Elemental Disturbance

by Voss Foster

  Swift nodded. "I know there's a lot going on, there's a lot to process right now, but I need you to answer a few questions so we can try to get this solved. Nobody wants this to happen to anybody else."

  After a few moments, Heska straightened up and offered a curt nod to Agent Swift. "Whatever I can answer, yes."

  "Okay." Swift drummed his fingers on the tabletop a few times before continuing. "Is there a reason you left Al-Sekar for the Mundane? Or that you can't return to get training for him there?"

  Heska hesitated again before nodding. "There are parties in Al-Sekar who don't look kindly upon my family. My son in particular. His mother was a certain magister's daughter who fell for an artisan. I was hired by her father to do stonework in their home. While she was alive, Karak was protected by her class. After her death, we no longer felt welcome in Al-Sekar."

  Great. Political bullshit and classism. Prejudice wasn't just for shitty human police officers.

  Swift nodded slowly. "Is it possible any of them would have sent someone to do this?"

  "I don't think so. He's tainted in their eyes. They wouldn't bother with him, so long as neither of us tried to re-enter Al-Sekar. The Mundane is our "due punishment" for Karak's existence." He raised a hand in pause. "Not to imply that the Mundane is untenable."

  "It's fine." Swift sighed. "Your son was missing for how long?"

  "He was with a school friend. A few of them were staying overnight at his house. I was supposed to pick him up this morning when I got the call from the other parents. He was missing."

  Less than a week, then. Maybe something went wrong with this one that shortened the time. Or maybe they were taking elemental kids and saving them up to all be slaughtered at the same time. Hell, maybe there was some weirdo bacteria or virus that could sweep through and unseal all these kids, and we needed some kind of magical CDC to figure this shit out. I didn't have a damn clue. But whatever it was, kids were dying, and they were taking anybody nearby with them.

  Swift tapped his fingers on the tabletop a few times before speaking back up. "We're going to need contact information for everyone who was there with your son."

  "You don't think any of them could have done this to him, do you? They're all human, top to tail." Heska was really trying, I could tell. He wanted to be calm and collected, but his voice steadily grew more frantic and ragged as he went. "He's an eighth grader in a Vermont public school. Not a lot of friends to be had from the Kingdoms around here. Just humans. Good humans. Kind humans."

  "We can't rule anyone out at this point, and even though none of them are probably responsible for what happened, they could have noticed something. Something they might not even realize they noticed." Swift sighed, cracking his neck side to side. "We also need any information we can get on your son. Where he went to school, who his mother was. The trail on him should still be warm enough that we can try to catch a lead, but we need to know where and when he could have been taken, and who would want to."

  Heska sighed. "Anything you need. Do you think this will happen again?"

  That was the question you didn't want to hear on a case like this. Everyone knew that was the idea, that this could, and probably would, happen again. Someone doing this to elementals probably wasn't going to just pack up and leave once they got two, unless the two were somehow connected, or the dead families were connected.

  Worst of all, the simple fact was that we relied on it happening again. Another attack, another murder, that meant more evidence for us to work with. But at the same time, no one ever wanted to say it, to put it out there in actual words.

  Swift did the whole "head of department" thing and took the bullet for the rest of us. Yay for him for not making us do it. "We think this could happen to someone else if we don't stop it. Maybe more than one someone. There's no reason right now to think this is going to stop. So it's important we get as much information as we can, as fast as we can."

  We went through all the normal questions, procedural crap. He'd been staying with a kid named Daniel Roberts, single mother, father died in a drunk driving accident. The other two boys—Isaiah Reed and Alex Gonzalez—both had large families, but Heska was absolutely sure that none of the boys or their families could possibly have anything to do with the attack. But there were three families and three agents. I drew the short straw and got Isaiah, his parents, six brothers and sisters, and two grandparents living with them. I'm sure it had nothing to do with me working OPA the shortest amount of time. Nothing at all.

  Before we left, I had a question I wanted to ask. Long shot, but what the hell? Heska was open about information, even more so than the ice elementals. "Do you know of any other elementals who have missing children in the area?"

  He shook his head. "No one comes to mind. If I hear anything, I'll get them to talk to you."

  That piqued my attention for sure. "Get them to talk to us?"

  "There's no great track record with the local law enforcement in our community, unfortunately. Not on this sort of crime. Only the important, undeniable ones. Not…this."

  Of course that was the case. Dennison probably wasn't the only issue in the department. Like attracts like. "It's not Burlington PD you'll need to talk to. We're OPA, so convince them to talk to us. It'll get through and it'll get investigated."

  Swift nodded confirmation at him. "We need to get a handle on this case, which means if there's information to be had, it's important we have it. So just keep an ear to the ground for us, if you can."

  After that, we all got up and headed out to our assigned places. Unfortunately, since we transported in, there was no fancy black SUV I could drive around to get where I needed to go.

  But I also knew how to look up a cab company, and how to keep receipts so the FBI could reimburse me for my money spent, so there was the good news. I would take any good news I possibly could right then.

  Isaiah Reed was visibly shaken, sitting on the sofa with his mom and dad on either side of him. He was maybe thirteen, floppy brown hair, red-rimmed eyes, a hoodie wrapped around him like a security blanket.

  I sat with the notepad and the pen in the chair across from them. "Isaiah, I need to know if you saw anything or noticed anything. I know this is a rough time right now, but…can you just take me back through the night? Don't even skip the boring stuff. Never know what's going to come in handy for us."

  He sniffled. Man, I hated sad kids more than anything, and sad boys were worse than anything else. Something about seeing a boy break down was just an extra pang in the stomach. Even worse than talking to Heska or Ixta, fathers who lost their children.

  One more sniffle, then Isaiah started to talk, stumbling and sputtering over his words. "We were just hanging out. Daniel's mom had already gone to bed and we were all out in the living room. TV was on, but it was just subtitles so we didn't wake her up. We weren't even really watching it, anyway. Just talking, drinking soda, normal stuff. Alex fell asleep and we decided we should probably all hit the hay. We were going into town this morning to sort of screw around. But I couldn't sleep, and neither could Kary."

  "Kary?"

  "Karak." Isaiah wiped his eyes. "We kept quiet, but we were up until two or three in the morning, just talking to each other. I don't know, I think I fell asleep first. Then when I woke up…"

  "What time was it when you woke up?"

  "It was around five or five thirty. I needed to pee and…Kary was gone. I told Daniel's mom right away."

  Assuming the outside edges of the times he gave, that meant he'd disappeared or been taken or whatever inside a three-and-a-half to four-hour window. "Did you notice anything out of the ordinary besides him being gone?"

  "I wasn't really focused on anything else."

  He needed leading. There had to be something more there, if I could just get him to remember correctly. "Were you guys in sleeping bags?"

  "Just blankets and pillows on the floor. Daniel crashed on the couch."

  "What did it look like, where Kary was sleep
ing? Was it a big mess, or—"

  "It was really clean." Isaiah's voice got quiet. "It wasn't like someone made up a bed or anything, but it was neat. Does that mean he went off on his own? He just ran away?" His words took on a frantic edge. "He would have said something if he was going to. Plus the door was still locked, and the windows were all shut. He would have said something."

  His mom squeezed his hand just as some kid screamed off in another part of the house. The dad nodded and got up to handle that. Opportunity had officially presented itself.

  "We don't know what any of this means right now, Isaiah. It's all just another clue to try and figure this out. And you've given me a lot of good information." I turned my attention to his mother. "Mrs. Reed, do you think I could get some water? It's been go-go-go all morning."

  She hesitated. I could tell she wanted to argue, to stay with her son, but in the end she rose and moved into the kitchen. She'd be back soon, which meant I only had so long. "Isaiah, I know this is a hard time, but I need to know if there's anything you don't want to tell me about in front of your parents. Were you guys doing drugs or anything?" Maybe in some cruel irony, this could be twisted back into dragon's dew. "I'm not going to tell them if you were, I'm not going to charge you. But it might be important."

  "No. No. Alex smokes cigarettes, just regular cigarettes, and sometimes Kary or me would take a drag off one, but that's it."

  "You're positive? Anything could be useful."

  "I know. I'm not about to lie about this crap." He looked at me, wide-eyed and mouth agape. "I want this figured out. I want to know what happened to my friend. I told you everything I can."

  His dad came back first, followed quickly by his mother with a bottle of water, still cold and sweaty from the fridge. I nodded to her, then back to Isaiah. "Was there anyone you can think of who didn't like Karak?"

  "Plenty of people didn't like Karak. He's an elemental, and he's crazy smart." Isaiah squeezed his eyes shut. "He was. He was an elemental, and he was crazy smart. Lots of the other students weren't really friendly to him."

  "Any teachers or other adults who had an issue with him? Or had an issue with any other preets in the school?"

  "They hired a new sixth grade social studies teacher, and there've been a lot of complaints. Mrs. Kirkpatrick. But he wouldn't have had anything to do with her. She was hired this year."

  "Is this entirely necessary at this point?" His father, a watery-eyed, slender-faced man, patted Isaiah on the back. His voice sounded strained and slightly breathy. Almost desperate. "He's covered everything at this point, and he's had a bad day. We all have. I really want to get my family put back together at this point."

  "I know this seems like a little much, Mr. Reed, but it's just a few more questions." I sighed and flicked to a new page of the notepad. "Did Karak seem like he was acting different to you? To any of you?"

  Three heads shaking. Isaiah's voice cracked a little when he replied. "He was acting like Kary. Like he always did. Really quiet, sarcastic. Kary. He was just Kary. Don't you think I would have noticed if something was off?"

  If it was anyone but a kid, the defensiveness would have already turned me from "kindly and understanding" agent to "let me do my fucking job you nimrod" agent. But Isaiah was just a scared eighth grader whose friend was kidnapped and killed. "Last question, okay? Are any of the people who didn't like him preets, too?"

  Unfortunately, Isaiah shook his head. "I'm sure there's some who didn’t really like him that much, but none of the really bad bullies or anything like that."

  "Well, if you can put together a list of the bullies who went after him, just go ahead and send it to the police department." I nodded and closed the notepad. "I'm going to leave a card. If you think of anything, or if anything happens that's just a little too weird, give me a call. I'm in town until this is all taken care of."

  I stood and extended my hand to each of them in turn. They were all so down and dreary. It lit a fire under my ass, to say the least. I couldn't bring Karak back any more than I could bring back Niila. But I could provide some level of closure, get the son of a bitch who did this, and bring them in. Hopefully lock them up for a good long time, too.

  I walked out the door, dropping a card on the table on my way past. I dialed up for a cab, then hit Swift's number. He picked up after the second ring. "You get anything we can work with, Dash?"

  "I might have. Looks like we've got a timeframe for when Karak disappeared. It's pretty tight, too. But no real leads on anyone who could have done this yet. You?"

  "I have literally nothing. But Gutt says he found something good. Didn't fill me in on what it is yet. He was in a hurry to do something at the crime scene."

  "Well I guess that's good." I sighed. "I'm headed back to the cop shop as soon as this cab shows up. Did anyone happen to bring a car back yet? Or suddenly crack how to help a hopeless rube like me use remote transport?"

  "Car yes, remote transport…you're still a hopeless rube, unfortunately."

  "Okay. I'll start in on what I do have once I get back." Not that there was much. Basically, I'd be able to look into this Mrs. Kirkpatrick, just in case she was more connected than she appeared, and sit around with my thumb up my own ass theorizing. Fun as that might have sounded, not very productive, and even good old laid-back Agent Swift probably wouldn't approve of me using my work time for that.

  Chapter Four

  Gutt strode through the door of the Burlington Police Department, carrying something that looked remarkably similar to a Jacob's ladder. Not, like, the dick piercing Jacob's ladder, the mad scientist kind. Two long, slightly curved metal rods, forming a very slight V shape. Even though it wasn't plugged in, it sparked bright green electricity…which was a good clue that it wasn't just a Jacob's ladder.

  He set it down on the nearest empty desk and looked from Swift to me and then back to Swift. "Whatever happened there, it wasn't remote transport."

  "What?" Swift shook his head "There was no sign of anyone entering or leaving that house, was there?"

  "No. That's why I felt it was significant. Besides the missing boy, there's no reason at all to believe that anything happened there." He tapped the weird little device, sending the arcs of green lightning into a frenzy for a second. "Remote transport was the only option that made sense because of that, but apparently that wasn't how it happened."

  "Because of some green electricity." I nodded slowly. "Sounds super convincing."

  "It reads magical energy. This is what it does with baseline magical levels in the Mundane." To demonstrate how it works, I guess, he opened up a portal to his left. As soon as he did, the magic-ometer changed from simple arcs running up from the base to circles of green electricity rising between the two metal strands like bubbles in a fish tank. "This is the reaction to remote transport. Not something that can realistically be mistaken, and not similar to any other sort of magic." He closed the portal with a wave of his hand and sighed. "The readings showed light, residual innate magic, and that was faint enough it was nearly choked out by my own aura.

  "Innate magic?"

  "Magic that a preet just has. Like the kind you'd get from an elemental." Swift's voice growled, just at the end there. "The kind that doesn't get us anything but another set of questions."

  Well…yeah. We did know there was an elemental there, after all. And with no remote transport…the cool factor of that magic-ometer thing wore off pretty quickly once I realized it didn't actually tell us anything useful. "I talked to Isaiah Reed and his family. Got a little something we could try to go on. Karak disappeared sometime between two am and five am." It wasn't great, but it was something.

  Swift nodded. "I'm sure there's some busybody in the neighborhood who would have been watching out the window. With remote transport off the table, they had to get in and out somehow. Which means we need to canvas the neighborhood. Figure one block should be good to start with, and I'll have Chief Ballinger put out a call on local TV and all that, asking anyone wi
th information to come forward." He sighed. "I also touched base with Kimmy, asked her to start going through recent elemental disappearances all across New England. Don't know if anything's going to come of it, but it's a stone she can turn over." He drummed his fingers on the desk. He was doing that a lot. This case was definitely starting to get to him.

  My phone rang in the quiet. I flicked the icon to the side. "Hello?"

  "It's Casey. Why doesn't anyone else have their phone on?"

  "Beats me. I'll put you on speaker." I tapped that and set it on the table. "What's going on, Casey?"

  "I got the rest of the results in on those two elementals. Literally no other mortal wounds on either of them. Organs are fine, bones are fine, no head trauma to speak of. But I did see something on the stone elemental that might be worth mentioning. It's the only thing I could come up with that was different."

  "What do you got?" Swift had stopped the incessant finger drumming, which I think was better for all of our nerves.

  "He had abrasions on his wrists. Looked like rope burns, but I couldn't find any fibers embedded in the skin. Same with his ankles, and there were some very minor abrasions around his mouth as well. Very slight."

  "Bound and gagged." Swift nodded. "All right, thanks Casey."

  I went to hang up, but my own damn concern stopped me in my tracks. "Everyone holding up over there?"

  "Office is a little quiet, but Kimmy and I are both used to that, all things considered. Just go figure out what this is all about before I have to cut open an even younger kid."

  Well that definitely wasn't chilling at all. Nope. Didn't wig me out in the slightest. "You got it, boss man." I hung up the phone and nodded to Swift. "So, what does any of that tell us? It makes sense that he would be bound and gagged. Niila, they could have controlled with threats or brute force. She was young enough. Karak's not a powerhouse, but he was almost thirteen. Harder to handle."