by Ramsey Isler
“I’m not drunk,” he said.
“Right. Right.” I sat down in one of the armchairs next to the bed and realized that the room felt like it was starting to tilt, ever so slightly.
“I’m not drunk!” Newton protested. “I’m just . . . really really really buzzed.”
“No, I believe you. Totally.”
“I have to avail myself of the facilities,” Newton said, standing. “But when I get back we have to talk about this magic thing some more.”
“What more is there to talk about?” I said. Newton walked into the bathroom, unzipped, and started emptying his bladder without even closing the door.
“History,” Newton said, loudly above the sound of his pee streaming into the toilet bowl. “A lot of history is filled with talk of magic and gods and shit like that. And this region in particular had a strong tradition of folk magic. The existence of your little club explains a lot. Especially since it seems the Rift has been here for centuries before it spread to North America.”
“How about we have his conversation when you’re done?” I said. “This is kind of awkward.”
Newton shrugged and kept the flow going. He’s not a big guy, but apparently he has the bladder of an elephant because it took a while for him to finish. He zipped up and washed his hands, then he came out of the bathroom and flopped onto the bed again.
“Anyway,” he said, “so I was thinking . . . what was I thinking again?”
“History and magic and gods and shit like that,” I said.
“Yes! That. So anyway, I was thinking about what if all that mythical nonsense in the history books came from you guys.”
“That’s true,” I said.
“And what kind of spells would a nightcrafter of that era cast?”
“Not quite the same as today,” I said. “My mentor taught me that magic used to be the only way a lot of things got done. The first nightcrafters built huge structures, fought off famine and disease, and overthrew cruel kings. Their work inspired people.”
“You make them sound like heroes,” Newton said.
“Maybe some of them were,” I said. “Things might have been different back then. Hell . . . they were almost definitely different back then. But don’t think that I’m saying that all the magicians back in the day were great people. Oh hell no. Who do you think invented demons?”
“People did,” Newton said. “Demons are a psychomological . . . a psycho . . .”
I laughed. “You are totally wasted, Newt.”
“Don’t call me that. Newt is what kids in grade school called me and I hated it. My name is Newton, thank you very much. Anyways, as I was saying, demons are just a psychological manifestation of various innate human fears.”
“Nah,” I said. “Demons have been a part of human history for thousands of years. They’re mysterious, dangerous, inhuman creatures that come out of the night and devour people. Sound familiar?”
Newton just stared at me. “Uhh . . . maybe?”
“They were Rift-kind, Newton. They were creatures from the dark that some people had the misfortune of meeting after a nightcrafter had been casting spells in the area. The demons of history were very real. People just didn’t know what they really were.”
“Oh fine then,” Newton said. “You win that one. What about the magicians we ordinary people know about? The hocus pocus, abracadabra kind. Where did they come from?”
“Wannabes have been around a long time,” I said. “The old nightcrafters would sometimes do magic in public and people would ooh and aah and believe the nightcrafters were children of the gods, or gods themselves. Of course you would have some posers trying to capture some of that glory for themselves. Clever people figured out how to replicate magic with tricks and mirrors and lies. But you know the really funny thing about that?”
“Those fake magicians later ended up getting hanged or burned as witches?” Newton said.
“Well . . . yeah that too. But what I was talking about was the fact that the fake magicians started adding stuff to their acts that nightcrafters couldn’t actually do. Take the old trick of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, for instance. Nightcrafters can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Newton asked. “I’ve seen you pull stuff out of the Rift.”
“Inanimate objects, yes. But if I tried to put any animal into the Rift, when I pulled them out they’d be dead. I’m not sure exactly why that is, but Kellar made it very clear that it was impossible. Any creature that gets put into the Rift doesn’t survive the trip. The spell just doesn’t work that way.”
“That’s actually pretty damn fascinating,” Newton said. “I’d love to test that.”
“I’m not going to help you put poor little animals in the Rift.”
“That’s not what I meant, man. I meant like bacteria and viruses and microorganisms. It would be interesting to see if they’re affected too.”
“When we get back I’ll consider it,” I said.
“Good,” Newton said. “So, with all this fascinating crap happening in the past and magic playing a part in the development of mankind . . . why do you want to give it up?”
“We don’t need magic anymore,” I said. “We have forklifts and electricity and satellite communication and UN sanctions. We have science. We have scientists.” I pointed at Newton and smiled. “The world doesn’t need magic anymore.”
“Then why are nightcrafters still around?”
“Power,” I said. “Plain and simple. It’s hard to give up that kind of power. Even if it isn’t needed for the greater good, it still serves the lesser good. It still keeps a handful of people at the top.”
Newton laid his head on a pillow and covered his eyes with his right forearm. “I feel like I’m going to pass out.”
“I should get back to my room,” I said.
Newton peeked out from under his arm. “You don’t have to. You could stay here.”
It took a few seconds for those words to soak into my alcohol saturated brain. In the meantime some other, more primal, part of me almost made me say yes. But my brain finally got around to processing the whole situation and saved me. “I should really get to my room. If I’m going to puke, I want to do it privately.”
“Good point,” Newton said.
I got up and headed to the door. My fingers had just touched the handle when I heard, “Kal.”
I turned and saw Newton still on the bed, nearly passed out. “Yeah?”
“This was fun. We should do it again some time.”
“Sure. Maybe once we get back home. Goodnight.”
Newton gave me a sleepy salute and closed his eyes. On the way back to my own room I wondered if the odd nervousness in my gut was just the beer, or something else. By the time I was sitting back on my bed, I decided that the fluttery sensation had nothing to do with alcohol.
Damn feelings. Pesky things.
CHAPTER 3
The next day, we got word from the home base that the map data checked out and the work was excellent. Newton and I tried to be as excited as we could, but the headaches and nausea dampened our moods a bit. But, considering how much beer we drank, overall we weren’t doing too badly.
I had thought that we’d be returning home after the map was finished, but there was still more work to be done. Dominique sent instructions for me to sniff out as many other nightcrafters as I could find without getting detected. There was a problem with that: I couldn’t find any signs of a magic user out in the boonies where we were. So we left the forests and hamlets behind and went to a suburb outside of London. I picked that spot because of the high number of strange incidents that had occurred there over the past couple of years, and nightcrafters love to be near big cities but just outside the range of all the bright lights.
Our base of operations was a little hotel in the city center. We rented out all the rooms on the top floor to provide us with the best view of the surrounding area and allow minimum interference for Newton’s machines. Now it was almost sundown a
nd I was sipping on a cup of hot chocolate, watching Newton type on his computer. He types faster than anyone I’ve ever met. The clickety-clack from his keyboard came out at machine gun pace, and he looked totally absorbed in what he was doing.
“What are we doing tonight?” I asked him.
“Just surveillance,” Newton said without missing a beat in his typing. “I’m configuring something for you to use today.”
“Is that what the doohickey next to you is?”
Newton smiled and grabbed the gadget lying next to his laptop. “Yes, it is. This is a custom sensor package with new firmware based on the information I was able to gather about you back in the lab. The sensor package is connected to my computers via a medium-range radio protocol. I can access all the readings from here and hopefully everything will seem fairly inconspicuous.”
“And where are you going to put that sensor package?”
“On you,” Newton said.
“Uh . . .”
“We’ll give you a backpack,” Newton said. “I’m not going to strap it to you. Although that could be arranged if you really want to go that way.”
“That’s not what I’m concerned about,” I said. “Why do I need the sensors at all? I can find nightcrafters just fine.”
“It’s not for you,” Newton said. “It’s for me. I need as much data as we can get to see if other nightcrafters differ from you.”
“And how important is that, really? I mean, it seems like the map was the more important thing for us to do. This nightcrafter hunting isn’t going to accomplish much.”
“Maybe not,” Newton said. “But Dominique has her teeth sunk deep into this. She lost a friend that night she ran into you. She does not suffer injuries like that lightly. And she’s also taking the opportunity to fill some more holes in the old nightcrafter files. A lot of government big wigs want to see that happen.”
“How did you guys know about us anyway? Do I finally have clearance to know that?”
“Surveillance cameras,” Newton said. “It started here in Britain, with an influx of close-captioned cameras set up all over the cities. There are millions of CCTV cameras in this country, and they’ve got their electronic eyes watching every minute of every day. A handful of nightcrafter incidents were bound to show up. It’s just simple probability.”
“There’s a spell to disable nearby cameras,” I said. “It’s a basic spell, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of the less careful nightcrafters don’t think about that.”
“It could be carelessness,” Newton said, “or apathy. Or maybe arrogance. Either way, we’ve got video of some craaaaazy shit. Each NATO member country in Rift range has a secret agreement to filter those recordings out before the civilians post it up for the world to see. Pretty much all of that filtering happens automatically. There’s a networked artificial intelligence pattern recognition program that scans and cuts out everything before human eyes get to see it. My predecessor wrote that code, actually.”
“And where is he now?” I asked. “Retired?”
“Dead,” Newton said. “Jumped off a bridge.”
“Oh,” I said. It was all I could think of.
“He was a troubled man,” Newton said. “Not me though. No troubles here.” He smiled, and it was a genuine gesture. Newton is irreverent as they come. I could see how that trait could come in handy in this job.
“Let’s get back to the task at hand,” he said as he turned his attention back to the sensor package and poked at a few loose wires. “What’s your nightcrafter detection range?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “It’s probably good enough. Probably. But if they’re not using any magic, I won’t be able to find them.”
“I guess we’ll just have to hope somebody’s feeling frisky tonight,” Newton said.
“We’ll see,” I said. “When do we start?”
“In just a few minutes, if you’re up to it. I just need to finalize some settings on the sensors.”
Newton went back to his typing and I finished my hot chocolate. It was a simple drink, but it had a dusting of cinnamon on top of the whipped cream. It was just like my mom used to make for me during winter holidays. A sudden wave of homesickness hit me. I could have pushed it aside, but I didn’t. I missed home. I missed my parents. Thoughts of them were welcome, even if they were bittersweet.
After a few minutes, Newton jumped out of his chair and handed me a plain blue baseball cap. “I don’t usually wear hats,” I said.
“You do today,” he said. There’s a mini-camera in there with a wireless Internet connection. Whatever you look at, I’ll look at.”
“Okay,” I said. “Typical spy gear, I guess.”
“Remember that we’re not supposed to engage anyone you find,” Newton said as he walked over to a large case near the window. “We’re just here to observe, and identify. I’ll also be visually monitoring the situation from up here.” He opened the case and pulled out a fancy digital camera and a telephoto lens longer than my forearm.
“Nice gear,” I said. “Pricey, though. I assume the government paid for it.”
Newton nodded and said, “Uncle Sam is the best sugar daddy there is.”
“Do you know how to use that thing?”
“Photography is one of my hobbies,” Newton said as he started setting up the camera and a tripod. “A hobby that you and I share, I believe”
I paused, and tried to remember if I’d ever mentioned that to him. “How did you know about that?”
“It’s in your file,” he said.
“Exactly how much information is in this damn file? And why do you have access to it?”
“I’m allowed that kind of clearance for all of my research subjects,” Newton said.
“Well now I feel like I’m at a disadvantage,” I said. “When do I get to see yours?”
Newton gave me a mischievous little grin.
“Your file, you perv. When do I get to see it?”
“You probably have access to it now,” Newton said. “Team leaders always have clearance to access the personnel files of their squad members.”
“Wait,” I said. “So . . . I’m the team leader?”
“Technically, yes. Dominique made it official this morning.”
“Why didn’t anybody tell me this earlier?”
Newton smiled. “I wanted to take one last opportunity to push your buttons before you assumed command.”
“Payback is a bitch, you know.”
“I look forward to seeing what you come up with,” Newton said. “But right now, we have a job to do.”
“Yes,” I said. “Let’s get to it.”
Newton took the sensor array, stuffed it into a simple off-the-rack backpack, and pointed to the door. I got the hint and turned the doorknob, only to find several large men waiting in the hallway outside. It was the field team, and they were dressed like tourists.
“Where are they going?” I asked.
“They’re going with you,” Newton said.
“Oh no they’re not,” I said. “I can’t do this job with a whole squad of armed goons following me wherever I go.”
“Dominique wants to keep an eye on you,” Newton said.
“Is she afraid I’ll jump ship?”
“I think she’s just trying to protect her investment,” Newton said.
“She can protect her investment by not driving me crazy with a bunch of James Bond wannabes breathing down my neck.” I turned back to them and said, “No offense, guys.”
Newton said, “I don’t have the authority to call them off, and neither do you.”
“Fine,” I told him. Then I grabbed my cell phone and dialed Dominique’s direct line. Dominique’s voice, laden with irritation, answered, “What?”
“Call off the field team,” I said. “I need to do this by myself. All these people will blow my cover.”
“We need specialized information gathering,” Dominique said. “That’s what Newton is there for. But we also need to
keep you both safe. That is why the field team is there.”
“I can handle myself just fine,” I said. “We have to do this clean and simple. Nightcrafters have skills you can’t even imagine, and the field team doesn’t have the training for this kind of work. Adding more people to this is just going to increase the likelihood that we get sniffed out.”
The line went quiet, and after a few seconds of silence I was thinking that she had hung up on me. Then she said, “Give the phone to Newton.”
I handed the phone to Newton and he listened intently. He didn’t say a word for several minutes, only muttering an occasional “mmhm” in agreement. Then he hung up, shrugged, and turned to the field agents.
“You’re all dismissed for now,” Newton said. “Stay ready, but stay out of Kal’s way unless we call you.”
The team members just nodded and left.
I smiled. “Dominique decided I can do this on my own, eh?”
“Not exactly,” Newton said as he started packing up his gear. “The field team is dismissed, but I’ve been ordered to trail behind you while you investigate.”
“I don’t need—”
“A chaperone. I know,” Newton interjected. “But Dominique was very clear. We do this together, or we both get in a heap of trouble.”
“Fine,” I said. It pissed me off, but Newton’s company hadn’t been a bad thing so far, and Dominique had compromised so I figured it was best not to push my luck.
Newton retrieved a pair of dark glasses from a case. They weren’t quite as dark as sunglasses, but they did have a noticeable tint. “I’ll keep out of sight and about fifty yards behind you. These glasses have a heads up display that will show me the feed from your camera and sensor array. I’ll know where you are, what you’re seeing, and what’s going on around you.”
“I’m assuming you’ve gone through espionage training,” I said.
“I did,” Newton said. “I have a lot more training than you, and I can handle myself in the field. If there’s a weak link here, it’s you and that little crash course they put you through. You’re not going to get me killed, are you?”