by D. C. Gomez
“We’re getting close to the target,” he murmured.
“Katrina, in five,” I whispered to her.
We needed to set off the recording as close as possible to the princess. I didn’t want to disrupt any other areas of the hospital if it wasn’t necessary.
“Bart, we’re ready for you to cover us,” I said in a soft tone.
“You are clear to go. All the cameras and security feeds within a five-block radius are mine,” Bartholomew replied. “Hurry up.”
He didn’t need to add the last part. I had been feeling the pressure since we pulled in the ambulance bay.
Katrina turned the recording on and the effect was mesmerizing. Creepy as hell, but still mesmerizing. I had picked a classic Santana for my base and as the music played, everyone within hearing range swayed to the beat. Eyes went blank and drool dripped from the corners of their mouths. I prayed nobody had any brain damage from this. It would make me feel horrible if I accidentally took out some of our top professionals in the community.
“Let’s go everyone. I don’t know how long it’s safe to keep them this way,” I told Bob and Katrina.
Bob released Katrina from the stretcher, and both of them pushed it towards the princess.
“Isis, we need to work on your intent,” Katrina told me. “This might be too powerful for humans.” She pointed at the patients on the beds, all of them swaying and drooling as well.
“Hey! It’s hard to judge what dazed and confused feels like,” I replied.
Katrina and Bob found Genevieve and were unplugging her from all the machines and IVs. I didn’t want anyone else to join the drooling party, so I kept watch. I turned to monitor one of the corridors when I saw Noah. I didn’t think twice before I took off after him. When he realized I was heading his way, he started running as well. Unfortunately, we kept the music low to only impact the ER area, and Noah was not close enough to hear it. Which led to me having to chase him down hospital corridors like a maniac.
“Isis, where are you going?” Katrina asked through the headset. “We’re almost done here.”
I knew we were on a timed schedule, so if Katrina said they were almost done, that meant we had less than two minutes.
“Stick to the plan,” I told her as I ran. “I saw Noah. Get the princess to the ambulance and I’ll meet you outside.”
“Copy that,” Katrina replied.
Noah ran fast for such a scrawny boy. When I caught up with him, I planned to have a long conversation about deals with demons and trips to hell. It still pissed me off that I’d risked my soul going down there for the fool in front of me.
Noah took a sharp turn and I followed, not too far behind. But by time I made the turn, he was gone. The hallway I stood in had doors on both sides, but they were all closed. Where did he go? I didn’t know, but I was willing to search every door if I had to. I pulled one door open. Nothing. Another. Nothing again. So much for getting lucky and finding him in the first couple doors I tried.
“Isis, where are you?” Katrina said in the ear set.
I took a deep breath. “I lost Noah,” I told her as I checked another room. “I’m looking in the rooms near where he disappeared. He has to be in one of them.” And when I found him, I was going to shake the hell out of him.
“Another one,” Katrina said.
That got my attention. “Another one what?”
“We lost the princess,” Katrina said, her tone soft but tinged with uncontrolled anger.
“What?” I yelled, and the sound echoed in the hall, along with the sound of my footsteps as I ran as fast as I could towards the ER.
“Someone stole her and the ambulance,” Katrina continued. “When Bob and I managed to get the stretcher in the ambulance, they took off.”
If this wasn’t Katrina’s idea of a sick joke, we would all be dead.
“I’m on my way,” I told her.
It didn’t take me long to make it to the ER. I headed straight outside to stare at the empty space where our ambulance had been. Katrina paced back and forth, and Bob had his phone to his ear.
“This can’t be happening,” I told Katrina, throwing my hands in the air.
“Bart, please tell me you got something on your videos,” I asked him over the headset.
“Sorry Isis, I wasn’t watching that side after I started the loop,” Bartholomew responded. “I’ll need to look at the footage to let you know.” He sounded about as worried as I felt.
“We need to get out of here before people start asking questions,” I told Katrina as Bob made his way back to us.
“Way ahead of you,” Bob told me as he pointed to the road. Shorty was rushing at us at full speed. I couldn’t have been happier to see him.
“Bart, you need to let your friend know his ambulance was stolen,” I told him, my stomach nauseous from the humiliation swirling inside me.
“Already submitted the report and sent an APB to Eric,” Bartholomew replied.
Even better. Eric would never let me live that down.
Shorty did one of his classic screeching stops in front of us. Katrina and I jumped out of the way to avoid getting run over. I wondered if Shorty understood the purpose of his brakes. One of these days, I needed to check with Bartholomew on how much money we were spending in vehicle maintenance for Shorty. That poor truck took a lot of abuse.
We hopped in the truck as quickly as possible and Shorty took off.
“Boss lady, what do you need us to do?” Shorty asked.
I smiled, more than grateful he didn’t bring up the obvious—that we’d lost the princess.
“Shorty, I saw Noah at the hospital. I’m pretty sure he is on foot. We need people combing the city for him,” I told him. I was pretty sure Noah knew who took the princess. “We also need to know if anyone has seen the missing ambulance,” I added, more as a prayer than an order.
“I texted you the plate number,” Bob told Shorty.
“We are on it,” Shorty told us.
“Once War hears about this, I’m going to be spending the rest of my days as a Private doing guard duty in Guantanamo Bay,” Katrina told us, an air of resignation in her tone.
“War doesn’t need to hear anything,” I told her. “This is a small set back. We still got time. We got this.”
Hopefully I sounded more confident than I felt, because I had a feeling we didn’t have this at all. Silence enveloped the truck for the rest of the ride, and I didn’t mind at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Constantine stood on the kitchen table when we walked into Reapers. He looked at least twice his size, I could’ve sworn he was foaming at the mouth. Could a five-thousand-year-old cat get rabies? I feared we were about to find out.
“Somebody, please tell me what happened,” Constantine yelled. “It was a simple operation. I leave you alone for ten minutes to talk to the boss and you lose the princess. How is that possible?” Constantine paced the length of the table, which looked a bit crazy since he was so huge right now.
“Constantine, it is my fault,” I said, trying to save the others from his wrath.
“Of course it is,” Constantine roared. I was not expecting that one. So much for reverse psychology. That did not work on this cat. “It’s your fault, and Bob’s fault, and Katrina’s as well.” He hissed at us.
Several seconds passed, but I knew Constantine hadn’t finished his lecture. Bob, Katrina, and I were ready for it when it came, all of us standing at parade rest against the glass wall. I guessed our military training had kicked in.
“Isis, what possessed you to take off after Noah in the hospital?” Constantine asked me, sounding a little calmer. Before I had time to answer, he turned to Katrina and Bob. “And you two—how could you load the stretcher in the ambulance before securing it? Honestly people, if I didn’t know any better, I would think you were all working for the other side.” We all looked at the ground. “Bartholomew, please give me some good news,” Constantine let out a long sigh, then glanced
at Bartholomew.
“I got a shot of the guy who stole the ambulance,” Bartholomew told us. “It is a bit hazy and is going to take me some time to clean up.” He let out an impatient snort, showing his frustration.
We all pooled behind him so we could see what he was looking at. Maybe Bartholomew’s news would stop Constantine’s lecture. What was I thinking? I knew better than that.
Katrina leaned in and analyzed the shot. “You might be in trouble, big guy,” she told Bartholomew. “I have seen this before.” Katrina pointed at the image of the guy in the video. “See how he is blurry, but everything around him is in focus.”
We all leaned in to get a better look. Sure enough, it looked like someone had added a fancy Hollywood special effect to the screen.
“What are we looking at Katrina?” I asked on behalf of the group.
“Magic,” Katrina answered. “Unfortunately, you only see this used by dark wizards,” she added as we all stared at the screen.
“Please tell me it’s not the guy from Redlick. That man hates us,” I said, praying it wasn’t our friendly dark wizard chef. I couldn’t blame him for hating us. Bob and I kicked down his door and interrogated him in his kitchen.
“Nope. Not him,” Bob answered. “Our buddy is much taller and muscular. This guy, even with the spell, looks scrawny.” Bob had an awesome eye, so I trusted him.
“Not to mention, he needs some sort of demon connection to pull it off,” Katrina added. “That is not an easy trick. It is one thing to fool the human eye, but cameras are a whole different ball game. They normally are not tricked by the glamour of certain spells.”
Just great. Maybe we should just go around using our phones everywhere, then.
“That’s a start,” Constantine said, most of the anger evaporated from his tone. “Bartholomew needs to cross reference all dark wizards or any wizards that might have a tie to demons and their locations. We need to know how many are hanging around Texarkana and haven’t checked in.”
Constantine was truly going to enforce checking in with us from now on. I felt bad for violators. Their fine would be outrageous.
“Any luck that maybe one of our friendly guests have stolen Genevieve from us?” Katrina asked with a light in her eyes.
“Unfortunately, no,” Bartholomew answered. “I have been monitoring both locations.” He pointed at a couple of monitors on the wall. Bartholomew had images from both convention centers. “I have also tapped their rooms and been listening to all conversations they’ve had. Nothing exciting has been going on.” I had no idea how Bartholomew did all that, and I really did not want to know.
“I’m running out of ideas,” Katrina said and dropped to the leather couch.
“Everyone wait. We got something,” Bartholomew yelled. He adjusted a couple of speakers from his computer station and pressed a few keys on his keyboard. Multiple speakers blared the same voice.
“Meet me at seven forty-five tonight downtown at the Perot Theater parking lot if you ever want to see your precious Genevieve alive. Bring one million dollars in gold. No negotiations. Don’t be late.” The voice stopped, leaving us all starting at each other.
“Find out who the hell that was,” the emperor screamed from one of the speakers.
“Trace that call and get my security now. I want that bastard dead,” the King of the elves shouted from another.
“What just happened?” I asked the group. “How did our lives just get more complicated?” This day just went to hell in a hand basket, and after personally visiting hell, I could use that expression with ease.
Bartholomew turned the volume down on the speakers. Both parties were screaming orders at everyone, which made for madness in our computer room.
“Good news. At least we know where to find the princess,” Constantine said. “The bad news is, it’s right in the middle of the parade route. We are going to have vampires and elves in the middle of humans, witches, and who knows what else.” He paused for a minute to lick his paw. “At least he didn’t say we lost the princess.”
I had to agree with Constantine. That was definitely one piece of information we didn’t need getting out.
“Bartholomew, any way you can trace that?” I asked our super genius.
“I’m trying, but considering I have no idea what phone they called, it might take me a while.” Bartholomew sounded disappointed. “Not to mention it was a recording, so it might not do us any good to bother tracking it down.” He shrugged.
“How do you know it was a recording?” Katrina stiffened on the couch, concern etched across her crinkled forehead.
“Because I have the same program,” Bartholomew told her.
“Isn’t it weird they are asking for a ransom now?” Bob asked us.
“This is not about the money, or they would have asked for it a long time ago,” Constantine said. “They want everyone at the same location at the exact same time. I hate to admit it, but they are smart. Sounds like we don’t have a lot of options. We are going to the parade,” Constantine announced. “Bartholomew, we need to get the float ready.”
Bartholomew gave Constantine a nod.
“Hold up,” I told Pinky and the Brain over there. “We have a float in the parade? Really? When were you two going to tell me about it?” I planted my hands on my hips and stuck my chin out. What were they trying to do, get us kicked out of town?
“It was a contingency plan, just in case we needed it,” Constantine replied. “Guess what? We need it.” Constantine’s tone left no room for arguments.
My phone went off before I could ask any more questions about the mysterious float. My caller ID said Abuelita, and my heartbeat went wild. We couldn’t handle any more drama today.
“Hi Abuelita. What’s up?” I answered, trying to sound cheery.
“Dear, I know you are busy, but you have a visitor at the restaurant and he really needs to talk to you.” Abuelita’s voice sounded shaky with nerves.
“Somebody wants to see me at Abuelitas?” I repeated, more for the benefit of the group standing around me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine dear. Just startled.” That was not a good sign. Nothing ever bothered Abuelita, which made me worry about the identity of the guest.
“Who is over there?” I whispered. Not sure why. It wasn’t like they could hear my side of the conversation. At least, I hoped they couldn’t.
“Jake is here, honey. Please hurry.” Abuelita disconnected after that. Was she hanging out with Constantine as well? Why didn’t anyone ever wait for me to say goodbye? In the grand scheme of things, I was obviously focusing on the wrong thing, but it still bothered me.
“Isis, who is at Abuelitas?” Bob asked me.
“None other than Jake,” I told them.
“Isis, you can’t go,” Bob told me. “It could be a trap.”
“I don’t have much of a choice,” I replied.
“Isis, you can’t trust Jake,” Katrina added. “Regardless of how sweet and caring he sounds, he will always let you down.” Katrina frowned and her eyes went to the floor.
I understood her concern, and I knew something had happened between them, but I didn’t have the problem Katrina had with Jake. I probably never would, either. He never sounded sweet or caring to me…
“I’ll be fine,” I told the group with a smile. “He probably has a legit complaint about his hotel. Our insurance covers that, right?” I asked Constantine.
The rules of the job were that the Interns took all customer complaints. Not the first time Jake had complained. It was the first time Jake had come to my territory, though. He would make me take a horrible trip to the Cave to humiliate me before he whined about anything. It gave him more amusement that way.
“You tell that two-timing, cheating devil that we are not paying.” Constantine scoffed. “The moment his demons announced their intentions of keeping you down there, our clause to respect their property was negated. So no! He can pay for the repairs of his hideous building.”
With Constantine on the roll he was on, it was probably a good thing that Jake had asked for me. I could easily picture Constantine scratching his eyes out.
“Got it. We are not paying,” I repeated his instructions. I didn’t need him mad at me again. “Let’s divide and conquer. You guys get the float ready, and I’ll meet up with the devil,” I told the group.
“I got a few databases I want to check for our mystery dark wizard,” Bartholomew reported.
“Bob and I will handle the float,” Katrina told me. “I want to make sure we have plenty of ammo for our new little friend.” Katrina flashed an evil smile.
I had a feeling between her and Constantine, a lot of people were going to suffer today.
“Sounds like a plan,” I told her, trying not to sound concerned. “Please pack me some extra ammo, too,” I told Bob. I didn’t know how long my meeting would last, so I had to be sure I’d be ready for whatever might happen at the parade.
“Not a problem. We got you covered,” Bob told me with a smile, but I could tell it was fake. Probably because he hated Jake, so it made him angry anytime I had to go see him. Honestly, though, he was taking it well compared to other times.
“I’m going to change out of this uniform before heading out,” I told everyone as I headed to my room. The last thing I needed was the devil making jokes about what I wore to see him.
As I left the room, Constantine went right back to barking orders. I didn’t blame him. We had less than three hours before the parade started. This little meeting with Jake was happening at a horrible time. Leave it to the devil to mess with my schedule.
CHAPTER THIRTY
No offense to the devil, but I trusted him as far as I could throw an NFL player. That translated to not trusting him at all. I dressed in my combat gear, black top with black cargo pants, and silver-toed combat boots. In general, my work arsenal consisted of a few paintball guns with Eugene’s special recipe, a machete, and a regular gun for blowing up windows and vehicle tires. This time, I added my new scythe to one of my straps. I was starting to feel like Batman with a utility belt, way too much stuff attached to my body.