by Jamie Davis
Good, Nils thought, stalking towards them.
“I see you got my message and brought along your chief of intelligence. I have questions for both of you.”
“Good evening, Director,” the General said. “This is Major Dirk Seifert, my S2 officer.”
Seifert stood and greeted the director with a bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person, sir. I hope I can serve you as well as I’ve served the General.”
“That remains to be seen, Major.” Kane sat. “General, you assured me that you had a line on how to reach Durham directly.”
“Yes, Director.”
“Then please explain how it is that you still haven’t managed to locate her?”
“It appears we made a mistake when we cut off all contact with the charm runners supplying the scroungers. I ordered the pipeline shut down completely. It served its primary purpose of protecting the soldiers from further sabotage, but it also drove the runners back underground.”
“So we have no leads on her whereabouts at all?” Kane growled.
“Not exactly, sir,” said Seifert. “I have several resources in every city. A few of the local resources here in the capital and in Baltimore reference a brick fort of some sort when discussing Durham’s location.”
“A brick fort?” Kane said. “What the hell does that mean?”
“We’re looking into it, sir,” Seifert replied. “It could relate to any of the region’s abandoned military installations, or perhaps a historical site from when they fortified with brick and mortar.”
“So in other words, you have no idea. Not much of an intelligence officer, are you?”
Seifert started to say something but General Couch stepped in.
“Director Kane, it is extremely difficult to find any connections to Durham. Most chanters are locked away in your camps, hours from the city, severed from any communication, so we can’t turn to them for information. Any remaining chanters are either part of the underground, or isolated individuals who’ve managed to elude our sweeps and patrols.”
“We were hoping, sir,” Seifert spoke up again, “that you would have some sort of magical means by which we could locate Durham and her associates. She has to stay close to the cities for supply reasons. Our limited intelligence has estimated that she might have upwards of five hundred recruits. She should be easy enough to track, but we’ve turned up nothing, despite extensive searches.”
Kane was ready to kill someone.
“So why haven’t you found her, then?”
“We suspect it’s because she’s using magic to mask or conceal her position,” Seifert said. “That is why I was hoping you might have a more arcane solution to the problem.”
“You want me to use magic to find her. It that what you’re saying? Doesn’t the prospect of me or others within my control using magic frighten you, Major?”
“Sir, I’m here to serve you and the General. I try not to have opinions that limit the operational resources we have at our disposal. If magic can locate Durham where I cannot, I’d be a fool to refuse.”
Kane looked at the General. “You’ve chosen well with this one, Couch. He’s got enough brains to be useful.”
“The Major is right. If magic will reveal Durham’s location, we can end this thing sooner rather than later.”
Nils stood and circled the table. “I’ve tried a few things on my own, but it might be time to enlist another form of magical aid, though I imagine that you might not like my decision to bring these particular forces into play, General.”
“We’re at a stalemate right now, sir. I don’t see how it could get worse.”
“That’s because you’re not using your imagination.” Kane gave the General his grimmest smile. “There are magical trackers in this world, General. Trackers who can find the girl no matter where she’s hiding. Surely you remember … ”
Finally, the bulb went bright in the General’s mind.
Something ugly claimed his face.
“Sir, you’re not suggesting that we try to capture and train some of those creatures we saw in Europe all those years ago?” The General swallowed. “We lost a lot of good men just getting away.”
“We don’t have to capture them,” Kane said, enjoying the terror that Couch was trying to keep from his face. “I have learned to create them.”
“Sir, I remember you describing those creatures as the darkest magic in existence. Are you sure about this?”
The Director smiled like a serpent. “The time has come for extraordinary measures.”
Kane considered the consequences of doing this one final time, then dispelled the doubts from his mind. He was tired of Durham and her meddling. It was time that he finished her once and for all.
But who should he use to convert?
Garbarians were created from human subjects.
He considered his options while pacing the table. Then he smiled as the solution found him.
“General, are the members of the Assembly still under house arrest?”
“Yes, Director. They’ve been held at your orders, pending the trials you were going to order against them.”
“Trials are messy affairs. We all know they’re guilty. Why give them the chance to garner popular sympathy? I’ve found the perfect way they can continue to serve despite their current reservations. Have them brought here in small groups every morning for the next five days. Make sure you use men you trust for their mental fortitude, General. This isn’t for the faint at heart.”
The General stared back at Kane, unsuccessfully hiding his horror.
“Come, General, I did tell you that this campaign would require your complete loyalty. Don’t lose heart just when things are getting interesting. Prove that you’re still with me.”
The General gulped. Then he nodded as Kane’s smile erupted into laughter.
It felt good to finally surrender to what he’d fought for so long. The Fell said that he’d have to make a decision soon. But now that decision had been made and Kane’s laughter caromed off the bunker walls.
In Kane’s apartment, the visage of the Fell inside the now-permanent orb turned into a twisted grimace of feral amusement.
It had begun.
CHAPTER 20
Winnie sat back at dinner with her friends and smiled.
Everything was going well at the former Waverly Chanter’s Hospital.
Every one of her leaders reported that their plans were either completed or almost finished. Now she was free to discuss what she really wanted to talk about.
“Sounds like everything is going according to plan,” she said. “So now it’s time to gather the chanters I detected in the city. We need to—“
“I thought we put that to rest,” Danny interrupted.
“—Get there before Kane’s men find them,” Winnie finished.
Danny sighed. “Have you talked to Victor or Tris?”
Victor shook his head. “This is the first I’ve heard about it.”
“Me, too,” Tris said.
Winnie described the sensation she’d felt when skirting the city on their way to the base. Then she told them what the twins said that it meant.
“I have to find them. If they’ve eluded capture this long, then they have something we need. If we can bring them here, we can work together, grow their powers, help them become strong like me and the twins. Or stronger.”
“It’s too much risk, Winnie,” Victor said. “Surely Danny told you that.”
“He tried. But I’m not changing my mind. This has to be done. I can feel it.”
Garraldi shook his head. “You can want to do something all you want, boss, but that doesn’t make it possible. The city perimeter is locked. No one gets in or out without them knowing. You’d be caught before you got a mile inside the city. Last time we tried, we had to fight our way out.” He looked at Maria and she nodded.
“Unless you have a way to magically teleport inside the city, there’s no safe way to get inside,” Maria said.
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Winnie started to reply, but stopped and thought.
“Uh-oh,” Danny said. “I don’t like that look on your face.”
“It’s what Maria said,” Winnie explained. “We can’t cross into the city the normal way anymore because they’ve set all their forces at the perimeter to keep us out and the people in. Fine, we won’t go in that way at all.”
Tris shook her head. “You’re not making any sense, Winnie. There’s no magical way in there and there’s no secret entrance to the city that I know of.”
“What if we make our own entrance? A door into the city?” Winnie looked around the room — no one was getting it.
She picked up a cloth napkin from the table and balled it in her fist.
Turning to one side, she raised her free hand and pointed.
She’d never tried this, but it made sense. It was amazing they’d never thought of it before. A tweak in the magic, complex, but small.
Winnie pulled in the magic around her, traced the air with her pointer, and dragged a golden trail behind her finger until a rectangle glowed before her.
She looked to the other end of the long table, smiled at the second window, glowing from Maria’s end of the room.
Someone gasped, finally getting it.
“Winnie, we know you can communicate through the windows,” Tris said. “But it’s a screen, like a video. You can’t pass through it.”
“What if we can?”
Winnie looked at the window, and through the napkin at Maria.
It sailed through the window and Maria caught it.
She looked down at the napkin, stunned.
The room was silent, the ramifications settling in.
Winnie reached out, flinching just once before her hand broke through the window. Her bare skin tingled. Her hairs stood on end.
Her arm passed through the window and the universe blinked.
“Hand me the napkin, Maria,” Winnie said.
A disembodied hand extended from thin air, then Winnie’s open hand was filled with the napkin.
She withdrew her hand and the magic disappeared.
Winnie beamed. “Well, that worked.”
“That’s extraordinary,” Morgan said. It was almost a whisper. “I had no idea you could do something like that.”
“Neither did I … ”
“This changes everything,” Danny said. “It means we can go anywhere. It means they can’t stop us. It means we can attack Kane in his office right now.”
Winnie shook her head. “I’ve only been able to open a communications window to a location within my sight, an area I know well, or to someone I’ve met in person. I’m sure this works the same way.”
“So you’re thinking of using this to look for chanters?” Garraldi asked. “You can’t go alone. Without you, we’re on the final round.”
“I’m going,” Winnie said. “I’m the only one who knows how to do this, and teaching could take days. I hear you, and I will take one person with me. But any more than that puts at risks of getting picked up by patrols. Remember, if we’re successful then we’ll be bringing more back.”
“I’ll go,” Victor said, standing. “I’m your protector, or so says the Lady of the Lake. If you’re taking one person, it must be me.”
“I don’t like it,” Garraldi said. “But I know you’re going, anyway. Victor makes sense. His sympathizers might be able to help if you get into trouble.”
“Are you going tonight?” Maria asked.
Winnie nodded. “Something tells me this has to happen soon. If it should be done by tomorrow, then why not do it tonight?”
“Let me grab a few things from my room,” Victor said. “I’ll be ready to meet you here in five minutes.”
Victor kissed Morgan on the cheek, nodded to the room, then left.
Winnie eyed her team’s concern. Everyone stared back. Disapproval wrinkled every face. She didn’t flinch.
“You all say that you trust me, that you need me, that this can’t happen without me. Then this is your chance to prove it. I believe that this is the right thing to do. And I believe that Victor will protect me. And I believe that while we are gone making this happen, you will continue to prepare here. Thank you for your faith. I’ll be back before dawn.”
“How are you going to get back out?” Danny asked, almost like he was afraid to. “You said you don’t think you can go somewhere you don’t know well. How will you return? You’ve only been here a few times.”
“I’ll zero in on you,” Winnie said. “I can open a window to someone I know. I should be able to connect directly to your location.”
“You just said ‘should,’” Garraldi said.
“It will work. It’s not a new spell. It’s an adaptation of something I already know. It will work.” Winnie stood and nodded. “I need to change into something dark. Please excuse me.”
She left and walked the short distance to the room she and Danny were sharing down the hall. She changed into dark jeans and a black turtleneck, then pulled on a black leather jacket.
She bit her bottom lip. Tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Swallowed.
Victor was waiting when she got there, dressed in all black, wearing tactical gear with a pair of pistols, one per hip.
Winnie smiled. “Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Victor said.
Danny was waiting. She turned to him, smiling wider.
Winnie turned to Danny. “We’ll only be a few hours. Stay here and clear the room. I don’t want to open a window in the middle of someone.”
“I’ll be here, Win.” Danny leaned in and she quickly kissed him, determined not to let it linger.
Then she outlined her largest window ever—a doorway—shimmering gold rather than silver. On the other side, her mother’s apartment.
Winnie turned to Victor and smiled. “It’s time.”
“Don’t step through until I make sure it’s clear.”
He took a deep breath and stepped through the doorway.
Victor visibly shivered, and then he was standing inside the apartment. He turned and smiled then started walking around the room, checking the hallway and the entrance before returning to the window with a nod.
“It’s clear, Winnie. Come on through.”
Winnie stepped through.
The tingling from before was back. She trembled as crossed through, then she was on the other side. Turning back she saw Danny and the others staring back at her. She gave them a final reassuring nod then waved and let the doorway dissipate.
“Let’s go, Victor. I feel like time is the enemy.”
CHAPTER 21
Winnie and Victor took the stairs to the street instead of the elevator. If anyone was in the supposedly abandoned building, hearing the elevator running between floors would definitely alert them that they weren’t alone.
Outside, Victor checked the street to make sure that the coast was clear, then waved her out once he was sure. She joined him at the bottom of the steps, the two of them crouching in shadows.
“We’re here, Winnie. Where to first?”
She looked around, tugging at the atmosphere for any thread that might take her to the missing chanters. A pregnant moment, then she pointed down the street to her left.
“That way. I think there’s a group of them together.”
“Let’s hope so. Several together means we get out of here faster. I don’t want to be in the city a second longer than we need to be.”
They started walking, avoiding street lights, staying low to the shadows.
From what Winnie could see, the entire area was still deserted. They traveled a handful of city blocks, using alleys to skirt open intersections and stopping to listen for any signs that they were being followed. A scream split the air as they paused in front of a wide and open intersection.
“Well, that doesn’t sound good.” Victor craned his head around the corner. “I see flashing blue lights reflected ahead. Police or Red Legs. W
e should go around.”
Winnie crept past Victor and looked around the corner for herself. She couldn’t see the cars, but the flashing lights said that they were probably around the next corner. Same for the chanters.
“We’ve got a problem,” she said. “I think the chanters are in the same place as that patrol.”
Victor sighed. “Then we have to go back. There’s nothing we can do.”
“No way. We can’t leave without at least taking a look. It could be a coincidence. Or maybe it’s just one car of Red Legs, and we can catch them by surprise.”
“No, Winnie. We didn’t plan on running into trouble. This was a mission to escort the chanters in hiding out of the city. If they’ve been caught then our mission is over.”
She couldn’t let these people be taken in by the Red Legs, not while she was this close. “I can mask us,” she said, snapping her fingers with the dawning idea. “I can make it so the Red Legs don’t notice us. I learned the trick from Kripke after we picked him up. Then we can sneak up and at least see what’s happening up ahead.”
“I don’t know, Winnie. Are you sure it will work?”
“Absolutely,” she lied. “It will be like concealing the vans when we drove from the Pike to Fort Brick.”
“Fine. But we’re only going to look. Then we pull back and make the best possible decision.”
Winnie nodded then pulled in the magic, wrapping the flows around them until she felt covered. The spell reflected the light from what was behind to the front, so a person would look somewhat transparent to the naked eye.
It was dark and if they didn’t step out into the street lights, they should be nearly invisible.
Winnie could see Victor perfectly in the magical spectrum, but switching to visible light, she could barely make out his outline.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Winnie emerged from the shadows and jogged across the street to the other side. She slowly approached the corner.
Voices grew louder. She crouched at the corner and looked around it.