by Ramsey Isler
I shrugged. “Maybe it is just me. I’ve been trying to stay out of the Rift since the last incident. But maybe I’m doing something subconsciously.”
“Doubtful,” Newton said. “And you’ve said you haven’t even been in the west wing. I don’t think it’s plausible that you subconsciously wandered over there.”
“Maybe the range of my presence in the Rift spikes sometimes?”
Newton shook his head emphatically. “No. I’ve got gigabytes of data on you and your detectable signal range has never varied that much.”
“So what does this mean?”
“There’s only one thing it could mean,” Newton said. “There’s another nightcrafter here.”
* * *
“Do we have any idea who this new nightmare is?” Dominique asked.
Newton dragged me to her office minutes after he put that heavy revelation on me. Dominique took the news surprisingly well. I had expected her to freak out. But her only reaction was a raised eyebrow then she went to work on solving this new problem. I have to admit I admire her focus.
“We don’t have any suspects yet,” Newton said, “but my scans show that they’re always in the west wing. Lots of ambassadors there.”
“Could it be one of the UN attaches?” Dominique asked.
“I really doubt that,” I said. “Politicians and bureaucrats are all about gaining power through deals and lies. Nightcrafters don’t need that. Their power is inherent. No nightcrafter would go through all that political bullshit when all the power they need is right at their fingertips.”
“Good point,” Dominique said. “So what does that leave us?”
“Could be a spy posing as one of the temporary staff,” Newton said.
“Well let’s back up for a second,” I said. “Maybe we should first be thinking about why a nightcrafter would be here and actively accessing the Rift. Then we can narrow down who it is.”
Dominique rubbed her chin and stared into empty space. “It’s possible the nightcrafters who captured you think that you got help from a government. Either foreign or domestic.”
“Or maybe they want to use government resources to find me,” I said, “Or maybe they’re trying to find my parents. If your precaution was right and the nightcrafters did want to use them against me, I’m sure they’d be curious about their sudden disappearance. They might just be poking around to see if a government operation has them holed up somewhere.”
Dominique nodded, folded her hands, and rested her chin upon them. “We have two options: find the mole and eliminate them, or move our operation to another location.”
“Finding him may be difficult and dangerous,” I said. “This guy is most likely a pro. I didn’t even detect his presence.”
“Don’t assume it’s a man,” Dominique said.
“You’re right,” I said. “It could be anybody. But my point stands. Whoever it is, they’re pretty good at hiding their nightcrafting. Which means they’re probably out of my league.”
“You said Madison was out of your league,” Dominique said. “She’s still in our custody.”
“Which could be another reason why we have a nightcrafter here,” I said. “They could be looking for her.”
Dominique said, “And we certainly can’t let them find her, or you. So we have to act now. I’ll get the plan sorted out in an hour.”
“What plan?” I asked.
“You’re leaving,” she said.
“What?”
“The nightcrafters are proving to be very resourceful,” Dominique said. “They found your apartment, which I went through considerable trouble to conceal. Now, they’re apparently just down the hall. This is too close for comfort.”
“Yes,” Newton said, “but that makes this a perfect opportunity to hunt a high-level nightcrafter and get the answers we were after in the first place.”
“It’s too risky,” Dominique said. “If we make the smallest mistake, we’ll reveal NATO’s involvement in Madison’s capture. The fact that we haven’t all disappeared yet shows that the nightcrafters don’t know anything. They’re just looking. Let’s make sure they don’t find anything.”
“Where do you want me to go?” I said. “I can’t go back to my apartment, I can’t stay here, and I can’t go back to my parents’ place.”
Dominique turned to Newton. “You said you had some ideas on how to figure out how the nightcrafters are phasing into the Rift.”
“Yeah, but they’re just ideas. I can’t—”
“You can, and you will,” Dominique said. “You have a willing and able nightcrafter at your disposal. Make it happen.”
“It would be the toughest reverse engineering hack I’ve ever done,” Newton said.
“But you like challenges,” Dominique said. “And we don’t really have a choice.”
“All my equipment is here,” Newton continued. “A lot of it is custom.”
“We’ll move it,” Dominique said. “Equipment gets moved all the time. No one will notice. Are you done trying to find ways out of this now?”
“I guess so,” Newton said, his shoulders sagging. “So where are we going?”
Dominique gave him a wicked grin and said, “I have just the place in mind.”
* * *
Dominique called in some favors with a few Canadian friends and got us a nice little cabin in a remote part of the island of Newfoundland. The only connection to the rest of civilization was a single highway that snaked through the thick forests on the island. When we drove to the cabin for the first time, I didn’t see a single person along the way. No cars. No stores. No houses. Nothing.
“This is going to be boring,” I said when it became obvious that we were going to be in the middle of nowhere. I was a city boy, born and raised, and this little trip into the country made me nervous. Newton, on the other hand, was happy as hell and drove at a leisurely pace so he could take in all of the forest.
Dominique had chosen the location for its remoteness, but there was an additional benefit that was just as important. Newfoundland is in the easternmost province of Canada, and our cabin was located on the easternmost part of the island. In fact, we were about as far east as you could get in North America if you excluded Greenland. We were far on the extremes of the Atlantic coast, and twelve hundred miles from New York City. The Rift had spread to this place at least two hundred years ago by Newton’s estimates, and hardly anyone lived here. It was a perfect location for unhindered nightcrafting.
But that’s all I could say in favor of the place. At first, I wondered why Dominique had been so sure that no other nightcrafters would be here. It seemed like an ideal training spot if nothing else. But then I saw the vast, raw wilderness and the long vacant roads we took to get to our destination. Nightcrafters are all about power and influence, and there’s no point if there’s no one else around to exert that power on. A nightcrafter would have no interest lording over rocks and evergreen trees.
Our cabin was a simple thing; a little two bedroom house with a gray roof, white window frames, and hunter green siding. It rested on a windswept hill with lots of tall grass and heavy gray stones, but no trees. The tree line was a quarter mile west, and the open ocean was a quarter mile east.
“The locals don’t come around here,” Newton said once we stopped and got out of our cargo van. “There have been too many tales of odd things happening at night; creatures coming out of the ocean and such. The region’s folklore is full of the stuff. We’re guaranteed not to have another person around for miles.”
“And nothing else either,” I said.
“It’ll be good for our focus,” Newton said. “No distractions, and no interference for my equipment.” Newton patted the side of the van. Inside was a large collection of his favorite gadgets, and all of them were meant for deep study of the Rift and my ability to manipulate it.
“Should we start tonight?” I asked.
“Nah, let’s get settled in first,” Newton said. “It’s been a lon
g trip.”
We unpacked the van quickly. Newton had tons of stuff but most of it was machinery. His personal items fit in an Army-style duffel bag. But I had packed even lighter. I had one tiny suitcase and an old tablet computer full of digital books I’d been meaning to read for years.
The equipment Newton brought was heavy, and I wished that we had arrived at night so I could cast some featherweight spells to ease the pain. But it was midday and the sky was still bright despite a thin layer of clouds masking the sun. My back ached by the time we got all the stuff into the cabin.
I took a nap after we were done unloading, and night had arrived by the time I woke up. I looked around for Newton but didn’t find him in any of the rooms. I took a quick look out the patio windows and found him out on the small deck behind the cabin. He was stretched out on a blanket with his duffel bag beside him. I stepped outside and shivered a little as my bare feet touched the weathered wood of the deck.
The features of the landscape were blotted out by the night. There were no lights for miles around except the electric lantern Newton had placed on the deck beside him. It emitted a soft glow that provided him protection from whatever Rift-kind might be lurking in the shadows without ruining the nighttime atmosphere.
Newton turned around and smiled at me. “The sleeper has awakened. Care to join me for some stargazing? It’s beautiful out here.”
I looked up and saw what he meant. The sky was full of pinpricks of light, with a soft cosmic haze in the background. And there was a bonus feature among the stars tonight: long, brief streaks of red and green flashed in the darkness.
“Meteor shower tonight,” Newton said. “One of the best in a long time.”
I’d never seen a meteor shower. Never really could. Years of city life, smog, and light pollution had prevented that. But now I was seeing with my own eyes how beautiful shooting stars could be. The heavens were putting on a light show for the ages. Every few seconds, streaks of light shot across the whole sky. Sometimes there were a few at once, all traveling in the same direction. It almost looked like they were chasing each other. I hadn’t seen a night sky so awe-inspiring since my trip to Europe with Newton’s cartography team. But this time Newton and I were alone, and with no set work schedule to force us to toil through the night. We could just relax and enjoy the evening, something I couldn’t recall doing in quite some time.
I sat next to him and watched the show. He handed me a pillow and we just watched in silence for a long time.
“Are you scared?” Newton asked, after maybe twenty minutes.
“Should I be?” I said. “No chance of one of these meteors hitting us, right?”
“Not what I meant,” Newton said. “Are you scared about these . . . recent events?”
“Why would I be scared?”
“You’ve got a bunch of angry wizards on your tail,” Newton said. “Sounds like grounds to be scared shitless to me.”
“They won’t kill me as long as they don’t know what we’re trying to do,” I said. “Right now they’re just pissed that I kidnapped one of their junior members. That’s all.”
“But if they find out we’re trying to destroy the very thing that gives them all their power . . .”
“Yup,” I said. “They’d be livid.”
Newton gave me a sideways glare. “So again . . . why aren’t you scared shitless?”
“Training,” I said. “Nightcrafter training rips fear out of you. It throws you right into the darkness with no preparation, like teaching a kid to swim by throwing him in the pool. You sink, or you swim. If you come out of it alive, the fear isn’t in you anymore.”
“What about your parents?” Newton asked. “Not afraid for them?”
“I am concerned for them. Not afraid. Big difference.”
“I suppose so,” Newton said, returning his attention back to the shooting stars.
“Are you scared?” I asked him.
“Yes.”
“You shouldn’t be,” I said. “The nightcrafters won’t find us out here, and Dominique is smart. They’ll never learn about your involvement.”
“That’s not what I’m afraid of,” Newton said. “I’m afraid that they’ll win. I’m afraid that we won’t be able to figure out how to stop them.”
“I get a sense there’s more to it than that.”
“Like what?” Newton asked.
“Well,” I said, “maybe you’re afraid of what life means now that you don’t have a neat and tidy explanation for everything in the universe.”
“What?” Newton said with a laugh. “No, not even close. First of all, I’ve already been able to apply a number of scientific principles to nightcrafting. The ELF frequency is one of them, and the whole point of our little trip here is to figure out how the nightcrafters phase into the Rift. Yes, there are still a lot of questions to be answered, but just because I haven’t found answers yet doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”
“Point taken,” I said.
“There are plenty of things we don’t have pitch-perfect science for,” Newton continued. “But all the mysteries fall away given enough time and research. We didn’t know how bumblebees are able to fly until we invented high speed photography. Isaac Newton pioneered the concept of gravity over three hundred years ago, but we still don’t know how it really works. We know what it does, we have a fair idea of what generates it, and there are all sorts of equations for it based on centuries of analysis and observation. But the question of what exactly it is remains unanswered. There have always been these annoying gaps in our knowledge. But, just like the flight of the bumblebee, each of those mysteries will be answered in time.”
“And how much time do you think you need to answer the phasing problem?” I asked.
“How much do I need? I have no idea. How much will I get? Probably three weeks. Then Dominique will start demanding answers. We have to do this before her mood changes.”
“Sounds like tomorrow is going to be busy then,” I said.
“Yep. Which is why we should make the most of today.” Newton reached into his duffel bag and retrieved a big bottle of red wine. “Canada is more of a beer country,” he said, “but we did beer last time. Wine is a nice change of pace.”
“Is it sweet?” I asked.
“Of course.” Newton poured two plastic cups full of the amethyst liquid. I usually avoided red wine. I find even the “sweet” ones to be bitter. But this particular brand had a flowery sweetness that reminded me of pure grape juice — grape juice with ten percent alcohol content.
“This is pretty good,” I said. “Did you bring food?”
“Just enough to last us,” Newton said. “Potatoes. Jerky. Cured meats. Nuts. Canned veggies. The kind of stuff you’d find in someone’s bomb shelter.” He pulled out a package labeled “Teriyaki Beef Jerky” and passed it to me. I bit into a strip of the dark leathery meat. Chewy, but not bad.
As I chewed I said, “Is this your stash from when you and your buddies go camping or something?”
“I don’t have camping buddies,” Newton said. “Not many buddies at all these days, as a matter of fact. I haven’t had the opportunity for much social interaction. The job requires too much of my time. That’s been especially true recently.”
“I’m sure a clever fellow like you could make the time if he wanted.”
“Time spent fraternizing is time not spent figuring out how to stay one step ahead of the nightcrafters,” Newton said. “Besides . . . I’m not exactly a people person.”
“Oh come on,” I said. “You’re great with people.”
“I’m great with you,” Newton said. “Not so much with others.”
“And why is that?” I asked.
“Long story.”
“We have time,” I said. “And I never got a chance to look at your file. So the only way I’m going to learn more about you is if you tell me.”
“You really want me to spill my guts about why I don’t have a social life?”
&nb
sp; I took another sip of wine and said, “Absolutely.”
“Okay then,” Newton said. He paused for a long while, and it seemed like he was debating whether he should go on. “When I started college, I decided to do a double major in physics and psychology,” he said. “I wanted to be a therapist like my mother, but she never liked the idea.”
“Why not?”
“She used to warn me about the job all the time,” Newton said. “All those hours spent listening to other people’s problems, getting in their heads, hearing their darkest secrets. She said it changed her. It made her cynical and pessimistic. She said she didn’t want that for me.”
“Sounds like she was just looking out for you,” I said.
“She was, and I appreciated that. But I was convinced that I would learn from her experience and not make the same mistakes. So I went full out, balls to the wall and studied everything I could about psychology. I was good at it, and I loved being good at it. I loved being able to read people. It was the next best thing to telepathy. But . . . it had a negative effect on my romantic life. I would go out on dates and instantly start psychoanalyzing. Jerry had an Oedipus complex. Mike was a classic case of social anxiety disorder. Ken probably had body dysmorphic disorder. Robbie grew up with a schizophrenic mother. A lot of times, when I try to get close to people, I don’t really see them as just people. I see them as cases. Everyone has a file in my head. Everyone’s foibles and faults and fixations are well cataloged. It’s great for navigating the political environment of a government workplace, but it’s horrible for anything remotely close to a normal dating life.”
“That sounds a little dramatic,” I said. “It’s just a bad habit. You can fix that. Just be more aware of what you’re doing in the moment.”
“So,” Newton said, “you want me to be more like you?”
“Well, I wasn’t trying to be all egotistical. But . . . yes, I guess. Be more like me.”