Deliver or Die: A Newton's Gate Series (The Delivery Mage Book 1)

by Jamie Davis

  “You know, I would like to have you come along with me to a meeting I have set up for three days from now. We are going to a meeting I’ve arranged with our biggest adversaries. These are the other would-be warlords in and around the area who seek to gain control over this part of our world for themselves. It is my plan to show them I have the sacred relic that you brought to us. Once I use its power to invoke the magical strength it offers to the leader who possesses it, I believe the others will certainly fall to their knees and follow me. I think it would be appropriate for you to be there with me at that moment.”

  “I am honored, General. It will likely be a moment of singular realization for you.”

  Kurt stopped eating when the General told him of the upcoming meeting with the opposing warlords. It took him only a second or two to regain his composure. If he and Clara were still here when this ceremony happened, they would be exposed and the sarcophagus would be discovered to be fake. They had to be long gone before that meeting.

  Kurt leaned forward to place another piece of meat over the hot coals in the bucket and when he did so he turned and caught Clara’s eye. She was looking his way already. She shook her head and he knew she had heard what the general said to him. His plan to meet with his enemies was going to mess up everything if they didn’t get out of here before the three days were up.

  Kurt spent the rest of the meal thinking about all the different ways he could possibly manage an escape. There were so many things he had to pull together just to get himself past the guards. He had no doubt he could get away alone, but there was the need to rescue Clara, too.

  On top of that, he also had to find out where the leader of the guards that captured him initially had taken Jonesey’s box in the pink backpack. He would be in a whole heap of additional trouble if he returned back to Earth Prime and didn’t have the secret magic box Jonesey had him retrieve from the customs warehouse.

  Even with a murderous General on his tail, Kurt definitely didn’t want to be in debt to that crazy, conspiracy-theory-obsessed elf.

  The dinner wound down soon enough as the General and his men ate their fill of the meat, leaving nothing but bones heaped on the tables in the great hall. He wondered if the carnivore food coma would happen or not. It might give him and Clara a chance to escape. He cleared his throat and looked at the General.

  “Excuse me, my Lord, I wonder if I might ask you about something one of your men confiscated from me when I was captured at the gate.”

  “Certainly, my friend. If one of my men took something from you, by all means, tell me and I will get it back for you.”

  “It was a small wooden box with golden runes inscribed on it. It is a gift from a friend that I was carrying to deliver for them and I would like to get it back.”

  “Ah, the box.”

  “You’ve seen it?”

  “Oh yes, I’ve seen it. It was given to me by the men who captured you after you left to talk with your woman. They considered it contraband that went along with the relic that was delivered to me.”

  “As you now know, General, there is no relationship between that box and the sarcophagus. I think for most people it would be small and insignificant. It has only sentimental value to my friend back home, but I fear that is valuable enough to ask for its return. I hope that I may take it to my friend upon my journey back to Earth when I go to procure those weapons for you.”

  “I’m sorry, Kurt Carter. The box intrigues me. I was unable to open it. I do not like secrets or puzzles unless they are my own. Do you happen to know the combination or the secret to getting the box to open? I am curious about what someone would take such measures to protect.”

  “Alas, one of my professional standards is to never open the package I’m delivering, even in the case of this delivery to my friend. It is none of my business to know what’s in a given package and it is essential to building trust with my unique clientele.”

  “That is a shame. I desire to understand what it is that requires such a strong magical charm to keep it closed.”

  “Is it magic? I didn’t even look at it.”

  “Surely you realized it had a magical nature to it. It must be something of great value. I should probably hold onto it for the time being. I’m sure you understand.”

  “Yes, of course.” Kurt realized he couldn’t push the issue. The General would become even more suspicious if he acted as if he needed it back in a hurry. He wasn’t supposed to be going anywhere until the General had concluded his arrangement with Kurt to purchase weapons from Earth Prime.

  Still, there was some good news. If the General had been given the box, then it was likely hidden somewhere in his office. That was all Kurt needed to know at this point. He would find it and get it before he and Clara made their escape.

  “General, this meal has been excellent but I find that I am fatigued. There is a time differential between my world and yours and I have not slept in over a day. I would like permission to return to my room.”

  “Why, of course. I will look forward to seeing you in the morning to continue our discussion about new weapons for my soldiers.”

  The General clapped his hands and a servant appeared. “Take our new friend to his room.”

  “Yes, my General.”

  The servant bowed to his leader and then turned and waited for Kurt to get up.

  Kurt slid his chair back and rose, thanking the General with a nod before turning and following the servant from the great hall. He glanced back and saw Clara following him with her eyes. He would work on perfecting the escape plan tonight. They had three days to figure out a way to get out of here before the General’s plan to use the nonexistent magic of the fake sarcophagus.

  Chapter 17

  Kurt waited until the door closed behind him when he reached his assigned bedroom. He returned to the door and listened to hear if the servant locked it. Sure enough, a familiar click sounded as the servant who escorted him to the room turned the key in the lock from the outside.

  Kurt smiled. It wasn’t like the simple locks in this building were going to do anything to keep him in. That was the least of his worries about escaping the General’s fortress.

  He went over and looked out the window. The sun was getting low in the sky. It looked like it would be dark enough soon to make an attempt to get out of here. Of course, he wasn’t going out the window. Like Clara’s room, his had iron bars across it. The General sure didn’t trust his houseguests.

  Heading over to the bed, Kurt sat down and lay back, swinging his legs up onto the mattress. Resting his head on the pillow, Kurt stared up at the ceiling and thought about the events of the day.

  Marci came to his mind. He wasn’t really worried about her. She had an uncanny knack to land on her feet. Once she appeared above water in the river, floating away and laughing at them all, Kurt had ceased to worry about her, well, at least not too much.

  The girl was nothing if not resourceful. He figured she was already back on Earth Prime and heading home to Baltimore. The one thing he hoped she wasn’t doing was trying to organize some sort of a rescue. That would only screw up everything else he was trying to do. She wouldn’t do anything that rash, would she?

  Kurt felt his eyes start to droop and he accessed the keyboard holoscreen from his wrist cuff. It looked like a simple, plain metal bracelet to the casual eye so the guards hadn’t thought to confiscate it. The metal band was actually a sophisticated device Jonesey had come up with. In addition to creating a short-term personal shield, it also had simple computer functions built in.

  A few taps later and he’d set an alarm for himself. He wanted to get some sleep while he waited and he’d set the alarm for three hours from now. Most of the people in the fortress should be settled down and asleep by then. That was when he would attempt to break out and make his escape.

  It seemed like no time at all passed between the time he closed his eyes and when the chimes of his alarm sounded from his wrist. Opening his eyes and reaching down
to shut off the alarm, it took Kurt a moment to remember where he was.

  The room was now almost completely dark. The sun had long since set outside and there was very little light filtering in the window.

  Kurt got up from the bed and walked over to the door, putting his ear against it and listening for any sound of movement outside. Everything sounded quiet though it didn’t mean there wasn’t a guard posted outside his door or even nearby in the hallway. He’d have to be careful.

  Reaching into his pocket, Kurt pulled out a small leather pouch. Since he was more of a guarded guest than a prisoner like Clara, the guards had not searched him very carefully. That left him this set of small but sturdy tools. Along with several screwdrivers and an easy to assemble adjustable wrench, there was also a set of dental instruments. His colleagues often asked him why he carried those particular tools around with him. They only asked because they had no idea how useful dental tools could be when you had nothing else. They had more uses then just about anything else out there if you were resourceful enough.

  Kurt knelt by the door, listening carefully as he selected two of the dental picks and inserted them into the lock from his side. The sturdy yet flexible stainless steel gave him an excellent sense of feel down the length of the tool into his fingertips. He began to manipulate them, feeling for the location of the lock’s tumblers and pins. It took him nearly a minute, but eventually, he was rewarded with a soft click.

  Returning the tools to the small pouch and putting them back in his pocket, Kurt stood. He grabbed his stun baton from his belt and flicked his wrist to deploy it. Carefully, he opened the door a crack until he could see in one direction down the hallway.

  There was no one there in that direction at least. He pulled the door open farther until there was enough room to slide his shoulder through the opening. He made the decision to quickly check the other way, ready and prepared to take action if necessary to silence anyone who was there.

  Luckily the door did not squeak on its hinges and Kurt was able to slide through and peer around the doorframe in the opposite direction down the hall. He didn’t see anyone that way either and wondered why the General had left him unguarded. It both offended him and tweaked his paranoia a bit.

  There was such a thing as too easy.

  Pushing the paranoid feelings aside in his mind, Kurt headed down the hallway and turned the corner to get to the other side of the building where Clara’s bedroom was. As he turned the corner, he bumped into a servant hustling down the hallway carrying a pile of linens. The servant dropped the sheets and towels and grumbled aloud at Kurt. Then a moment of recognition crossed his face as he realized who he’d run into.

  “Hey, what are you doing out of your room…”

  He never finished the whole sentence. Kurt brought the stun baton up and tapped it against his neck. The servant collapsed to the floor, spasming with occasional tremors from the stun charge. He’d wake up with a doozy of a headache but that was it. Best of all he wouldn’t remember what happened.

  Kurt searched the next room down the hallway and found it to be empty. Returning to the unconscious servant, he lifted the helpless guy under the arms and dragged him into the empty room.

  Kurt propped him up against the wall next to the door then went out and retrieved the pile of towels the servant had dropped. He left the pile of linens next to the knocked out servant and shut the door. No sense leaving a sleeping servant in the middle of the hallway for someone to stumble over.

  He wasn’t exactly sure how the stun baton would affect the people of this world and their physiology. In theory, it should work on anyone who had an electrical system in their bodies, even some AI androids.

  Generally, for most man-sized beings, the stun baton effects lasted for up to two hours and even those who recovered more quickly usually stayed down for a minimum of one hour. That gave Kurt a short time window. He might have enough time but, just to be safe, he pulled out his dental tools again and locked the servant in the bedroom.

  Returning to his task of finding Clara’s room, Kurt continued down the hall turning once more to the left. He entered the hallway parallel to the one on the other side of the fortress where his room was located. He reached the room he thought was hers and tried the knob. It was locked.

  Kneeling down, he once again worked at picking the lock. Having done this twice already, it went much faster, and he managed to open the lock in just 30 seconds.

  Standing, he opened the door and slipped inside, closing it behind him.

  The crushing blow to his head as he stepped into the room caused him to see stars and knocked him to his knees.

  Looking up he saw Clara in a nightshirt, standing over him, holding a large porcelain pitcher in her hand. Kurt was lucky she had not broken it when she struck him. The shards would have gashed open his skull.

  “Kurt, for God’s sake what are you doing here.“

  “I am here to rescue you, Clara.” Kurt got to his feet rubbing the back of his head. “I told you to be ready when I came. Why did you hit me like that?”

  “How was I supposed to know it was you. It could’ve been one of those scummy guards coming here to molest me or something.”

  Kurt figured that was probably the answer she’d give, but he saw the brief grin on her face and he had to wonder if she had enjoyed watching him crumple to the floor like that, even just a little bit.

  Kurt rubbed the side of his head and pointed to the chest of drawers by the window. “Get changed. As soon as you’re ready, we are getting out of here.”

  “Have you figured out how to get past the guards on the walls?”

  “Almost,” Kurt said. “I have a few ideas and I’ll refine them once I see what the situation is with the guards outside the main building.”

  Clara looked at him and she seemed about to say something but she must’ve changed her mind. Instead, she turned and walked over to a small chest of drawers pulling out the pair of jeans and the T-shirt she had worn in his apartment when she had been kidnapped days before. She started pulling the nightshirt over her head, then turned and looked at Kurt

  “Please turn your back.”

  “Good grief, Clara. We were married.”

  “Yeah, but we’re not married anymore. Turn your back.”

  Kurt rolled his eyes but didn’t argue with her. He turned around and stood there staring at the door while she got changed behind him.

  “All right, you can turn around now.”

  “Is there anything else you need from here before we leave?”

  “No,” Clara said. “Let’s just get going .”

  Kurt moved to the door listening for a second before opening it and glancing outside. The coast was clear.

  He motioned for Clara to follow him and he started down the hallway retracing the journey he made earlier in the day from the General’s office. He had one more stop. It was time to go and get Jonesey’s box back.

  Clara tugged on his shoulder. “This isn’t the way to get to the front entrance.”

  “I know. I have to get something from the General’s office.”

  “ Kurt, we need to get out of here. Any extra thing we do that isn’t getting us outside the walls is going to get us caught.”

  “I need to get this. It’s something Jonesey had me pick up for her. I don’t want to tell her I lost it while traveling in another dimension.”

  Clara let out an exasperated sigh and pointed forward for Kurt to continue. He moved down the hallway until they reached the spiral staircase down.

  Kurt started down the steps. Reaching the bottom quickly, he checked the hallway below for any signs of activity. Still seeing no one, Kurt started along the winding route to the general’s office.

  He was surprised to find the office door unlocked. If he was a suspicious person, he might think the General had planned a trap for him. Still, there was no evidence that anyone was on to their escape plan and he needed to get Jonesey’s box.

  He and Clara stepped
inside and closed the door behind them. Clara switched on a light giving them an opportunity to search the room.

  “What exactly does this box of Jonesey’s look like?”

  “It’s small, only about ten centimeters on a side. It’s made of wood and has golden runes inscribed on it. The General was keeping it because he couldn’t open it and he assumed the contents must be precious.”

  “What’s in the box?” Clara asked.

  “You know better than to ask me that.”

  “I thought maybe Jonesey told you or something.”

  “Jonesey? Tell someone one of her secrets? She’s the queen of conspiracy theories. No one knows her secrets. Just keep looking. We have to find it.”

  It took the two of them nearly 10 minutes before they found the box inside a locked drawer in the General’s side cabinet. Beside it were several other items of value including a gold statue and what looked like several stacks of gold coins. Kurt was tempted to grab everything but decided he didn’t have an easy way to carry the coins or the statue and opted just to grab the box.

  Kurt stood up and turned back towards the door and froze. The General stood directly in front of them. He had a broad grin on his face and Marci’s pistol in his hand.

  “You said there was nothing of value in the box, Kurt, and yet here you are stealing it back from me. I’m hurt. I think perhaps you have been less than honest with me.”

  The General turned to Clara and pointed at her “get the woman back up to her room. This time make sure you leave a guard outside her door.”

  Two of the guards behind him rushed into the room and grabbed Clara by her arms. They weren’t gentle as they hustled her out of the room. She managed to give Kurt a worried glance on her way by but he was unable to communicate anything with her other than a simple shake of his head. This wasn’t over. They’d find another way to get out of this mess.

  “General, I’m sorry you had to find me doing this but it doesn’t change anything. I have to get out of here and make that delivery. I take my work very seriously. It doesn’t mean I’m not willing to continue our plan to trade in weapons for you and your man.