A Logical Magician lm-1

by Robert Weinberg

  Like all the supernaturals, Grondark exhibited a tendency to rattle on if given the chance. Ordinarily, Jack would have found his meanderings fascinating, but not at the moment.

  “Why swords?” Jack asked again, trying to steer the dwarf back in the right direction.

  “They combine fire and iron,” declared Grondark dramatically. “Swords are forged. They are fire and iron, united. A strong blade is the marriage between the two greatest forces of order.”

  Seeing the sudden look of comprehension on Jack’s face, he asked, “Is that the secret, Jack Collins?”

  “Yes,” said Jack, the truth bursting within him. “Yes, that is the secret, Grondark.”

  “Then would you please explain it to me,” said the dwarf, “because I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  “The important word is order,” said Jack, slipping into his teaching mode. “Most superstitions are grounded in a fear of the unknown, of chaos. Primitive man was frightened by many things he did not understand, so he personified them—gave them form and substance. Which is how the first supernatural beings came into existence. They were creatures of the fear, the disorder, that surrounded and threatened early mankind.

  “Then came the first major step in human progress. The taming of fire. Using it, man was no longer afraid of the dark. The night was still threatening, but it was not overwhelming. Fire was symbolic of the triumph of order over chaos, civilization over anarchy.”

  “What about cold iron?” asked the dwarf.

  “Order over disorder, law over chaos,” declared Jack. “That’s the symbolism I was searching for. The conquest of fire led to the mastery of metal. Again, mankind used cold iron, used steel to transform society from the chaotic to the orderly. Iron weapons, iron horseshoes, iron nails brought order to the world. It drove out chaos.

  “By definition, most supernatural beings, especially those of evil, were creations of chaos. Even the faeries, like Simon and his relatives, were considered mischief makers, trouble bringers. They were symbolic of disorder. That was why iron hurt them as well as the dragons, the monsters, the bogies. Order triumphed over chaos. That’s the key.”

  “The key to what?” asked Cassandra, wandering into the garage, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “What’s got you so excited, Jack?”

  Swiftly, Jack outlined his theory to the Amazon. She remained silent until he finished.

  “Not bad,” she said. “But, if that’s the case, why doesn’t cold iron hurt Dietrich von Bern still? He’s definitely a creature of chaos. As are the Border Redcaps.”

  “Because iron ceased to be symbolic of order a long time ago,” said Jack. “The same applies to fire. Once, they both worked as forces of good in the world. Fire destroyed the worst evils; iron weapons killed terrible monsters. But Fritz hit the nail on the head when he said they became too common. Iron and steel were used not only for good, but for evil. Innocents as well as villains were burned to death by fire. Good people as well as bad were put to the sword. Each crime, each outrage, lessened their powers. Humanity no longer thought of cold iron being used only for righteous deeds. Once mankind realized that steel was neither good nor evil, but merely an extension of the user’s desires, it lost all power as a symbol.”

  Jack shrugged his shoulders. “Guns don’t kill people, as we’ve been told again and again. People kill people. Cold iron doesn’t defeat evil because it no longer is symbolic of the triumph of order over chaos. In modern times, cold iron serves both law and chaos.”

  “Then nothing can defeat the Wild Huntsman,” said Cassandra, her face ashen. “Nothing in this modern world is symbolic of the supremacy of order over chaos.”

  Jack smiled. He felt almost lightheaded, as revelation after revelation filled his consciousness. Unexplained mysteries suddenly made perfect sense.

  “That’s not true,” he said cheerfully. “There are lots of things that fill the bill these days. We’re surrounded by things that bring order to a chaotic universe. You merely have to change the way you’re thinking. Von Bern is powerful and he has powerful allies. But I have a few surprises for our German friend.”

  Jack laughed out loud. “Everything fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Order versus chaos. The Wild Huntsman has a Sword of Chaos, a Great Beast, and the Border Redcaps. That’s a pretty awesome force. But we have logic on our side.”

  Jack was glowing with energy. “And, let me tell you, in the entire universe, nothing is more powerful than logic. Nothing at all.”

  33

  “You want to go where?” asked Simon, late that afternoon.

  “Back to campus,” said Jack. “Tonight.”

  “That’s what I thought you said,” declared the changeling. “At least, now I know I’m not going crazy. You are.”

  Jack laughed. He and his friends sat clustered around Witch Hazel’s tiny kitchen table. The addition of Fritz Grondark made conditions even more crowded than before. But, somehow they all fit in the front room of the mobile home.

  “I’m tired of being chased, Simon,” said Jack. “Ever since Merlin and Megan were kidnapped, I’ve been on the run. Von Bern and the Border Redcaps have kept me off balance so I can’t interfere with their devilish scheme. Well, the time has come to stop running and start fighting.”

  “That’s my type of talk,” said Cassandra.

  Fritz Grondark grunted in agreement. The dwarf, who had followed them back to the trailer camp in a massive tow truck, carried an immense monkey wrench hooked to his belt. Fritz made no secret of the fact he intended to use it on the skulls of any Border Redcaps, distant relatives of trolls, he encountered.

  “The other day,” Jack continued, “Hazel remarked that perhaps science and sorcery are actually the same but we’re just too ignorant to realize it. There’s a great deal of truth in what she said. I know how to defeat Von Bern and the Border Redcaps. But the equipment I need is at the college.”

  “Can’t we buy the stuff?” asked Simon. “Or build it?”

  “If we had the time,” replied Jack. “But we don’t. Tomorrow evening is Beltane. Trust me, Simon, raiding the college laboratories is our only chance to obtain the proper tools.”

  “For what?” asked Hazel. “You still haven’t told us what weapons you intend to use against the Huntsman.”

  “Light defeats darkness,” said Jack, smiling. “Order defeats chaos.”

  “Water washes mud,” said Simon. “Which is about as clear as you’ve been lately. What does it matter, anyway? We still don’t know where to find the German and his prisoners.”

  “Oh,” said Jack. “I forgot to tell you. Right before von Bern attacked us on the highway, I figured out where he’s holding the women captive.”

  For a moment, no one said anything. Then, the trailer rocked with the collective shout, “WHAT?!”

  “Sorry,” said Jack. Actually, he wasn’t the least bit ashamed. After all the half-told stories, hints, and unexplained remarks made by the supernaturals, it felt pretty good to catch them completely by surprise.

  “Once I combined all the clues, the location was obvious. January told us that the Huntsman bragged that his prisoners were beneath the feet of the police. That implied an underground hideaway. Megan mentioned a huge chamber, so I knew it couldn’t be the basement of a warehouse. All of the kidnappings took place in the Loop and nowhere else, so it seemed logical to assume there was a reason for that. It was then that I remembered that when Merlin was kidnaped, no one saw his captors leave the building. Combining the two facts, it was obvious that they hadn’t.”

  “Huh” said Simon. “Where did they go, then? Underneath?”

  “Exactly,” said Jack. “The Border Redcaps carried Megan and her father to the basement of the tower and then below it. As they did with all the women they captured.”

  He drew in a deep breath. “I phoned the main library information center an hour ago and had them do a quick search for me. Each and every one of the Loop buildings where a disappearance took place w
as once connected to the old underground tunnel transportation network beneath the Loop. That’s where von Bern’s hideout is located.”

  “The same tunnels that flooded a few years back?” said Hazel. “The ones used in the 1920’s to bring goods into the Loop from the railroad yards?”

  “That’s them,” said Jack. “The tunnels are all but forgotten now, but at the turn of the century they were considered an engineering marvel. The dirt excavated in their construction was used as landfill on Lake Michigan and became the site of the Field Museum.”

  “Excuse me,” said Cassandra, “but I’m lost. I’ve only lived in Chicago for a few years. You’re not talking about subway tunnels?”

  “Those were constructed years later,” said Jack. “These tunnels preceded them by decades. They were narrow passageways, just wide enough for a railway handcar. Barely lit, they were not intended for commuters but for commercial goods.”

  Jack paused, putting his thoughts in order. “At the end of the 19th century, traffic in the Loop was so bad that merchants were having difficulty getting their goods from the railroad yards on the south side into downtown. The abundance of wagons, carriages and trolley cars on the streets made deliveries nearly impossible. Goods could only be transported late at night, which made most store owners quite unhappy. That all changed when a system of underground tunnels were built, linking the railroad yards with the Loop.

  “Goods were unloaded from the incoming freight trains, transferred to handcars, and then sent from the train station to a central receiving depot deep beneath the central commuter railroad station downtown. There, the products were sorted and forwarded to their final destinations, again by handcar, through branch tunnels that snaked all through the Loop. Nearly a hundred different buildings were serviced by this unique underground delivery service. Each stop had its own receiving dock, located in the subbasement of the structure.

  “The network even ducked beneath the Chicago River and supplied stores on the near north side as well. It stayed in service until the early 1930’s, when shipping by trucks replaced most railroad deliveries.”

  “The tunnels were closed and abandoned,” said Hazel. “The owners shut off the power, but otherwise left the system intact and undisturbed. During World War Two, I recall talk of opening them up and using them for POW camps. What a crazy idea. Later, in the 1960’s, an alderman proposed they be converted into giant bomb shelters. Happily, no one took him seriously.”

  “A few years ago,” said Jack, “as a result of a series of bureaucratic blunders centering around bridge repairs, a hole was punched in the top of the tunnel passing beneath the river. Water rushed into the system and flooded the basements of half the buildings in the Loop. It knocked out electricity throughout the near north side. The accident nearly shut down the entire city, and things didn’t return to normal for weeks. Among other problems, the flood forced the closing of the subway.”

  “That I remember,” said Cassandra. “I thought they plugged up the system with cement.”

  “Not really,” said Jack. “The city engineers closed off the section beneath the river, but the rest of the network remains open. And von Bern and his captives are down there.”

  “Any idea where?”

  “Megan mentioned a huge chamber. The only place that fits that description is the old central shipping depot. According to the city librarians, the center resembles a gigantic amphitheater a hundred feet beneath the streets. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect arena for conducting a blood sacrifice to an ancient God?”

  “I’m convinced,” said Cassandra. “How do we stop it?”

  ’Tonight we raid the campus and get the necessary equipment for my secret weapon,” said Jack. “It’s all stuff available only in laboratories. Tomorrow, we go shopping. There’s a bunch of things I want to buy for additional protection.

  “After that, we head underground. The sacrifice is scheduled for May Day Eve. We’ll attack during the daytime, when the forces of darkness are at their weakest. Still, I suspect von Bern and his Border Redcaps are expecting us to show up. They’ll be ready and waiting no matter when we arrive. But this time, we’re going to be the ones with a few surprises.”

  34

  They arrived on campus shortly after midnight. Cassandra drove, with Jack in the other front seat and Simon and Fritz Grondark in the back. Dark clouds hid the moon and stars, shrouding the laboratories in blackness.

  “You two know exactly what I want?” Jack asked Simon for the tenth time.

  While he trusted his allies, there was no time left for mistakes. After the affair at the math building, he suspected Benny Anderson had tightened campus security. Stealing what they needed might prove to be difficult. There definitely wouldn’t be a second chance.

  “Nothing to worry about,” said the changeling. “We’re looking for the battery pack belts used in the film classes run by the photography department. The type that the TV news stations power their minicams with. I never used one, but some of the girls I dated produced their own films for class, so I’m real familiar with the belts.

  “It shouldn’t take us too long to find them in the photo lab. They keep the expensive equipment locked up but Fritz assures me that he can open anything.”

  The dwarf flexed his huge fingers. “One way or another, we’ll manage the task.”

  “Try not to cause too much destruction,” said Jack. “Dealing drugs on campus is old news. Nobody cares much. Stealing college property gets you in trouble with the Dean’s office. That’s a black mark on your transcript you can’t erase. Someday, I still plan to obtain my degree.”

  “Stealth is my middle name,” proclaimed Simon. “Where are you heading?”

  “Cassandra is going to park the car by the chemistry building,” answered Jack. “Then the two of us will visit the labs upstairs. I’m pretty sure they have what I need in one of them.”

  “Which is?” asked Simon.

  “Order to fight chaos,” said Jack, smiling. “Light to battle the darkness. You’ll find out soon enough.”

  Simon and Fritz, resembling a very odd Mutt and Jeff, departed a few minutes later. Neither of them carried a weapon, though Fritz’s monkey wrench dangled from his belt. The dwarf, who had trouble entering doorways unless he turned sideways, didn’t need anything else. Though Fritz refused to brag about his fighting prowess, Cassandra respected Grondark’s skills, which was testimony enough for Jack. Once Simon and Fritz obtained the battery belt pack, they planned to rendezvous with Jack and Cassandra in the chemistry building parking lot in forty minutes.

  Watching the pair amble down the path to the photography department, Jack murmured a silent prayer. Simon meant well, but his mischievous nature played havoc with the best-laid plans. Tonight, they couldn’t afford any mistakes. The fate of civilization rested on their shoulders. Jack’s back ached from the weight.

  A padlock on the front door of the chemistry building made it quite clear that security on campus had been tightened. After checking carefully for wires indicating alarm systems and finding none, Cassandra casually snapped the lock with her new staff. Von Bern had cut one walking stick to kindling, but the Amazon had a half-dozen replacements in reserve.

  “There’s no way of protecting a building this size,” she said to Jack, walking into the main hall, “without using trenches, barbed wire and extensive electronic surveillance equipment. And, even then, a trained, determined professional can, in most cases, infiltrate and compromise any location.”

  Smiling, Jack nodded his head. It required no guesswork to substitute Cassandra’s name for that of a trained, determined professional. Over the course of history, he suspected the Amazon had experienced enough adventures to fill an encyclopedia.

  With four chemistry labs on the second floor, they decided to split up to save time. Jack described in great detail to Cassandra the objects they were hunting. After agreeing to meet in the center in twenty minutes, they started searching.

  Jack found th
e device five minutes after he walked into the first lab. He also discovered trouble. Benny Anderson, armed with a police special, was hiding in the shadows of the room, watching and waiting for Jack to make a wrong move. Picking up lab equipment obviously met that requirement. Seconds after Jack pulled the long tube off a storage shelf, the security chief stood up, making his presence known simply and effectively.

  “Freeze, drug-scum,” he announced, his voice a harsh whisper. Though the lawman’s body trembled with emotion, his gun hand never wavered. It remained fixed in a direct line with Jack’s crotch. “Make one false move and I’ll blow off your balls.”

  Jack froze, the black rectangular tube clutched close to his chest. “Take it easy, chief,” he said loudly, hoping Cassandra was within the sound of his voice. “I’m unarmed. And this isn’t as bad as it looks.”

  “Sure,” said Anderson, motioning with the gun for Jack to lower his prize to the shelf. “First it was selling drugs. Now you’re stealing school property.”

  The chief’s voice rang with contempt. “Your kind make me sick, Collins. Always whining how unfairly you’ve been treated. Damned pampered rich kids don’t know how tough life really is. Try earning a living the hard way—honestly. Then tell me stealing isn’t as bad as it looks.”

  “I’m neither pampered nor rich,” began Jack, then closed his mouth, realizing he was wasting his time. No matter what he said, the chief wouldn’t believe him. Anderson had made up his mind and there was no way Jack could convince him otherwise.

  “I figured you probably used the chem lab to brew up those artificial narcotics so popular with the rich suburban punks,” said Anderson, sneering. Pulling a pair of handcuffs from his pocket, he stepped closer to Jack, the gun steady as a rock in his grip. “So, I personally staked out this building ever since you disappeared. Sooner or later, I knew you would show up again.”