by TR Cameron
Demetrius nodded. “I’ve been systematically uploading the software to cell towers and network hubs, but it’s slow going since I have to do each one personally. You’d think they’d use a common algorithm, but no, the security appears to have been designed by a computer and is seriously randomized. There’s a paper in that for some academic, probably.”
Ruby snapped, “Focus, people. So, she’s not close enough to here to locate her with the tracker. How do we find her?”
Margrave gave a sharp nod. “I’ll make a portable version of the tracker. I already have the pieces at my place. It won’t be pretty, and the battery will be darn heavy, but I can get it done in a couple of hours.”
“Do it.” He opened a portal to his house and departed. She turned back to stare at the screens. Nothing had changed. Her parents were together, no doubt watching the phone as she, Morrigan, and their mother had when Dralen and her father were missing. Her brother was at Spirits, probably in his office based on the location. The top-down map didn’t indicate height or depth.
She shook her head. “Waiting for Margrave isn’t enough. Hack all the databases. PD, Sheriff, PDA. I’ll send Alejo an apology message while you work. Find whatever you can. I’m thinking street cameras, drones, maybe even incident reports, or beat cop body cams. Whatever’s out there.”
Demetrius replied, “Not my first rodeo, partner. If there’s something there to be found, I’ll find it. In the meantime, you need to go down to the kitchen and make us both sandwiches.”
The request was so atypical of their relationship that a laugh escaped her. “What?”
“It’s not a gender thing. You have to eat before whatever you’re going to do when we find a lead, and I’m starving because I went straight from other work into this. If I don’t get fed, I won’t function as well. Same for you. You know the old military maxim. Eat when you can because there’s no knowing what’s coming next, or something like that.”
She headed for the door, forced to acknowledge that he was correct on all counts. “Just don’t think this is going to be a habit, mister.”
He threw her a quick grin before she left. “If you keep owing me, it might be.”
Fortunately, she didn’t run into any of her other roommates as she assembled bread, ham, cheese, and spicy brown mustard into sandwiches, two for each of them. She cut a pair diagonally and the others vertically, not knowing which he preferred. Things like that didn’t matter to her. Unless it was an amazing meal that one reveled in, food was merely fuel. She took them up, along with a couple of sodas, and quietly ate while he worked. Finally, when she was half-done with her second sandwich, he shouted, “Yes. Big screen.”
Above the trio of monitors he used for his infomancy was a large flatscreen. It was usually off, although she’d seen cartoons playing on it once or twice while he worked. They’d also watched a movie one night, managing to get all of five minutes into it before falling asleep together. Now, it showed a grainy image from a street camera overlooking the Strip. It lurched into motion as she shifted her attention to it, and her sister entered the frame, walking with another woman Ruby recognized from Spirits. No sound accompanied the video, and the low resolution suggested he had digitally zoomed it in from a distant spot. The pair walked down the Strip talking, and Ruby asked, “Where from?”
“Traffic camera on the other side.”
As the image moved with the women, doubtless another digital trick, two men appeared. The angle showed only the backs of their heads, but Demetrius’s software quickly calculated height and weight for each. She said, “Print those for me, and get the files to Alejo.”
“On it.” The image started to move again, and there seemed to be some back and forth between them. Ruby read the men’s actions as aggressive and figured her sister would do the same. So right now she’s wondering whether she should blast them into unconsciousness with some lightning. Of course, that would cause a scene and bring the police, and Morrigan Achera isn’t known to be a combative person. So, of course, she couldn’t do that. They were counting on their target not wanting to cause a scene. Out loud, she asked, “I don’t see anything that confirms they deliberately targeted my sister, do you?”
He widened out the shot to reveal dozens of other people in proximity to the pair. “I think the chances are low that it was random. I mean, your sister’s body language wasn’t particularly open, and they had other choices when Morrigan didn’t immediately accept them if they only wanted to get anyone.”
She scanned the image and scowled. “They’re the only pair of women together, but you’re right. They could have targeted a single woman with much better results, or maybe two women who were part of a larger group. You’re right. We’ll assume this was a deliberate attack on her until something tells us differently.”
The alarm had gone out as soon as they’d learned of the kidnapping, which fortunately had come fairly quickly when the pair missed their dinner reservation and the restaurant called Spirits to confirm. When Morrigan didn’t answer the call from the office, it triggered a standard protocol that involved verifying the location of all the family members. When they discovered Morrigan still wasn’t responding, the word went out to the other casino owners and their families to activate their contingency plans.
Demetrius said, “Okay, we’re going to jump forward at least a few seconds. This angle is from a PDA drone. I grabbed all I could before I had to get out of the system or risk detection.”
“I know you’re giving it your all, Tree. I appreciate it. Someday I’ll show you how much. For now, hit play.” The scene started to move, and her sister walked into the mouth of the alley beside Invention. She muttered, “Why are you doing that, Morrigan?” He tapped to widen the view a little, and she spotted the employee entrance. “Okay, that had to have been their destination.” The next section was in a jerking motion as if missing frames turned it into a series of pictures rather than a smooth video.
She watched as three people rushed into the frame. Despite the concealment offered by their masks, the figures were clearly Kilomea, their skin tone and body type making it impossible for them to be anything else. Anger surged inside as both women were beaten and dragged away. She took a moment to master the rage burning through her. “Can you get any closer? Try to find us something to identify those bastards?”
Demetrius filled the next three minutes by manipulating the image, zooming it in, zooming out, and moving along body parts. Finally, they caught a break. The motion froze, showing a mark on one of the Kilomea’s arms where their shirt had ridden up above the wrist due to the struggle. The infomancer said, “Analyzing, hang on,” before she could push him. A line drew itself over the mark and grew in resolution as the program ran. Eventually, the differently colored section revealed itself as a tattoo of a hunter’s arrow, the point wickedly barbed, and the feathers a blur of poorly rendered computer squiggles.
“You’re the best, Tree. What can you do with it?”
“Probably the most likely hit will be from the Strip. So, we’ll use the surveillance cameras. Will you make some calls and get us access to the other casinos’ systems so I don’t have to break through their security?”
It took half an hour of arranging permissions and searching, but finally, they found a matching tattoo in a video shot several days before. The Kilomea in question was walking toward the front entrance of The Hunt with his uniform coat slung over his shoulder, the tattoo visible on his bare arm. Demetrius’s technical wizardry overlaid the two tattoos, showing a match. He said, “Either this guy and the other one got the same ink from the same artist, or he’s our target.”
She replied, “It’s a place to start. You keep working the systems. See what else you can find. I think it’s time for me to go on the hunt for a hunter at The Hunt.” Even miserable, angry, and frustrated, I’m still completely hilarious. Really, Demetrius doesn’t realize how lucky he is to be with me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ruby did her best
to maintain her calm. “No, you can’t come with me. It’s going to be hard enough managing my illusion in such a dramatically different form. I wouldn’t be able to do it for both of us.”
Idryll put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “You underestimate yourself.”
She let out a dark laugh. “The only time you compliment me is when you know you’re in the wrong. Give it up.”
Her partner replied, “Logic suggests you’ll need backup. Maybe I could use a physical disguise and go in that way. Or simply show up like this.” She gestured at herself.
“Well, you’d certainly attract attention, given all that beautiful fur.” A surge of darkness washed through her, and she sent a mental message to the passenger located in her left arm. Knock it off, bastard. Now is not the time. If she were smart, she’d spend the next hour meditating inside her protective ring as Nylotte had taught her. No one ever accused me of being smart. She had no time for anything other than exactly what was required to find and free her sister.
She said, “Don’t worry, I have tasks for you. Margrave will be here as soon as he finishes the locator. If we haven’t made any progress by then, you can go out scouting. If that’s not viable, you can work with him to create a secure space here, warded against everything you can manage in a short time.”
“Why?” Despite her irritation, the shapeshifter sounded interested.
“Landing pad. I figure if I open a portal in the field, and it’s only to an empty room, anyone seeing through to it won’t learn anything. If they’re stupid enough to follow me in, the wards should shift any fight in my favor.”
A note of grudging respect entered her companion’s voice. “That’s actually a really good idea.”
“Don’t worry. It wasn’t mine. Margrave suggested it.”
Idryll laughed. “That explains it.”
Ruby was more than a little concerned about her ability to pull off what she had planned. Her self-control at the moment was tenuous and imitating a being far different than herself in size and form was precision illusion magic requiring serious levels of concentration. She had to eliminate every risk she could, which is why she was heading in wearing regular clothes rather than her costume. That way, if my illusion does falter, it’ll be easier to blend in.
She put on jeans, a black tank top, and a flowing black button-down shirt over it that secured at her belly button. Her cuffs went over her bracelets, and she tucked her shield pendant into her shirt. She had no other magical objects she could easily hide on her person, and the Kilomea casino, like all the others, would have dramatically increased their vigilance after the events at the Mist. “I need some more stuff that’s easy to disguise. Exploding pens, rings that shoot laser beams, that sort of thing.”
A frown had crept onto Idryll's face as Ruby dressed. Her partner asked, “Won’t your bracelets set off the new detectors?”
“Dammit.” In her frenzy of preparation, she hadn’t accounted for the new, more effective sensors that lined the entrances of all the casinos. She slipped off the cuffs and tossed them to Idryll. The other woman had another question at hand. “Will your illusion trigger it?” She’d be heading in as a random Mist Elf, with features garnered from a dozen different individuals to construct the identity.
She had several of those prepared in case she needed to be someone other than Ruby Achera the human or Ruby Achera the Mist Elf. “That illusion doesn’t use too much magic, so hopefully it shouldn’t cause a problem. If it does, I can explain it away as my heirloom pendant.” She patted her chest. “Passed down to me from my grandmother, and her grandmother before her, and so on. I’m sure they’ll respect such a historic item.”
Idryll gave her a frown. “You should still take me with you. You know that, right?”
Ruby nodded. “I do know that. I can’t do it this time.” She grabbed the other woman’s arm and squeezed it. “Think good thoughts for me. Hopefully, when we see each other again, I’ll know where Morrigan is. You can be sure I won’t leave you out of getting her back.”
Idryll grinned. “Claws and teeth?”
Ruby nodded. “No quarter for whoever took her. Anyone who’s left standing at the end of it should spend the rest of their days counting their blessings.”
She portaled to an alley near The Hunt. Part of her hoped the kidnappers would make a move on her. Of course, since I’m a nobody and they’re probably after specific people, not too likely. She walked forward, inserting herself into the trailing edge of a bunch of human women headed for the entrance. One of them wore a very sexy dress that resembled a wedding gown, so she chalked it up as a bachelorette party. That was one area where Magic City competed quite well with Vegas because the real or perceived touch of danger from being around magicals made that particular rite of passage all the more memorable.
She passed through the detectors with only a nod from the guard as if to say, “We know you’re using magic, but we’re not going to make a fuss about it right now. Don’t cause trouble.” The pit bosses at the casinos were exceedingly well-trained to detect signs of power in use, and anti-magic emitters at the tables meant she would need to chart her course through the casino carefully.
The interior resembled a thick forest with a canopy of branches and leaves high overhead. Trails meandered through the space, along with numerous signs offering directions to essentially everything. Unlike a normal casino, patrons couldn’t see the entertainments that lay beyond their location. I need to chat with whoever designed this someday. It’s like the opposite of a good casino layout, but obviously it works. I wonder how they managed it.
She wandered through the gaming floor, taking note of the different uniforms, matching them up against her memory of the garment the Kilomea she sought had carried over his shoulder. It didn’t take long to discover that it was the top the casino’s dealers wore. She inwardly groaned as she moved to an unoccupied corner and tapped her comm to activate it under the guise of scratching her ear. “Looks like it’s part of a dealer’s uniform. Which means I only have to check the whole damn place.”
Demetrius replied, “Yeah, decidedly suboptimal, there. Do better.”
She closed her eyes so no one would see them rolling. “Any chance of hacking in?”
“High risk of detection. Even though we got inside when we did our first search, I wasn’t able to leave any back doors. You could call and ask?”
“No. I don’t trust anything or anyone at this point. That’ll be the backup plan.”
She headed for the nearest restroom and locked herself in a stall. “Okay, Ruby, you can do this.” She closed her eyes and imagined the Kilomea she’d assembled from magazine pictures and video recordings. The illusion grew around her body, making her look bulkier. The sort of clothes she’d seen nonworking members of that species wearing inside the casino faded into view, including heavy leather pants, boots, and tunic with long sleeves, all in various shades of brown. A deep green vest sat over top of it, leather again, left open. A weapons belt with empty sheaths for daggers finished the look.
She hadn’t realized before entering that the casino required Kilomea to check weapons, but it made sense. Doubtless, it involved some careful negotiations since Kilomea heirlooms tended to be of the violent kind, passed down from one generation to the next. She unlocked the door and strode out, pausing only long enough to shoot a glance at her reflection to make sure nothing seemed out of place.
Walking through the casino in her new form was a unique experience. People moved out of her path in a way they never did for Ruby Achera in any of her guises. It was almost automatic, how they flowed to clear space for her. I could get used to this. She kept a careful distance from the anti-magic emitters, more than once having to turn and take a different route when two tables were sufficiently close together that she couldn’t pass between them. After forty-five minutes of charting her course along the various paths in the forest, she was moving from deeply annoyed to downright angry. When I find this bastard, I’m goi
ng to break every one of his teeth as a greeting.
She imagined Keshalla's voice, asking, “Then how will he talk?”
Fine, hands then. That’ll be even worse since he can’t deal with broken fingers. She abruptly stopped as she spotted him and made a quick sidestep to avoid someone reacting to her motion. She growled, “Sorry,” taking a position nearby and watching him without appearing to do so, waiting for the right moment.
Eventually, he set down the cards, made the sleeve move and open hands display that showed he wasn’t cheating, and left the table, presumably to take a break. She got ahead of him and brushed against him only hard enough to put the locator she’d palmed on his jacket. She didn’t apologize to his irritated glare, merely nodded an acknowledgment of it. Be seeing you, buddy.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ruby had visited the ladies’ room to reverse her disguise and exited out to wander the Strip. She looked like another person staring at their phone, but hers displayed her target’s location, which had been moving around the casino in the hours since she’d tagged him. Normal shift switchover time was coming up soon, and she said a small prayer to the universe in the hope that he wasn’t working a double. When he headed toward the employee exit, she heaved a sigh of relief and positioned herself to spot him when he emerged.
She considered going after him immediately, snagging him, and portaling away with him. However, the receiving room wasn’t yet ready and wouldn’t be for another hour or so. Besides, maybe following him will lead to more information. I’m sure I won’t get lucky enough that he’ll take me to my sister, but one clue leads to the next, and all that. Having verified he was truly out of the building, she muttered, “You got him?”