by Jamie Davis
Joey was halfway through the pack when they found him. He looked up in alarm as flashlights shined in his eyes. He saw the outline of a baseball cap on one of the figures behind the blinding lights.
“Well, well, Mr. Kerry, you gave us quite a chase,” said the man in the cap. “You shouldn’t run. It makes us angry.”
The man pulled something from his pocket. Joey tried to scoot backward on his butt as the man lunged toward him. The crackling of a Taser was chased by the laughter of his pursuers.
Joey screamed, muscles jolting from the electricity, his mind erupting in pain.
Then, darkness fell.
CHAPTER 24
Winnie was at the shop waiting on a customer when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She held up a finger and smiled at the customer as she pulled the phone out, tapping the screen to answer.
“Winnie,” said Tris. “Where’s Joey?”
“What do you mean where’s Joey?” Winnie looked at the clock: 2 p.m. “He should be with you, or on his way back.”
“He never showed up and he’s not answering his cell.” Tris sounded scared. “It isn’t like him to miss a check-in.”
“He called and left me a message, said he was going straight there from home. I haven’t seen him yet this morning.”
Curious, Cait approached the counter. Covering the phone with one hand, Winnie filled her in.
“I’ll try him on his cell again,” Cait said, pulling out her phone.
“What does he usually do when he comes to see you?” Winnie asked Tris. “Is there a way you can backtrack his steps, see if something happened?”
“He brings me lunch from a deli nearby. I could check there, ask if he came in.”
“Do that, then call me back. I’ll have Cait start tracking him from this end. Tris, be careful and cover your tracks. If he got pinched, we could be looking at a rival group of runners or the Red Legs. Either way, you could be in trouble, too.”
“I’ll be careful, and call you back once I check his route back to the bus stop and deli.”
Winnie put her phone away and looked at Cait.
“He’s not picking up,” she said. “I need to get on a computer. If I’m fast enough, I might be able to track his phone before someone turns it off.”
“Use mine in the office. I’ll keep working out front here in case he comes in. Tris is backtracking his route from the bus stop to her building.”
“Is there anything your friend Artos can do?”
“Maybe, but let’s try our own means of tracking him first. If I have to ask Artos for a favor, I’ll owe him one — I don’t want to do that unless I have to.”
“Isn’t your cousin worth it?”
“Of course he is, Cait. But if I call Artos and then Joey turns up at a comic book store on the way to Tristan’s, I’m still going to owe him that favor. One thing at a time, alright?”
“You’re right, Winnie. I’m worried, that’s all. I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I. Go in the back and try the computer. Let me know what you find.”
Cait went to the back office while Winnie returned to her customers. The shop was full as usual, and everyone wanted their items “repaired” immediately. She thought about what would happen if the shop was ever raided. The customers were just as guilty as she was. They were the ones creating demand for her charms. And yet, Winnie was certain that few of them considered that they were breaking the law, and surely none saw themselves as criminals.
Winnie waited on customers but she was only going through the motions, her mind fixed on what might have happened to Joey. She looked at the clock and realized it had been nearly an hour since Cait had gone to the back room to track down her cousin on the computer. There was no word from Tris, and she was getting upset with worry. Because she was too busy up front with customers to go back and see what Cait had discovered, Winnie pulled out her phone and sent a quick text message to both friends.
Cait emerged from the back just moments later, walking to the counter and shaking her head. “His phone is turned off. The last trace is on the street near Tris’ building. I tried getting into the carrier’s GPS system to find more information, but didn’t have any luck there either. Any word from Tris?”
“Nothing yet. Take the register and I’ll call her again.” Cait stepped forward to help another customer, a well-dressed elderly gentleman, and Winnie backed away and pulled out her phone.
“Hello,” Tris answered, breathing hard.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m walking fast. I checked in the deli. They said he was in earlier, ordered the usual lunch. I retraced the route to my building from there, checking with a few of the shop owners along the way, showing his photo. But it’s a busy street, and no one remembered him.”
“So what are you doing now?”
“There’s a spell we use to identify leaks in the building ductwork by tracking air flow. We put a tracer on a packet of specially treated dust and put it in the system. Then we can go through the building and find out if it shows up somewhere other than a vent, along with its path there. I can modify it to track Joey’s movements after leaving the deli.”
“Cait tracked his phone to somewhere near the Carter Building. It wasn’t specific and the phone is shut down now, so there’s not much more she can find out.”
“Alright, I went back to my office to retrieve a sandwich wrapper from my trash can. Housekeeping doesn’t make regular stops down there and I hadn’t emptied it. It’s from lunch last week. He touched it, so I should be able to use it to follow his footsteps from the deli forward.”
“That’s great, but you shouldn’t do it alone. If he ran into some sort of trouble, you’ll get caught up in it, too.”
“So what should I do? What if he’s in trouble?”
“All the more reason to wait until Cait and I arrive. Prepare the spell, or if you can find a safe place, cast it so we can start once we get there. Text us the deli’s address. We can start there since it’s the last place we know he was for sure.”
Winnie killed the call and turned, raising her voice so that everyone could hear. “I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen. There’s been a family emergency, and we’re closing early today. We’ll open again tomorrow. Mention you were here today and we’ll give you a fifteen percent discount on any repairs ordered or picked up.”
Customers grumbled, filtering out the front door while Cait finished the final transaction at the register. Then Winnie filled her in on their plan. They decided to call a cab rather than wait on the bus, speed being worth the expense.
The cab ride took them twenty minutes and dropped them off in front of the deli. They walked inside and saw Tris nursing a cup of coffee at a corner table, her face a mask of worry. She stood when they came in, dropped a few bills on the table, then walked over to join them at the entrance.
“All set?” Winnie asked.
“All set,” said Tris, heading outside and taking the lead once out on the sidewalk. “I can see traces of his footsteps on the pavement, but they’re fading fast. Follow me. I’m afraid they’ll disappear if we don’t hurry.”
Cait and Winnie fell in behind her as the three of them pushed their way through the busy downtown sidewalk. At one intersection, Tris grew confused and started turning in circles.
“He stopped here and didn’t cross the street like he should have. The steps sort of pile on themselves. They’ve been distorted for a while now.”
“Maybe he turned around and went back the way he came,” Cait suggested. “That would explain the steps being distorted if they were coming and going on top of one another. He walked back towards the deli and turned off somewhere. Let’s go back.”
“Could be, but where did he turn off?” Tris started back towards the deli, stopping between two buildings and turning to a passageway between them. “I found it. He went back here for some reason.”
Cait stepped into the passage. “Let me go first. Walk right behind me and tell m
e if the steps turn one way or the other.”
Tris stepped behind Cait as the bigger girl took the lead. “After they enter the passage, the steps get farther apart. Other than that, they go straight in.”
Cait sped up. Tris and Winnie had trouble keeping up.
“He must have been running if they’re farther apart,” Cait said, picking up the pace even more.
Tris called for a stop and everyone halted.
Cait looked annoyed. “Why did you stop me?”
“Because he didn’t keep going down the alley. He went down these steps instead.” Tris pointed to a set of stairs leading down to a basement door.
Cait vaulted the railing that lined the alley and landed at the bottom. Winnie and Tris took the stairs. They entered through the open door.
The basement was dark but the footsteps were easy for Tris to follow in the dark.
“They’re glowing better now we’re out of the sun. They stop by that crate.”
Cait walked over to the crate and turned on her cellphone flashlight. She walked around it, looking at the floor, then over to a set of stairs leading back up to the first floor. She returned to the crate and killed her flashlight, shoulders sagging and eyes full of defeat.
“What, Cait, what do you see?” Winnie asked.
“I think he’s been taken. The steps stop there because that’s where they picked him up and started carrying him. I can’t see any blood, so that’s something. But there are a bunch of footprints in the dust. Some coming from the door we came through and several others coming down the stairs from above. They all converge at the crate.”
Winnie didn’t know what to think. Had it been the Red Legs or a rival group of runners? Both would likely take the boy to see what he knew. Neither would be gentle with him in their efforts to get answers. Who knew how much he was suffering. She wasn’t sure which of the options was worse for Joey or them. At least if it was the Red Legs, they wouldn’t have anything on him. He would have inverted the flows and made the magical items he was carrying undetectable.
As much as she hated to even consider it, Winnie needed to contact Artos. He’d know what to do. This wouldn’t be the first time one of his charm runners had been picked up.
Cait was pacing the basement floor like a tiger waiting for prey. Tris was wringing her hands and looking to Winnie for support.
“We have to get back to the shop, then I have a call to make.” Winnie looked at each of her friends, feeling their anguish. “Someone has Joey. We have to find out who, and what we can do to free him.”
“Winnie, they’ll hurt him. He’s too young. He never understood what he was doing.” Cait turned and looked out the door.
Winnie sighed, her shoulders slumped. She couldn’t fault Cait for saying the things she was already thinking. Joey had had to be convinced. She’d played on his feelings of family loyalty to get him to help. In the end, that made her no better than Artos or the Red Legs.
“Let’s go. We can’t do anything else here.” Winnie looked at Tris, who was still standing by the crate where Joey had been caught. “Are you going back to work, or coming with us to the shop?”
“I already told my boss I was going home sick. I’ll come to Charmed. We need to stick together, now more than ever.”
Winnie hoped sticking together would be enough.
CHAPTER 25
“Winnie, my dear, what a pleasant surprise. Mr. Gunderson told me you had an urgent matter to discuss. Please come in.”
Artos Merrilyn waved to one of the two high-backed leather chairs facing his desk with a smile that Winnie wouldn’t return. She didn’t feel like she could ever smile again, at least not until they found Joey. She sat in the chair and Artos sat across from her behind his desk.
“What can I do for you?”
“I lost one of my crew.”
“I see. And … ?”
Winnie gritted her teeth. Was he really so dense? No, of course not. He was making her ask him directly. Asking for a favor gave the man power. Him offering it gave the power to her. A good thing to learn, were it not for the circumstances.
“Artos, we have reason to believe that one of our crew, my cousin Joey, was either abducted by a rival crew of yours, or picked up by the Red Legs. He was carrying a large cache of charms meant for the business district.”
“With your ability to mask the magic of charmed items, he should be in little danger from the authorities. As for a rival crew or another gang encroaching on your territory, or my city, I’ve heard nothing to indicate that was happening. It doesn’t mean it’s not true, only that I am not aware of it yet. Have you considered it might be a mundane robbery or mugging?”
“We thought of that. If that had been the case, he would have been taken to the hospital. We’ve checked all the emergency rooms in town. They have no one with his name or description coming in.”
“There is another possible outcome … ” Artos let the suggestion hang in the air between them.
Winnie shook her head. “There are no new bodies matching him in the morgue.”
“Then it is likely the Red Legs. They’ll hold him under suspicion, but if his items check out as mundane, he should be released in twenty-four hours or so, and no worse for the wear.”
“I hope you’re right. I’ve heard horrible things on the street, about what happens to a charm runner, especially after the passage of Resolution 84. They say they experiment on them in some secret government hospital.”
“Merely Rumors spread to scare chanters and keep us in our place.”
Winnie started to object, but Artos raised a hand to forestall her response.
“Winnie, this is a war. Make no mistake. One that’s been brewing for centuries, believe it or not, though most will never know it. We don’t admit to ourselves that the middlings are afraid of us and what we can do. That’s become increasingly true since the fall of Europe. That was what caused the Assembly to form, and the first of the Resolutions to pass. That was the way people saw to control the magic.”
“Control it? Nils Kane and his Red Legs want to eradicate it.”
“Not true. Well, not for Kane and the Assembly leaders. The Red Legs may be true believers in Temperance, but their leaders know something that only a few people do. Magic is killing the world.”
“What do you mean, ‘Magic is killing the world?’”
“I mean that what happened in Europe, and to some degree Asia and North Africa, is destined to happen here if we continue using magic as we do now. That’s why control of magic is essential for Director Kane and others at the Federal level. Our civilization has grown dependent on magic to survive.” Artos stood and looked out of his office window at the streets far below his high-rise suite. “It wasn’t always supposed to be this way.”
“What? That magic would be illegal?”
Artos laughed and turned back to face her. “No. That magic would even exist. Magic was supposed to go away. Long ago. Instead, it lingered long past its usefulness, then spread so that many more individuals were born who could use it than were ever intended in the beginning.”
“Artos, you’re not making any sense.”
“Winnie, do you remember the tales of magic from your childhood? Stories of the incredible enchantments available to people many years ago?”
“Sure, but they’re not real, only fairy tales.”
“Ah, but they are real. As more people gained magic, it began to dry up, to be diluted by the larger number of users. A chanter can only access a bare fraction of the magic available to one of us only a hundred years ago. The magic is drawn from nature. Nature, in response, must draw back from it to protect itself. That’s why we see such desolation surrounding our great cities.”
“I thought that was caused by over-farming of the land. We learned about it in school.”
“You learned what they wanted you to learn. In reality, the magic sustaining our enormous buildings and public works is leeching life from the land itself.”
&n
bsp; “If that is the case, why don’t we stop? Using magic, I mean.”
“Because, the men in power refuse to believe the truth. They refuse to heed the hard lesson learned by Europe’s fall. Over a millennium of magic in the old world destroyed it. Now we’re doing the same thing here in the new one. Those who refuse to learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
Artos sat back in his chair and sighed. He paused, giving his beard a few wistful strokes as if he was pondering a dilemma of some sort. He leaned forward and looked at her.
“Magic was never supposed to survive the Dark Ages, Winnie. It was a gift from the Fae, given to a few men during a dark time after the fall of Rome. They hoped a few enlightened men could preserve knowledge, cling to the vestiges of civilization, supporting it until the rise of science and technology came to lift man up again. Then the magic would return to the Fae so they could tend to the Earth’s life force.”
“I’ve never heard any of this before. Who are the Fae?” Winnie didn’t know what to think. Had Artos lost his mind?
“Those who win the wars of time write the histories, my dear. The Fae are the old gods, forces of nature and earth that our ancestors invoked to understand their world. They undertook humanity’s stewardship. The Fae made the decision to loan their magic to help man survive the dark times, trusting us to return it in proper time. But in the end, their faith in us was unfounded. There were those who wanted to keep the Fae’s magic, and continue to grow their power by siphoning life from the land. A long time ago, they rebelled against a king and stole the talisman representing the gift of magic. It was to be returned after the king’s son had completed his life’s work, pushing back the darkness. But alas, that prince could never even claim his throne. Those who stole the magic made sure of it.”
She watched as Artos paused mid-story. His fingers traced the outline of a gold ring on his finger as he stared past Winnie, into space. In that moment, the old man seated in his grand office, wearing his tailored suit with the colorful cravat in place of a tie, seemed almost pitiful to her. It was a strange thought to have. After a while, she cleared her throat.