word, he bolted for the stairs, running up two flights to his room. Pulling out his watch, he released the bindings on the vault cover door and ran past the vault bedroom and kitchen on his way to the main hall. Turning right he kept going to the place where his mobile door would appear when he opened it. Sitting on a narrow table nearby was his kit bag, and he scooped it up.
Alex stopped just long enough to grab something from the secretary cabinet where he kept his spare tools, then he ran back down to the brownstone’s library.
“What is it?” Iggy demanded, looking affronted that Alex had run off without an explanation.
“Just because you can’t see something, it doesn’t mean it’s not there,” he repeated.
“Yes,” Iggy said. “I heard you the first time.”
“Sherry,” Alex explained, a little out of breath. “She can read people when she touches them. Ever since I found out about her gift, she’s only been able to read one thing from me.”
Iggy nodded at that.
“You aren’t seeing what isn’t there,” he repeated. “But that doesn’t make much sense, does it? If something isn’t there, you obviously can’t see it.”
Alex grabbed Iggy’s shoulder with his free hand.
“What if we’re coming at it backwards?” he said. “What if it doesn’t mean that I’m supposed to see something that isn’t there? What if it means that I haven’t noticed that something that’s supposed to exist…doesn’t.”
“You mean something that you should see is gone,” Iggy tried to make sense of what Alex had said. “Like what?”
“Put this on,” Alex said, handing Iggy his spare oculus.
“All right,” Iggy sighed as he strapped the mini telescope over his right eye. Alex reached into his kit and took out his main oculus and strapped it on as well, then he took out his multi-lamp and fitted it with the ghostlight burner.
“Are you going to tell me why I’m wearing this?” Iggy said in a sardonic voice. Ghostlight, after all, revealed magical residue, something the entire brownstone would be covered in, especially after they used all those mending runes to repair the explosion damage.
“Moriarty,” Alex said. “When he talked to me, he quoted Archimedes.”
“The bit about the lever and the place to stand to move the world,” Iggy said with a nod. “What of it?”
Alex didn’t answer. Instead he went to the bookshelf and took down the Archimedean Monograph and opened the front cover. Holding it out so that Iggy could see, he pointed to the blank page just behind the cover.
“Moriarty chided me when I didn’t know the Archimedes quote. He told me it was written on the first page of the Monograph.”
“That page has never had anything written on it,” Iggy said, leaning close. “It’s definitely not there.”
Alex took out his lighter and lit the ghostlight burner in the lamp. As soon as the light began to shine out through the main lens, Alex held the book into the beam. Instantly, glowing words sprang into existence, hovering over the page as if they were written in the air.
Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world.
~Archimedes of Syracuse
“Mother of God,” Iggy swore. His hand trembled as he reached out and turned the first page. Alex knew very well that this page dealt with how to focus a barrier rune to block different things than just water. It was a component of the purity rune in his breathing mask and one of the underlying principles of a shield rune. As the page opened, however, tightly packed lines of text erupted from the page, rising to float over the surface. They flicked and moved, making it difficult for Alex to read them, but they seemed to deal with alternate uses for linking runes.
“Bring that to the table,” Iggy said, awe in his voice.
Alex carried the book and the lamp into the kitchen, and Iggy doused the overhead lights. For the next few hours they stood at the table, leaning over the book and reveling in each new page. There were runes for transmutation, changing one thing into something else. Other runes could allow someone to locate a marked object, much like a finding rune, though any object could be marked regardless of any personal link.
An entire section of the book dealt with how to build multiple constructs on top of each other in a technique the book called stacking. There were even designs for new kinds of equipment, including a more compact oculus. It would take months to get through it all, maybe even years.
When Alex closed the book and blew out the lamp, Iggy just slid down into one of the kitchen chairs.
“I can’t believe it,” he said in a weary voice. “All this time and it’s been right under my nose. Your pal Moriarty must think me quite the dullard.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Alex said. “Why would we look for magical residue in a book about magic? Logically it’s bound to be covered in residue, just not in any meaningful way.”
“That’s a frightening point,” Iggy said. “It means that whoever wrote all that must have put some kind of protection rune on the book that keeps it from absorbing any new magical residue.”
“A rune that’s still functioning,” Alex pointed out. That reminded him of the curiously long-lived barrier rune at the Brooklyn Tower. He made a mental note to look in on that if it was still active.
“This is too much,” Iggy said. “I’m exhausted just from thinking about all of it. Let’s get a good night’s rest and go over this in the morning.”
Alex wanted to refuel his lamp and start taking notes right then, but Iggy had a point. It was after eleven and he’d been up since the early morning.
“All right,” he said, picking up his lamp and the book. The latter he returned to its place on the left side of the fireplace, the former went back into his kit bag along with his oculus.
“Thanks for the loan,” Iggy said, handing back his spare. Then he headed up the stairs to his room.
Alex looked back to the bookshelf where the Monograph was doing its best not to be noticed. Hiding in plain sight. Now he knew that it was concealing more than just its presence.
“How many more secrets are you hiding?” he asked. When the book didn’t answer, Alex turned off the light and headed up to bed.
32
Aftermath
The chapel at the Navy Yard wasn’t terribly large, so Alex had to stand in the back during Admiral Tennon’s funeral. He’d gone with Sorsha, but she, by virtue of her position of importance, had a seat up front. The service consisted of speeches by the Admiral’s long-time friends and a eulogy given by Lt. Commander Vaughn. When it was finally o
ver, Alex stood in line to pay his respects at the casket.
Walter Tennon was resplendent in his class A uniform. Alex learned during the service that he’d received a tombstone promotion, receiving a third star by special dispensation of the War Department. None of that really mattered, though. Alex had liked the Admiral even though they got off on the wrong foot initially. Tennon was a no-nonsense leader, but he was also cunning and intelligent.
And now he was dead.
“So long, Walter,” Alex said as he passed the casket. “I’m sorry I got you into this.” He clenched his fist, pressing the ends of his nails into the palm of his hand, then stepped away so the line could keep moving.
“Thank you for coming, Alex,” Lt. Commander Vaughn said, standing just beyond the casket. “I know Walter would have wanted you here.”
Alex was tempted to say something sarcastic, but bit back the remark.
“Thanks,” Alex said. “That was a swell eulogy you gave. What’s going to happen now? They going to put you in charge?”
Vaughn laughed at that.
“That would be quite a promotion,” he said. “I’m told a new Admiral will be coming in soon, and he’ll be taking over. As for me,” he held up his sleeve so that Alex could see the three stripes on the cuff. “I’ve been promoted to full Commander and I’m being given a command.”
“Your own ship?” Alex said with an approving nod.
“She’s just a cargo transport,” Vaughn said, practically beaming, “but she’ll be mine.”
“I’m glad something good came out of this mess,” Alex said, trying not to grumble. As far as he knew, the entire event, even Walter’s murder, had been hushed up by the War Department. He looked back at the casket. “He died a hero, and people deserve to know it.”
Vaughn put his hand on Alex’s shoulder and turned him back.
“We know,” he said. “For now, that has to be enough.”
Alex didn’t like it, but he understood, and he nodded.
They stood talking about unimportant things for a few more minutes until Sorsha found them. A few minutes later, Alex led the sorceress out to her waiting floater.
“You’re very quiet,” she observed once the car was in the air.
“Walter was my friend,” Alex said. “One of the few.”
She scooted over next to him and put her head on his shoulder.
“I know,” she said. “But it wasn’t your fault. If you hadn’t interfered, it’s quite likely I’d be dead now, and a lot of others along with me.” She gripped his arm and he reached over to put his hand on top of hers.
“Father Harry hated funerals,” Alex said after a long silence. “He said that they should be held in a music hall, and that instead of mourning the dead, we should celebrate them.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Sorsha said, sitting up. “Tonight, you and I will put on our Sunday best and go dancing. We’ll have cake and champagne, we’ll toast the life of Admiral Tennon, and we’ll celebrate that we were fortunate enough to know him.”
“Sounds blasphemous,” Alex said. Sorsha just stared back at him, one of her delicate eyebrows arching up into her forehead. “I love it.”
“Good. Now I’ve got three meetings with various government officials this afternoon, so you be ready at seven sharp and I’ll pick you up at Iggy’s place.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
“How was the funeral?” Sherry asked when Alex entered his office a few minutes later.
“It was good,” Alex admitted. “How’s your charge?”
He meant Carmen Harris, the hopefully-former prostitute. Sherry had found out that she was only seventeen and her father had been killed last year in an accident at the factory where he worked. After that she was taken in by a relative who put her to work selling her body. Alex resolved to pay that man a visit once Sherry had Carmen settled. According to Sherry’s reading of the girl, she had a budding talent for alchemy, so she was trying to apprentice her to one of the alchemists Alex used regularly.
“Charles Grier doesn’t have anywhere for her to live,” Sherry said with a giggle. “Well, nowhere that wouldn’t raise a scandal.”
Grier was a bachelor and in his fifties, so bringing on a young, attractive apprentice would no doubt raise some eyebrows.
“Linda is willing to give her a try, though, and she’s got the basement bedroom for her.”
Alex knew that bedroom all too well. It had been Jessica’s.
“Good work,” he said, pushing those thoughts from his mind. “Let me know as soon as it’s a done deal.”
Sherry promised that she would, then told Alex that a stack of potential new cases was waiting on his desk.
“Right,” he sighed. He wasn’t particularly excited about getting back to work. He really wanted to hit his vault and join Iggy in the brownstone as he studied the hidden information in the Monograph. Still, he had bills to pay, and that meant work before pleasure.
He made his way along the back hall toward the door to his office, which was right next to the cover door to his vault.
Maybe I’ll just check in on Iggy.
He pulled out his pocketwatch and opened the cover door, but before he could enter, the middle door in the hall opened and Mike Fitzgerald came hurrying out.
“Mr. Lockerby,” he said, positively beaming. “I think I got it.”
He pressed a square bit of paper into Alex’s hands and stepped back. Alex held up the sheet, then turned it upside down. It was a rather crude purity rune. The line work was tentative and the symbols wobbled a bit, but Alex could feel the magic in it. While it wouldn’t win any awards for beauty, it would work.
“This is great, Mike,” Alex said with a genuine smile. This was a long way from a finding rune, but it was an important step.
Mike grinned, but then it faded.
“Can you come look at this other one, Mr…Alex?”
“Sure Mike,” he said, following the man back into the spare room.
Half an hour later, Alex emerged back into the hall. He’d gone over all of Mike’s work and given encouragement and suggestions. It had been a long time since he had to push his skills like Mike was doing, and he wondered if Iggy had to be as patient with him.
Probably more so, he admitted.
The door to his vault was standing open where he’d left it and he chided himself for not closing it. To be fair, he hadn’t expected to spend so much time with Mike.
Alex glanced at the door to his office and pictured the waiting paperwork beyond. He really should get to it, but he just didn’t want to. Resolving to look at it in an hour, he stepped through the cover door of his vault and this time, he shut it behind him.
With a spring in his step, Alex crossed the short hall that led from the office door to the main chamber of his vault.
“You really shouldn’t leave your vault door open,” Moriarty said, in his cultured British accent. “Anyone could just wander in.”
He was sitting in Alex’s reading chair perusing Maria de Naglowska’s book with his legs crossed, casually. His dark hair was slicked back, and he was dressed in his shirtsleeves and suspenders.
“What are you doing here?” Alex demanded. He had a momentary thought of running to his gun cabinet, but he was out of ammo for the Thompson, and he’d lost both his pistols. The only thing he could use would be the Browning shotgun and in the time it would take to load it, Moriarty would be gone.
“You’re here because I found the hidden text in the Monograph,” Alex went on before Moriarty could answer, though how he could have known that was a mystery.
“That’s what I like about you, Alex,” Moriarty said, closing the book with a one-handed snap. “You’re quick. Although,” he added with a sardonic grin, “you did take your sweet time figuring out my clue. At least you learned to replenish your life energy. I would have been very put out if you’d let yourself die. Finding a replacement for you would have been the very devil.”
“Then
you need to try harder next time,” Alex said. “I met my predecessor.”
Moriarty chuckled at that and held up the book.
“You mean Pash,” he said. “I wholeheartedly agree with you, he was not chosen well. I argued against his inclusion, but I was…overruled.”
“By the other Immortals,” Alex said. “How many of you are there?”
“Not as many as you might think. We’re a rather exclusive club.”
“So why didn’t you want Randolph?”
Moriarty sighed and looked up at the ceiling for a moment.
“He had the opposite problem from Dr. Doyle. Whereas the good doctor treated power with such respect that he didn’t want it for fear he’d misuse it, Paschal wanted as much power as he could handle, as quickly as he could get it.”
“That’s why he pursued blood magic,” Alex guessed, then he nodded at the book in Moriarty’s hand. “And sex magic.”
“Just so,” Moriarty said. “Truth be told, you can find magic in everything if you look hard enough. Paschal just wasn’t willing to take his time and learn the proper way.”
“You have to master the basics or you have no foundation to build on,” Alex repeated the maxim Iggy had drummed into his head years ago.
“Exactly. When my colleagues wouldn’t teach Paschal as fast as he wanted, he went looking elsewhere. Eventually he discovered that blood could be given more power if it was spilled in an act of murder. After that, we were forced to cast him out.”
“The damnation rune,” Alex said. “Does it really seal away a person’s magic?”
Moriarty set the book back on Alex’s reading table and stood.
“Yes and no,” he said, as he began unbuttoning his shirt. He pulled it open so Alex could see the same elaborate rune that Randolph had shown him, right over Moriarty’s heart. Unlike Paschal’s rune, however, this one pulsed in time with the heart beneath it, changing colors with each beat and shifting like the image in a kaleidoscope.