Capie managed to skitter over and drop back into the wheelchair again, breathing a sigh of relief as she did so. And then held up a hand. “Please, Paul. That’s enough for now. Dad, we’re going to give you a few minutes to recover from the shocks you’ve just had. Then we’re going to tell you a long story, a story that will challenge everything you think you know about science. After that, I expect you to apologize to Paul. He’s a very good man, and I’m lucky to have him. So, take all the time you need. Paul? Grab Dad’s cell phone, please? And then why don’t we all go into the planetarium and wait until he is ready?”
THIRTY FOUR
Adler Planetarium
East Solidarity Drive
Chicago, Illinois
June
Thursday 7:42 p.m. CST
With a small spell from Jaret, the front doors to the planetarium unlocked themselves and swung open. This was a necessity because Chris, who had the key, was so discombobulated that he couldn’t figure out which key on his key ring was the right one, let alone use it to open the door. Paul used a spell to float Capie and her wheelchair over the steps and into the building. The luggage dutifully climbed the steps and followed along behind them.
Inside the building, Paul found and turned on the lights, glancing around to make sure that they were alone. He had previously considered visiting the planetarium several times but had never seemed to find the time.
The Rainbow Lobby was spacious, the granite tiled floor polished to a high sheen. Against the back wall there was a lighted alcove containing a very large marble plaque. Paul could see branch corridors curving off to the left and right of the lobby. Above their heads, cylindrical light fixtures hung from a high white plaster ceiling.
Capie and her father found a padded bench against one wall and collapsed on it. Paul and Jaret exchanged glances while waiting for Chris to get his bearings back.
To his credit, it only took Chris about ten minutes. After that, Paul and Capie started their story from the beginning. Paul deliberately edited out any part that touched on The Plan (such as his objectives for a new talisman or his intention to declare war on the wizards of Errabêlu). But Chris asked an increasing number of questions along the way, some of them surprisingly detailed and insightful.
Finally, he leaned back against the wall, apparently out of questions.
“My daughter’s fiancé is a wizard,” he said, shaking his head, looking at the floor. “A real life functional wizard. Can you beat that with a stick? Who would have guessed?” He looked at Paul with a measured scowl, as if really seeing Paul for the first time. “I think, all things considered, I’d rather you were a murderer.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” snapped his daughter. It was painfully obvious to all three men that Capie had not yet forgiven her father for turning Paul in.
“He’s even more worried about your safety now, Capie,” Paul explained, watching the dance of emotions on the other man’s face.
“You understand, then,” Chris groused but with a hint of respect. “A murderer I could have gotten rid of by sending him to jail. But this! They’re chasing you, trying to kill you! And even with your magical abilities, they still caught you. But Capie doesn’t have magic powers, does she? And she can’t really protect herself, not against the level of threats that she will face, being close to you. Don’t you see, young man?! Your presence puts her in extreme danger!”
“Dad, we have to leave Chicago,” Capie declared sharply.
Her father’s head snapped up and he pleaded with her. “Look, honey, I understand there are people looking for him. But not for you. You should stay here, with me. I promise you that you will be safe. I have contacts—”
“Like Connor?” Capie asked, scowling, her voice dripping with disdain.
Her father stopped in mid-word.
“Dad, you’re the one who doesn’t get it. Can’t you see? My life is in danger no matter if I stay here or go with Paul. I am not safe here anymore!”
Paul swung around and stared at her. So she had figured that out on her own already? Smart girl. It took her, what? Two hours to see what took him months to realize? Yeah, smart girl.
But Capie was still talking. “…And why am I not safe? Because they already know who I am! And who told them that? Huh? You did, Dad. When you called Conner. You are the one responsible for endangering me. On that score, you have no one to blame except yourself.”
There were several seconds of silence as Chris’s mouth worked open and closed. He was visibly trying to come up with a counter argument. And failing.
But Capie went on. “They know now that Paul loves me and that they can get to him through me. If I stay here, it will just make it all that much easier for them to find me. Next time, they will just pop open a portal anywhere they like and snatch me. And neither you nor all your contacts in Washington or here in Chicago can stop it. We are talking about wizards that are hundreds, even a thousand years old. They control all the governments. They see us Normals as disposable, inferior life-forms. Do you really think you can protect me against that kind of threat?”
Paul could see Chris still struggling to find the right words. And still falling short.
Teary-eyed, she reached out and took his hand. “Dad, don’t you see? My best chance is with him. He is far more capable of keeping me safe than anyone you can come up with.”
“Honey?” Chris finally managed to say. “I’m begging you. Please don’t go with him. We will find a way to work through this, I promise. Don’t you remember right after the accident—?”
But Capie was shaking her head. “I love him, Dad, with all of my heart. I have a chance now to live my life instead of just existing.” She turned and took Paul’s hand. “With him, I can be far more than I ever was before, far more than I am now. It’s a chance at life. It’s what I’ve wanted, what I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl.”
“But—”
“Dad, you’ve known me all of my life. Do you really think that anything you could say at this point would change my mind?” she asked him gently.
With a slack expression and heavy wet eyes, Chris’s gaze fell to the ground at his feet. “No,” he responded softly. “Just like your mother, you can be so stubborn sometimes.”
Paul held up a hand to interrupt their conversation. “Wait a moment, Capie. The situation has changed now. I highly recommend your father come with us.”
Capie looked startled. “Why?”
Chris blinked and gave Paul a quizzical look. “Yes, please explain that.”
Glancing briefly at Jaret, Paul turned back to Chris before he replied. “Because I underestimated how ruthless they are. I never anticipated that they would threaten to harm Capie to force my surrender.” He held up a hand to forestall Chris’s reaction. “Yes, I should have foreseen that possibility, I agree. Forgive me. I just didn’t think that part through. But my point right now is that I’m sure they wouldn’t hesitate a nanosecond to kidnap you and use you as leverage against us in the same manner. The only way to keep you safe is for you to come with us.”
Chris considered Paul’s words then shook his head. “No, I don’t know what your overall plan is but I am sure I don’t want to take it on the lam. I’m too old for that. And I have important work to do. And I have connections. They wouldn’t dare.”
Paul turned to Capie. “Your father doesn’t understand the danger. These wizards care nothing about scientific research or of Normals. They have instigated worldwide wars, famines, and killed hundreds of millions of people. Making one prominent astronomer permanently disappear wouldn’t faze them in the slightest. Nor would they hesitate to do him bodily harm in order to lay hands on me. Please, if anyone can convince him, it’s you.”
Chris practically radiated his anger. “I am not leaving here. I think you are greatly exaggerating the danger, young man!”
Almost, Paul nearly blurted out the fact that his birthday preceded Chris’s by nearly a decade but he managed to hold his
tongue.
“Dad?” Capie asked, a serious note of concern in her voice.
He shook his head. “If you want to protect me, you will have to stay here. I am not leaving.”
“The risk—” Paul started.
“I am not leaving,” he declared again.
Paul sighed. Capie bit her lower lip.
“And what were you saying about my being stubborn? Dad, I must go with Paul. He is my life now. Please come with us,” she pleaded tearfully.
“No. You stay here,” he implored her, his voice cracking with emotion.
It was all happening so fast. A sudden lump in his throat, Paul realized how much this man loved his daughter. He abruptly felt guilty, knowing that he was the one responsible for taking her away from her father. Worse, with sudden insight, he could see the most likely outcome of all of this. Chris Kingsley would be taken captive, his life placed at extreme risk. Capie would be devastated, especially if her father came to harm.
Paul glanced over at Jaret who was giving him a strange look in return.
There had to be something Paul could do. Perhaps…yeah. He whispered a spell. “In the name of cryonics, Larry Niven’s stasis fields, and Mythbusters, let the Normals here be held upright but asleep.”
“…Dad—” Capie was saying but then she stopped, her eyes snapping closed.
Paul checked Chris too and found him to be vertical but asleep as well.
Jaret tilted his head to one side. “You are worried about her father, are you not?”
“I am,” Paul replied with a frown. “Back on the plane, you told me that you marked me so that you could find me later. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of Capie or her father so I put them to sleep to ask you this question. Just how did you mark me?”
Jaret frowned and looked down at the floor. “It’s not a big deal, not really. I, uh, just implanted a subconscious mental pattern in your mind, one that would respond to a specific magical spell. Your subconscious mind then sent me a magical signal telling me where you were. Nothing fancy.”
Paul’s jaw dropped. “You played around in my mind?”
Jaret shrugged. “I had to do that anyway, to give you your magical powers. This was much less of a change. After all, it did let me find you in that metal flying contraption. And I did help you escape, sort of. So, it all worked out in the end.”
And if Errabêlu had only known about Jaret’s spell to ‘mark’ Paul’s mind, they could have tracked him down instantly. He shuddered in horror at the thought.
“I agree, it did all work out, as you say,” Paul conceded. “But later, when there is time, I want that spell removed. Okay?”
Jaret seemed vastly relieved. “But of course, my friend.”
Paul nodded toward the professor. “Can I cast the same spell with him?”
With a chuckle, Jaret crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sorry, but no. We can implant mental responses, yes, but he has no way to communicate with you. He cannot send a magical response since he is not a wizard.”
Running a jerky hand through his hair, Paul nervously considered the situation. “Fine, I need to find a different solution then,” he concluded. “One that tells me the moment he is threatened by Errabêlu.”
“Hmm, that is quite a challenge,” Jaret agreed. “I don’t see an easy solution myself. Maybe if we…”
But Paul was too busy slapping himself in the head. “Stupid, stupid, stupid! He has a cell phone, dah! Listen, Jaret, could we implant a mental response in him, one that makes him touch his cell phone when he is in imminent danger?”
“That device he was talking to earlier? Of course. That can be accomplished rather easily. But how does that help?”
“There are over 130 million cell phones thrown away in this country every year,” Paul patiently explained.
With a snap of his fingers, Paul created a small portal in mid-air, retrieving a discarded smart phone from a dumpster in an alley near West Lake Street.
Giving it a critical eye, Paul said, “This unit needs a little TLC.” With a wave of his hand, a spell took the scratches out of the display and recharged the battery.
With the phone reactivated, Paul punched a few buttons. “I just need to buy a few minutes here using a credit card in the name of Wesley Farrell, then download a burner app for a temporary phone number. Then buy more minutes for that number…ah, there. Now I have a phone and a number that the Feds don’t know about.”
Paul reached out and took Chris’s phone from the other man’s jacket pocket and activated its screen. “We’ll turn on the GPS app in his phone and also set up a speed dial button. All he has to do is touch that button, it will call my new burner phone and we’ll know when he is in trouble and where he is.”
After navigating the screens and setting things up, Paul returned the phone to Chris’s pocket.
Jaret shook his head in amazement. “That was an amazing display of magic. I haven’t a clue how you did what you just did.”
Paul produced a small grim smile. “Now, if you please, set up that mental response we talked about, the one for him to push the phone button if he feels threatened.”
Jaret shrugged and waved a hand. “Done.”
Paul snorted in surprise. “You make that look so easy.”
“Are you going to wake them up now?”
“Yes.” Paul reached out and snapped his fingers. Both Capie and Chris blinked their eyes and shook their heads.
“You were saying?” Paul asked.
But before Capie could answer, her father’s cell phone started playing the theme song to Johnny Quest. Paul jumped back a step in abrupt surprise.
Chris dug the phone from his pocket and answered it. There was silence while he listened to the voice on the other end of the line.
“No,” he said suddenly. “No, Director Hawken, I haven’t seen him.” A long pause. “No, I haven’t heard from her since noon. I tried an hour ago and she didn’t answer her phone.”
And then Chris looked at Capie sharply. “You have agents at her house now? She’s not there? And you’ve tried her cell phone too? It’s possible that she might be out shopping.” Another pause. “Yes, of course I will call you, the moment I hear from her. Thanks for taking a personal interest in my daughter’s safety. I’d like to know the moment you find her or catch that fiend you are chasing.”
Then he thumbed the connection closed.
“That was Assistant Director Hawken of the FBI,” the professor informed them slowly. “I guess Connor is out of the loop. Hawken says that they have agents at your house right now, Capie. And they’ve seen how many of your things are missing.”
Paul’s throat was suddenly dry. “Does Connor know where you are, Professor Kingsley?”
“No, he doesn’t,” Chris answered slowly. “Why do you…are you thinking that they will go to my house next?”
“I’m sure that they are already on their way.”
Chris nodded. “I didn’t make it a secret that I would be here tonight. It won’t take them long to track me down.”
“Paul,” interrupted Jaret. “I am detecting high energy portals to the south of us, perhaps five miles or so away.”
“Portals?” Chris asked. “For teleportation? Five miles south of us is Levi Hall, the University of Chicago Admin Building. I was there earlier this afternoon at the Budget Director’s Office.”
Paul rubbed the back of his neck and swallowed hard. “They’re too close. If we use a portal to leave, they’ll detect it.” He looked up sharply. “And if they find that we’ve been here and seen you, Professor, then it greatly increases your danger. You must leave, now, get as far from here in the next few minutes as you can.”
Chris Kingsley immediately turned to his daughter. “I beg you, Princess, please come with me. We’ll get through this, I promise.”
Her chin trembling and a tear in each eye, Capie got back to her feet, leaned forward and hugged her father tightly. “You haven’t called me Princess in years. If
you won’t come with us, then you be careful, Dad. They’re killers. Don’t tell them you saw us tonight, for your own safety. Please?”
He hugged her back. “I can take care of myself.”
In sympathy, Paul laid a hand on his future father-in-law’s shoulder. “I promise you that I’ll keep your daughter safe. And I also promise that I will bring her back. But you must go. If they catch you here, with us, your life is in great danger.”
“And how will you escape from here, if you can’t use a portal?” Chris asked, breaking away from his daughter’s arms.
Paul smiled. “I have a plan, but the less you know, the better.”
Chris’s shoulders slumped and he stared mournfully at his daughter. “Take care, Princess. I’m going to miss you terribly.”
“Goodbye, Daddy,” she sobbed quietly through her tears.
And with that, Professor Christopher Kingsley turned and shuffled slowly toward the front door, his shoulders hunched, his head down.
“We must leave,” Jaret hissed. “They are closer now! And I can’t help you this time!”
Paul wrung his hands. “Yes, I know. I have a contingency plan, one that I prepared a few weeks ago. It will probably work in this situation.”
“Probably?” squeaked Capie. “You don’t know?”
Paul smiled sheepishly. “It’s not actually been tested.”
Jaret laughed and slapped his back. “Then by all means, let us test it now.”
Paul grinned bravely and gave Capie a wink. “Let’s go then.” A snap of this fingers and a small ball of white light appeared, floating six feet off the ground. And with a wave of his hand, a portal opened.
Jaret blinked and then shouted. “A portal?! But the energy…!”
“Trust me!” Paul shouted as he pressed Capie down into her wheelchair, and with another wave of his hand, magically pushed it and her through the portal. Paul then leapt through too, the globe of light and the luggage practically on his heels.
“Coming?” Paul’s voice echoed through the portal.
Genie and Engineer 1: The Engineer Wizard Page 38