Mages in Manhattan

by Phil Gabriel

  Then we had to go through a metal detector. Kitty-Sue had had to give up her blades once again. They were safely stored in my satchel, undetectable to mundane equipment.

  After we walked through the detector and got an additional wanding, the guard handed us our internal badges. “No tailgating,” he said.

  Kitty-Sue opened her mouth, thought better, and nodded. “No problem,” I said. “We know the rules.”

  Finally, we were rolling our cart through the seemingly endless corridors, following a printed-out map on a clipboard. A bubble of kitsune magic popped up around us. Kitty-Sue asked, “What’s tailgating?”

  “That’s when you follow someone through a security door without swiping your own card.”

  “Why is that bad?” she asked.

  “Because the security computers would lose track of the personnel. They want to pinpoint every person at every minute.”

  While the bubble was up, I took a moment to retrieve her blades and return them to her. I was hoping they were not going to be needed, but Kitty-Sue was calmer when armed with her deadly security blankets.

  Finally we were at the correct door to our area. It was huge, reminiscent of a bank vault. On the wall beside the door was a biometric reader. “OK, Kitty-Sue,” I said, “you’re going to have to drop the bubble here. Before you do, watch how I get through the door.”

  Kitty-Sue dropped the bubble and watched me closely as I used my card, fingerprint, and PIN to unlock the door. Due to the ‘no tailgating’ policy, she would have to follow me after I made the transfer. I maneuvered the cart through the first door, then the second.

  I only had to wait a few seconds for Kitty-Sue. Once inside our server room, we wheeled the cart to the rack that Selene Select owned. “This will take about two hours to complete,” I said. “If everything goes smoothly.”

  “Can I help?” she asked.

  “Sure,” I said, handing her a device with two eight-inch-wide suction cups. “This is a tile puller. Smack it onto a floor tile, pull the tile, and set it over there so we can get to the cables under the rack.”

  “OK, boss,” she said, popping the device on the center of a two-foot by two-foot tile. Removing the tile revealed the server room sat on a raised floor. The space between the real floor and the raised floor was used to run cables and cooling air for the servers. We removed eight of the tiles to allow access to the cables for the server rack.

  Next, we popped open the gray plastic Isopod on the cart that contained our new equipment that I had specially modified. “Why do we have three of the same computer in here?” asked Kitty-Sue.

  “Triple redundancy,” I replied, resisting the urge to correct her that these were not computers. “All the major traders have multiple units for safety. If you have multiple millions of dollars at risk, it’s cheap insurance.”

  At the rack, I pulled out a small drawer at waist height Pulling the top of the drawer up revealed an LCD monitor and keyboard. This terminal could be used to control all the equipment in the rack. I entered commands on the keyboard and powered off the top switch. I started unscrewing the screws that held it in the rack. “Hey, won’t that mess things up?” asked Kitty-Sue.

  “No,” I said, “the other two will automatically switch over.” I walked behind the rack and pulled the 10 gigabit fiber optic connectors from the switch. With Kitty-Sue’s help, I removed the old switch and replaced it with the new unit.

  Once the top unit was installed, reconnected, and tested, we did the same for the next two switches.

  As we were putting back the last tile, Kitty-Sue suddenly tensed, turning her head towards the door. About thirty seconds later, a roving guard came through the door. “Hello. How’s it going?” he asked, looking at our badges to make sure we were in the right area. I noticed he spent extra time on Kitty-Sue’s badge displayed prominently on her chest.

  Kitty-Sue sent me a querying glance—did I want her to get rid of the guard? Since Kitty-Sue’s methods would require ending either his life or his career, I decided to bore him away. “It’s great! These new low-latency switches are amazing. Juniper did a tremendous job.” I pointed at the terminal screen. “Hey, we’re going to be running loop-back tests. It’s real exciting to watch the speed test chart. Just look at those numbers!” I pointed at a moving line on the screen, holding my pose for three minutes before it incrementally ticked up by one.

  I turned around to find equally glazed expressions on the guard and Kitty-Sue’s faces. The guard looked at Kitty-Sue wistfully, then said, “Gee, I’d really like to stay and watch. But I’ve got to make rounds.” With that comment, he headed out the door.

  “So,” asked Kitty-Sue with a hopeful tone, “we’re done?”

  “No,” I said, “I’ve still got a lot of work to do.” I reached into the Isopod container and pulled out a spray bottle and a pack of cotton cloths. I sprayed several tiles and wiped them down to clean them, then pulled a marker from my pocket. I was halfway through drafting a circle when Kitty-Sue said, “Won’t they notice that after we leave?”

  “No,” I said. “Try looking at the marks inside the human spectrum.”

  “Oh,” she said. “They’re just smudges.”

  “The next part is delicate,” I said. “Can you watch and keep the guard from interrupting?”

  Her eyes brightened with the hope of excitement as she pulled out her blades.

  “Whoa,” I said. “Just distract him, don’t kill him! He’s just doing his job.” That would be very difficult to explain.

  The blades disappeared as she smiled her mischievous smile. “Just joking, boss,” she said. “I won’t hurt anyone unless they try to hurt you first.”

  At my relieved look, she cocked a hip and added in her most sultry bedroom voice, “I’ll just lure him away using my feminine wiles.” She walked closer to the door and took up a one-knee-on-the-ground position between the door and my circle.

  The next two hours were spent aligning mystic forces to forge quantum entangled connections between the new switches and my vellum parchment. The other end would be completed at the offices of Selene Select. Once again, even though it required a lot more work, I used the parchment as an intermediary. The link would definitely stay in my possession. I wanted to have the ability to cut the link again in case of nonpayment.

  If Frost didn’t like it, tough. He had already tried to cheat me once and had had his nose smacked.

  The job was finally done, the equipment packed up and testing complete.

  Seeing how much the spell-casting took out of me, Kitty-Sue asked, “Couldn’t you have done this part back in Tokyo? You had a lot more magical juice there.”

  “No,’ I replied. “The forces are very sensitive to initial location, magnetic fields, and local ley line flows. They have to be aligned in place.” I hefted the Isopod with the old equipment up on the cart before continuing, “There’s no way to crank quantum entangled communications links off an assembly line.” In many ways, magic was still at the master-apprentice level. We hadn’t yet birthed a Henry Ford to automate things.

  We trundled the cart with the old switches out of the server room, making sure everything was cleaned up behind us. Kitty-Sue handed off her blades to me for safe storage in my satchel.

  Walking down the corridor, Kitty-Sue popped up a bubble to continue our conversation. “But you could teach other magicians how to do it, right? Then they could teach others. You could get rich!”

  “I’ve tried to teach others,” I said. “Even Akiko-san, my best student, hasn’t been able to duplicate the process.” One student gave up in disgust, saying it was like trying to understand why an artist put a dot in a certain spot on the canvas. He’s doing magic shows in Atlantic City now.

  “So,” Kitty-Sue said, ears perking up, “even Akiko-san can’t do that?” She seemed pleased to find that there were some things Akiko couldn’t do.

  Security at the exit was even more thorough than getting in. Badges were checked again, the Isopod open
ed and the serial numbers of the switches checked against a manifest, documents with the serial numbers of the new switches left so the current configuration could be updated, another trip through the magnetic detector, and we were finally free.

  Once we were out of sight of the door, Kitty-Sue held out her hand in that universal gimme gesture and I gave her blades back.

  Pushing the cart out to the van, we found Akiko patiently waiting. She smiled when she saw us. “Good morning, Akiko-san,” I said, “hope you weren’t too bored.”

  She made that tiny mouth gesture that meant she agreed, but didn’t want to criticize. “Yes, pretty boring,” she said. “However, I did see some ghosts.”

  “Really?” I asked. Ghosts at a newly built site were unusual.

  “Hai,” she said. “One was a worker that fell from the scaffolding during construction. I urged him on to the next world. Another was an angry Russian giant. He seemed to be mad at everyone, especially the two men that abandoned him in the winter woods to freeze to death.”

  “Sounds like something from a Mafia movie,” I said.

  “Hai,” she said. “He tried to scare me”—she sniffed as if to show that Earthly spirits were nothing she feared—“then he tried to attack me with a ghost shovel. That didn’t work very well, either.”

  Speaking of attacks piqued Kitty-Sue’s interest. “Attacked?” she said. “You should have called for help. I could have been out here in less than a minute.”

  Akiko waved away her concern. “No ghost can harm me,” she said. “It was like fending off a toddler.”

  “So where is this angry ghost?” I asked.

  “Once he found out I spoke Russian,” said Akiko, “we had a long talk. He wanted me to help him track down his murderers. Said they left him almost naked in the Pine Barrens in the middle of winter to die, and he wanted revenge.”

  “So what happened to...?” I asked.

  “Valery,” said Akiko, providing a name for our angry spirit. “I convinced him to go through his door to meet his destiny.”

  “Meet his destiny?” asked Kitty-Sue. “Wasn’t he smart enough to realize...?”

  “It sounds more positive in Russian,” said Akiko. “He was convinced his destiny was to get revenge. He couldn’t see what was waiting on the other side of the door.”

  Implying that she could see through the door between our world and the next. Something I had never been able to do. I opened my mouth to ask, but the look on her face stopped me. There are some things mortals, including magicians, can’t know. This was a reminder that even though Akiko couldn’t make quantum data links, there were lots of things she could do that I would never be able to duplicate.

  In the silence that followed, Kitty-Sue went to the back of the van and popped open the doors, then turned to lift the Isopod that contained the old switches into the van. “Hold on, Kitty-Sue,” I said. “We’re not going to take those back.”

  Looking around at the parking lot, Kitty-Sue asked, “You want to leave them here? Aren’t they expensive?”

  “No,” I responded, “I have to destroy them.” Could Frost reverse-engineer my quantum links? They were mystical and would require a scanning electron microscope to see. It would also require the resources of a magician better than me. Why waste time getting rid of the old equipment?

  Because the bastard was a billionaire who had almost infinite resources and would like nothing more than to cut me out of the loop, as well as cut my throat. Better safe than sorry. There were already enough billionaires who wanted my talents.

  “Here?” asked Kitty-Sue. “Won’t that leave a mess?”

  “Not the way we do it,” I responded, gesturing to Akiko to add her power to mine.

  We modified Schrödinger’s spell. Instead of copying the items to the ghostly plane, as we did with food and drink, we transferred it completely. This took a lot more power, as well as taking much longer.

  As we chanted and gestured, the cart and the Isopod faded away, leaving only a ghostly image behind. At one point in the procedure, Akiko shook her head and touched her ear, but she quickly returned to her place in the spell.

  After we finished, Kitty-Sue couldn’t resist her curiosity and approached the ghostly Isopod. Extending a finger, she poked at the case but met no resistance. Finally, waving her hand through the space, she asked, “So we just leave it here? Won’t someone like her”—she pointed to Akiko— “find it?”

  “No,” I said. “The equipment still responds to gravity. Watch.” I nodded to Akiko, and we removed the levitation spell that kept the cart and Isopod above ground. No longer supported, they dropped quickly from sight.

  “Cool,” said the ever-practical Kitty-Sue. “So, that’s how you get rid of bodies?”

  As we drove back to New York for the next phase of the job, Kitty-Sue eagerly pulled her iPad from the glove box to check her messages. At Akiko’s wistful look, I said, “It must have been boring out here with nothing to do.”

  “Hai, Scott-Sensei,” she said. “I meditated for two hours. But, except for the two ghosts, there was not much to do here.”

  “Too bad they don’t have an Apple Store on the Other Side,” said Kitty-Sue, giggling.

  “Yes,” responded Akiko wistfully, “it’s too bad.”

  Hit with a crazy idea, I asked, “Akiko-san, why did you stop at that point in the spell?”

  “I heard a high-pitched whine, very loud,” she said. “What do you think caused it?”

  “I’m not sure,” I answered. “I’ll have to do some research.” I put the idea I had on the back burner.

  The rest of the trip was uneventful, with us arriving back in New York about eleven o’clock. I was tired, but pulled energy from my reserves to stay alert, a trick that had saved me many times in the past. Kitty-Sue curled up in the front seat and covered her eyes with her tail to block out the light and slept like a baby. Well, a ninja assassin baby with hair-trigger reflexes. Akiko, having left sleep behind with her death, stayed awake and kept me company. I occasionally changed the radio station at her request.

  Back in the city, I took a turn that would lead us back to the hotel instead of the offices of Selene Select. At the turn, Kitty-Sue woke and asked, “Aren’t we going straight to the next part of the job?”

  “We could,” I said, “but doing everything to Frost’s schedule is asking for trouble.”

  At the mention of trouble, Kitty-Sue’s ears perked up. “So let’s go!” she urged.

  My little troublemaker. “No, not today,” I said. “I want to have a nice big lunch and a nice nap. Then we can hit Selene Select this afternoon to finish the installation of the data link.”

  Disappointment flashed across her face at the thought of missing a fight, then she smiled and asked, “Can we go back to that Italian place? I really liked the seafood.” A look at Akiko showed her nod of approval, so we headed back to Tony’s.

  After a huge lunch that included two bottles of wine, we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed rest. Well, Kitty-Sue and I needed rest. Akiko stayed in the lounge area. She looked like she would be bored again. I quickly taught her a spell that allowed her to flash in infra-red. I turned on the TV and left it to her to experiment with spell-enabled channel surfing.

  Kitty-Sue and I headed to the bedroom. After taking a quick shower, which she didn’t share, I slid under the covers and waited for her. The door to the bathroom opened and steam poured out, outlining her nude form. I sat up in bed and she stepped into the room. Between one step and the next, she had assumed her fox form. With a scampering jump, she hit the bed.

  “You know,” I said, stroking her tail, “it’s much better to cuddle with your human form.”

  In answer, she turned quickly and nipped at my hand. “Still not over the murderous tattoo artist, I see,” I said.

  In answer, she gave a fox yawn, circled around three times, curled up with her tail over her snout, and dropped off to sleep. Damn, blue balls again.

  Twenty-Fourr />
  Danger in the Wolves’ Den

  We finally arrived at the offices of Selene Select about 4:00 p.m. Before entering the underground garage, I said, “Akiko-san, you’re our secret weapon. I’d like you to stay invisible to everyone, even supernaturals.” Akiko nodded and vanished, though I could still feel her through our psychic link.

  As we drove the van into the underground garage, we found Ms. Cappuccetto waiting. She looked distraught: her immaculate red locks in disarray, lipstick chewed off, eyes darting back and forth. I almost felt sorry for her.

  “Thank God you’re finally here,” she gasped. “Mr. Frost is”—she paused, realizing that his wolf ears could hear her from a considerable distance— “extremely displeased at these delays.”

  “Guess the BJs didn’t work,” quipped Kitty-Sue.

  “Hey, Red,” I said, “there have been no delays. I’m right on the schedule I set.”

  “Is that so?” said a firm voice that contained a trace of a growl. Striding out from a nearby door, Frost quickly crossed the distance and confronted me–the first time in the flesh. He was shorter than I had imagined, but built broad, like a tank.

  As he approached, he sniffed in our direction, hoping to find out more about us. Akiko was invisible and Kitty-Sue had modified her scent to smell like a mundane human, so his inspection was wasted.

  As for my scent, as long as he didn’t stick his nose in my butt, he could sniff all he wanted.

  “Scott Freeman?” he asked, sticking out his hand. I took his hand and he gave me a bone bruising grip, waiting to see if I would wince. I’m stronger than human, but not as strong as a werewolf. However, I did have magic to help me cheat. My grip was equally strong, and I looked him directly in his eyes. He could cow his pack, but not a magician.