by Ramsey Isler
“I don’t believe you,” I said.
Madison scowled at me. Her face contorted into a wicked mask of seething hate. The floor trembled, as if it were afraid of what was about to happen next. “You little shit,” she spat through gritted teeth.
“Madison,” Kellar said soothingly, “please.”
“Mater is one of the most skilled nightcrafters in the world,” I said. “You’re telling me she got taken out by a bullet?”
“As I’ve told you many times before,” Kellar said, “there’s a lot you don’t understand about who we are. Mater was very emotional at the time, and she was in a familiar place where she had no reason to believe she’d be in danger. Her guard was down. Happens to the best of us.”
“And I’m supposed to just take your word for it?” I said.
Kellar let out a heavy sigh that seemed to deflate him. He looked like a smaller man now. “No. I knew you wouldn’t.”
He held his right hand in midair and grasped something I couldn’t see. Then he pulled, and a gurney appeared out of thin air. There was a shiny black bag on it, and there was something inside. It was lumpy and irregular. I already knew what it was before Kellar unzipped the bag and revealed Mater’s body. Madison turned away, her fists balled tightly.
Kellar let Newton and I get a good look before he zipped the bag again. “The informant said your new boss ordered this. Cecil Astforth.” Kellar paused, staring at us. It was like he was waiting for us to confirm what he’d said. But neither of us opened our mouths.
“If I ever get my hands on him,” Kellar continued, “he will learn the true meaning of agony.” Kellar gently placed a hand on the gurney and made it disappear.
I paused for a moment to regain my composure. This was only the second time I’d seen a dead body, but both had occurred very recently. And they were both nightcrafters. I had always wanted to stop them, but not like this.
I put those thoughts out of my mind so that I could say the important things that the situation required. “How do I know that this isn’t a trick?” I said.
“We’ve had our disagreements,” Kellar said. “That’s undeniable. But have you ever known me to lie to you?”
“Not exactly,” I said, “but you can certainly be a manipulative pain in the ass.”
“Apparently not as manipulative as this Cecil person,” Kellar said. “He let Madison go just so he could find some new nightcrafters to kill. Your boss is a murderer, Kal. How do you feel about that?”
“Cecil does what he believes is necessary,” I said. I didn’t quite believe it myself, but I was trying real hard.
“I don’t share your faith in his motives,” Kellar said. “But I do recognize his commitment, and his skill. Mr. Astforth’s habits were well-covered by our informant’s report. It is ostensibly all the information we would need to put an end to his little game.”
“Then . . . why don’t you?” Newton said. “What’s stopping you from tearing the whole operation down right now?”
“If something seems too good to be true,” Kellar said, “then it is. We have all the information we need to bring down everything you’ve been working on in a matter of minutes. It was all served up on a silver platter. That never happens. I should have known better. It was all too easy. Too perfect. But after we got the news about Mater I wasn’t thinking straight. The spy sent us the details about your plan for tonight not even an hour after we found her body. They had to have known about the hit on Mater far in advance, but they only told us after the fact. They wanted her to die because they knew that we would be emotional. They were trying to catch us angry so that when they told us about your plan for the observation deck we’d rush in there blinded by rage and revenge. And they almost had me. My original plan was just to kill you outright before you even had the chance to see us.”
“What stopped you?” I asked.
Kellar nodded towards Madison. “She did.”
I looked at her with a skeptical glare. “She doesn’t strike me as the calm one.”
“I have my moments,” Madison said. “Just like you have moments when you’re not a complete dipshit. I’m hoping this is one of them.”
“Face the truth, Kal,” Kellar said. “You have a nightcrafter spy in your ranks. They have infiltrated every aspect of your operation and they’re starting to give information to us. But I believe that they are just using you.”
“To do what?” I asked.
“Cause chaos,” Kellar said. “There are rogues among the nightcrafters. There are people who don’t want to work within the traditions and unwritten rules designed to provide some sort of social code for a group that despises authority. It’s possible they’re even working for someone who isn’t even a nightcrafter.”
“Say what now?” I said.
Kellar looked like a frustrated teacher trying to explain something very complicated to a dumb child. In a way, I guess, that’s exactly what was happening. “I’ve told you before, Kal. The more noble members of the nightcrafters do a lot of good in the world. We’ve kept despots, crazy billionaires, and crooked politicians from ruining society. But not all of us are so noble, and not all of us are on the same side.”
“Uh huh,” I said. “And when was the last time the nightcrafters did some of this saving of the world?”
“That’s not the point,” Kellar said.
“Oh I think it is. Come on, Kellar. Give me one example. You guys are so goddamn noble. You gotta have one example in the last ten years, right? How many terrorists have you stopped? How many kids have you saved from starving? How many planes have you stopped from falling out of the sky?”
“We’re not the X-Men,” Kellar said. “It doesn’t work that way. We keep pressure on the powerful, from the shadows.”
I laughed. It was a cruel, sarcastic laugh that I’d perfected in my teenage years. I could tell by the way Kellar’s eye was twitching that it had the desired effect.
“Face it,” I said. “Nowadays you assholes are more often on the wrong side of the fight, or just too busy not giving a shit at all.”
“I think I was wrong,” Madison said, “you should have just killed him.”
“Hey!” Newton yelled, surprising everyone in the room. “We’re getting off topic, and that’s the last thing we need right now. Kellar, you said you thought this spy just wanted to cause chaos. But what purpose would this kind of chaos serve?”
“I don’t know,” Kellar said. “Maybe they want to shake up the nightcrafter status quo so they can push their own agenda. Or maybe they just have an old score to settle with me and they’re willing to do whatever it takes. But it doesn’t really matter. All we need to do is find them and end them.”
“What do you want us to do then?” I said.
“It’s not about what I want you to do,” Kellar said. “It’s about what I want you to stop doing. Drop your mission. Everything you’re working on is just playing into the hands of someone with motives none of us understands yet. They’re playing chess while we’ve been playing checkers.”
“So . . . what?” I asked. “I’m supposed to sit around and do nothing?”
“No,” Kellar said. “You still have a role to play. Bait.”
“You seem to like using me for that purpose,” I said.
“So far it’s the only use I have for you,” Kellar said. “But in this case it works well. Cecil and the spy both seem to like you very much, and we can use that to our advantage.”
I thought about what Kellar was saying. It all made sense, but I couldn’t trust him. Never again. “This all sounds plausible, but my goal is not changing. I have a job already. You can go do whatever you feel you need to do, but I’m not going to be distracted. I’m going to close the Rift.”
Madison scoffed. “And how is that working for you so far? How much progress do you think you’ve made?”
“We built the RID,” Newton said. “We kept you bitches from phasing through the Rift.”
“Bravo on that one,” Kella
r said. “And for a couple weeks, you really did accomplish something. You took our brand new power away from us. But that didn’t last very long, did it? And now your latest attempt to keep the Rift as a one-way street has failed. The truth is that you’re no closer to closing the Rift even after all your efforts. You’ve mapped the Rift, and you’ve identified new ways to limit the abilities of other nightcrafters. I’ll give you kudos for that. No small feats there. But none of those things will help you close the Rift. They are things that would help a scheming nightcrafter gain significant advantages over the rest of us.”
“And who would this schemer be?” Newton asked. “You still haven’t shed any light on that.”
“I told you I don’t know,” Kellar said, “but if I had to guess it would be the person who recruited you into NATO. Your old boss, Dominique.”
Newton laughed. “Pssh. You know I used to just think you were crazy, Kellar. But now I know you are.”
“Oh you will find that I am all sorts of crazy,” Kellar said, “but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. If you weren’t so close to her you would realize that Dominique is the most likely suspect.”
“What makes you believe that?” I asked.
“Simple history,” Kellar said. “You just coincidentally met her one night, she recruits you into NATO, and gets you to uncover all this new information. You even helped her catch two nightcrafters. Then I escape and she disappears. Don’t you think that’s all suspiciously convenient and coincidental?”
“No,” I said, “I don’t. There’s a perfectly plausible explanation for her disappearing. She got fired when you busted out and killed a man in the process. Besides, wouldn’t you know if she had ever received nightcrafter training? Wouldn’t she be in the nightcrafter yearbook or some shit like that?”
“Normally, yes,” Kellar said, letting out an exasperated sigh. “But, like I said, there are rogues who don’t appreciate the nightcrafter status quo. Unsanctioned instruction is not exactly unheard of.”
“It all still sounds like a load of bullshit to me,” Newton said. “I’ve known Dominique for years. I’ve been working with her since long before she even heard of Kal. She was never suspicious. Well . . . never more suspicious than any of us in this job are.”
“You believe that proves something?” Kellar said. “You think a master nightcrafter wouldn’t be an expert at hiding themselves?”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “Dominique is just the easy scapegoat. You’re just guessing like the rest of us.”
“Maybe I am,” Kellar said. “Either way, you’re going to help me find out.”
“And what if I refuse to help you?” My voice was steady and strong, but my insides were quivering.
Kellar rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Let’s just cut through the pretenses, Kal. We have all the leverage here. We could obliterate your entire operation by morning. We could kill you right now. But we’re not doing any of that because you aren’t our real threat. Whoever is pulling your strings is our primary concern. So you and your brilliant friend are going to leave here safe and sound. You’re free to do whatever it is you feel you need to do. I don’t care which path you choose because it doesn’t matter. Either way, you’re going to have the attention of the person trying to deceive us. And while they’re setting up their traps, I will be baiting some traps of my own.”
Those last words were ominous. Not just the words, but the way he said them. His voice was like . . . I don’t even know how to describe it really. It was like I wasn’t just hearing the words; I felt them like ice water dripping into my ear canal. Then he and Madison stepped away from the dim light, and they vanished like they’d never been there.
Newton and I stayed there for a few seconds, still absorbing the shocking events of the past hour. Newton opened his mouth to speak, but I put a finger to my lips and shook my head. We couldn’t be sure we were actually alone. After this, we could never be sure there weren’t eyes and ears in the shadows.
* * *
After Kellar and Madison did their disappearing act, we ran out of that office building like we thought it was about to explode at any minute. It probably wasn’t, but with nightcrafters you never know what the hell is going to happen and we weren’t taking any more chances. We had run a full city block before we stopped, wheezing and gulping air. I really need to hit the gym. At least I outran Newton.
“Give . . . me,” Newton gasped, “your phone.”
“Why?” I said as I reached into my jacket and grabbed my cellphone. Newton snatched it from me, opened the back, removed the battery, and stomped on my phone. It shattered into dozens of pieces.
I was too scared and tired to be angry. “I assume you have a good reason for that.”
Newton was already busy repeating the procedure with his own phone. “Phones can be tracked. Even phones with ridiculously overcautious security measures like ours can be tracked. Recent events have shown we’re targets now. We gotta go off the grid.”
We went to a coffee shop in the financial district. It was the first place we saw after leaving the building Kellar had left us in, and it was lit up nice and bright. The place was packed and loud, so we could talk fairly freely without any danger of eavesdropping. I was glad for the crowd. Seeing all those oblivious people go on with their ignorant, irreverent lives calmed me down. But Newton was a wreck. The controlled attitude he showed in front of Madison and Kellar had worn off. His hands were shaking, and he had already drained three cups of coffee after we’d barely been there fifteen minutes.
“Do you really believe Kellar?” Newton asked me.
“Kellar’s not a liar,” I said. “But he definitely doesn’t have a problem with withholding some of the truth. I’m sure he wasn’t giving us the whole picture. But a lot of what he said is easy to confirm. If Mater is really dead, and Cecil ordered it, we can just talk to him.”
“Ah damn,” Newton said. “Should we let Cecil know that he’s about to have an assload of angry sorcerers gunning for him?”
“I don’t think we need to worry about that just yet,” I said. “If they knew how to find him they’d have already done it. Besides that, we may not be able to trust Cecil completely either. He might have taken out Mater, but that doesn’t exclude him from possibly being a pawn of whoever this nightcrafter spy is. We still don’t know much about Cecil’s past.”
“So we just let him fend for himself with Kellar and Madison itching to rip his throat out?”
“I think he’ll be fine,” I said. “Anybody who can arrange a successful hit on Mater can hold his own.”
“Which also makes him a powerful ally,” Newton said.
“Or a scary enemy,” I said. “Either way, we don’t know enough to trust him yet.”
“Okay, fine. So it’s just you and me then?”
“It looks like it,” I said.
“I’m down with that, but I’m all out of the parts I’d need to make a new RID.”
“We’re not going to worry about that anymore,” I said. “We’ve got more pressing problems right now.”
Newton threw his hands up in frustrated futility. “Then what do we do? As much as I hate to admit it, Kellar was spot on about that drone that showed up. I had no idea we even had anything like that in the armory. And I saw it open fire. You were clearly between it and Kellar, and it fired anyway. Whoever was controlling that thing didn’t care about collateral damage.”
“Or they had intended to kill us anyway,” I said.
Newton just nodded and drained his fourth cup.
“I guess this takes the cake as the worst work day ever,” I said.
Newton smirked. “Believe it or not, I’ve seen worse. There was one time when an intern brought prune-filled donuts for lunch instead of jelly-filled. That was ugly.”
We laughed, and it felt good. It felt great actually.
“We’re going to be okay,” I said. “Whatever happens, we are going to be okay.”
Newton closed his eyes for a mo
ment, took a deep breath, and said, “Absolutely. Now, what’s our plan? I want to get these nightcrafter bitches off our backs as fast as we can. This stress is giving me wrinkles. If I start to look as old as I feel then there will be hell to pay.”
“Well, I don’t have a plan yet. This is all a lot to absorb, and I think I need to talk to Cecil before we decide anything. But I think you were on to something when you said I’d have to learn ways to adapt spells. We need to fight magic with magic.”
“I love it when you tell me I’m right,” Newton said.
“And Cecil was right too,” I said. “He was right and I see it now.”
“Right about what?”
“Priorities,” I said. “Stopping the nightcrafters from phasing into the Rift shouldn’t have been our number one job. We should have done everything we could to find out who that other nightcrafter was. That was a mistake we’re going to fix starting right now.”
Newton smiled and rubbed his hands together. “We’re going nightcrafter hunting again?”
CHAPTER 8
After another hour of chatting in that coffee shop, Newton and I came up with the beginnings of a plan. It wasn’t quite solid yet, but it was a start. The first and most important part of the plan was to lie low and keep to ourselves as much as possible. Since Cecil wasn’t interested in keeping tabs on Newton at all, half our work was already done. But even though Cecil had given me lots of leeway to run things as I saw fit, I still needed to report to him and make him think I was making some sort of progress with closing the Rift. Before Newton and I could proceed in earnest, I’d need to meet with Cecil. That meeting would keep him from getting suspicious, but it would also give us the information we needed to make sure Kellar had been telling the truth about Mater’s assassination.
The next phase of the plan would start once the business with Cecil was done. We’d turn our attention to finding a way to flush out the nightcrafter spy. I wanted to put a lifetime supply of iron bars in front of whoever it was, but Newton has a lot more experience in the spy game than I do and he came up with a better idea. The best thing to do with a discovered mole is keep them around so you can feed them fake intel to deliver to your enemies. Once the spy had outlived their usefulness, then you can bring the hammer down on them. I liked this idea, so we decided to go in that direction.