Spies in the Dark (The Nightcrafters Book 2)

by Ramsey Isler

“That does seem to be your gift,” Kellar said to him, “but good luck with that.”

  “Well,” I said, “now we know how you got here. The next burning question is why?”

  “Our work isn’t done yet,” Madison said. “In fact, it’s just beginning.”

  “And what work would that be?” I asked. “The work of killing your enemies?”

  Madison’s eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched up in the best scowl she could manage. It might have been cute if I didn’t know how dangerous she was. “Mater was like family to me,” she said. “She was a greater human being than you’ll ever be. Cecil had to pay for what he did.”

  “All true,” I said. “But Kellar didn’t have to kill him.”

  “Oh yes I did,” Kellar said. “A man like that is too dangerous to leave alive.”

  I gave Kellar a cold stare. “I know people who would say the same about you.”

  “And they’d be right,” Kellar said. “Cecil and I are just two sides of the same coin. So trust me when I tell you that he had to go.”

  “And he’s gone,” I said. “So what do you want from me now?”

  “You heard what Cecil said,” Kellar replied. “He has friends who were in on his plan. When they realize he’s missing they will probably assume the worst and proceed without him.”

  “So you’re going to go hunt down Cecil’s pals?” I asked.

  Kellar shook his head. “No. No I don’t think that would be very helpful. If they’ve avoided detection this long, they can probably hide from us indefinitely. And now that they have Cecil’s government connections, they can have others do their dirty work for them. More nightcrafters are going to be targeted. That includes a lot of people I care about.”

  I couldn’t help but a feel a little guilty when he said that. Newton and I had only had the best intentions in mind when we started all this. Just last week I was proud of what we had accomplished since I joined NATO. Now I wasn’t so sure.

  “We have a war brewing, Kal,” Kellar continued. “The last time nightcrafters fought amongst themselves, the whole country paid for it. Remember the Northeast blackout that happened in 2003?”

  “Yeah,” I said. I had been just a kid back then, but I remembered the craziness of having no electricity. Almost the entire state of New York had a complete blackout, along with large parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, several other states, and even parts of Canada. I remember that night, before I went to sleep, I looked out the window of our house and saw all the world as dark for the first time in my life.

  “It wasn’t what you thought it was,” Kellar said. “The official reason for that blackout was a bug in the power system, followed by a cascade of power station failures across hundreds of miles. But that wasn’t the truth. We did that. Even back then there were rogues in the nightcrafter ranks and eventually it reached a point where everybody just decided to settle it.”

  “So a bunch of crafters took over the night and battled it out,” I said.

  Kellar nodded. “Nightcrafters have never liked politics much. We resolve conflict the ancient way.”

  “And you think that’s about to happen again,” I said.

  “Oh no,” Kellar said. “This time it will be much worse. Each of these conflicts grows greater in scale. The last one left fifty-five million people without electricity. Thousands of fires were started as people were forced to light their homes by candlelight for the first time in almost a century. People died.”

  “And why are you telling me all this now?” I said. “What’s the point of this visit?”

  Kellar sighed, and when he spoke again his voice was soft. “As much as I hate to admit it, you were right. This problem isn’t going to fix itself. It’s time to solve the issue for good. And . . . and the nightcraft no longer solves more problems than it creates.”

  I smiled. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

  Kellar nodded and extended his hand. “I’m going to help you close the Rift.”

  I shook his hand, and for the first time in many years I felt that he was truly on my side.

  # # #

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