“Looks like they’re getting in the van,” I said. “What’s the range on that tracker?”
“Couple of miles,” said Chase. “I’ll wait until they’re out of sight before following. Better to stay back and follow the signal than to risk being caught.”
We watched the van back out of the alley, then we set out in pursuit once they were a few blocks away. After several minutes of driving, it became fairly obvious we were heading south towards Trang’s warehouse.
“They can’t be dumb enough to go back there, can they?” I asked more of myself than anything else.
“Only if they’re completely in the dark about what Trang really is,” replied Chase. “Plenty of other warehouses down there though. They could be hitting any one of them.”
Instead of turning off the highway to the industrial area we’d expecting, they continued onwards. Still sitting back at a safe distance to avoid being spotted, we watched the tiny blip on the tracking screen make a series of turns that gave the impression they were heading to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal.
“If we have to get on the ferry, you’re paying,” Chase muttered. “It’s insane how much they’re charging these days.”
I looked the schedule up on my phone. “The last sailing was nearly three hours ago. They must be going somewhere else.”
“Isn’t there a big shipping port right next to the ferry terminal? Why hit the warehouse when you can grab the goods fresh off the boat.”
“Smart move on their part.” I scanned a map of the area on my phone. “There’s only one long road out there, and the terminal itself is a maze of shipping containers. Easy for them to see anyone coming, probably minimal security since the place seems to primarily be a coal loading facility.”
Chase glanced at the satellite view I held up for him. “Looks like a good place to quietly unload a shipment Trang might want to slip past customs. Probably easier to bribe workers here than at the main ports in the city.”
Sure enough, the GPS tracker went all the way to the beginning of the several mile long spit that served as the land bridge out to deeper waters where massive container ships could safely dock. The tracker stayed motionless for some time, forcing Chase to cut the lights and roll off onto the shoulder as close as he dared get without risking the sound of the car engine being heard. He flipped the night vision switch on his binoculars and scanned the area before handing them over and showing me where to look. I saw the van at a pullout before the entrance to the terminals, the five members of Montgomery’s replacement crew working quickly to get into the gear.
“Is this where you whip us up an invisibility spell that’ll let us slip past them so we can get into position to see what they’re after?” Chase asked with unrestrained excitement.
“I wish,” I said as I handed back the binoculars. “Even if I could manage it, I’d be dead exhausted by the time we got to the terminal. We don’t know what’s going to happen up there, so I’m going to save my energy until I absolutely have to burn it.”
Dressed in their tactical best, Montgomery’s crew piled back into the van. Once loaded, the driver pulled back onto the road without turning his lights on. After a short head start, Chase followed suit. It hadn’t yet been a week since the new moon, so there was little natural illumination. What moonlight there was, however, reflected off the water on either side of us, giving us just enough light to drive by. Chase kept his speed down, hanging well back of our target. There was only one road in and out of the terminal, and for several minutes we had nothing to do but follow the blip of the tracker a half mile ahead of us.
“Looks like they’re turning north,” I told Chase when the tracker icon veered into the terminal itself. “How accurate is this thing?”
“To within ten feet,” he said. “I’m going to drive all the way around and see if I can get at least part way up one of those cranes.”
The terminal was dark but for a few lights in the parking lot and in the administrative building near the front of the man made island. Several railroad tracks ran around the circumference of the island, by the look of it to offload coal coming in from elsewhere in the country. Another rail spur went right up the middle of the terminal, this one looking more geared to loading the massive metal containers that came off cargo ships like those currently docked on the southern side of the port. Chase steered the car around the central rail spur, maneuvering through darkened lanes of containers until he was able to park behind one of the tall cranes used to move containers from the ships to their temporary storage location.
Chase reached into the back seat to grab a backpack. From within it, he removed what looked like a small bluetooth earpiece.
“Take this,” he said. He donned a slightly bulkier earpiece of his own. “I’ll climb as high as I can so I can keep an eye on them while you sneak up from behind. I’ll warn you if you’re about to walk into anything dangerous.”
“Are these expensive?” I asked as I hooked the little plastic clip over my ear and set the rubber ear bud in place. “I feel like I’m going to lose it.”
“It’ll stay in place,” he assured me. “And if it doesn’t, put it in your pocket. That particular model isn’t even on the market yet, so I’d rather you didn’t lose it.”
We got out of the car and Chase went straight to the crane, scampering up the ladder to gain the first level of a narrow, metal staircase that would allow him to climb to the top. Even thinking about sitting up there in the darkness made my stomach wobble a little, so I turned my attention back to the line of blue and red containers stretching out before me. According to the GPS tracker, Montgomery’s crew had left their van parked not too far away.
Sticking to the shadowy side of the corridor of containers, I made my way towards them while Chase delivered updated information in my ear.
“Looks like they’re searching for a specific shipment,” he said. “One of them has what looks like an RFID scanner. They’re one lane over from you and about five containers down. Two of them stayed behind to watch the van, the other two are are slightly ahead of the woman with the scanner. These guys move like private security contractors, Alex. Unless you’ve got a spell to stop bullets, you’re going to want to stay well out of sight.”
“Suits me just fine,” I whispered as I crept closer. “Technically I’m working for their boss. The last thing I want to do right now is have Montgomery find out I was meddling in her business.”
“You’re almost on them,” Chase warned. “Do you see the gap between containers to your right? If you can slip in there, you should be able to observe them without being seen. Their attention seems fixed on the opposite row of containers.”
I saw the opening Chase meant. This row of containers was stacked three high and five deep, narrow gaps separating them on either side. The first gap was wide enough to walk straight through, but once I was halfway in, I was forced to shimmy sideways to get through the narrow slot. The idea that none of Montgomery’s bulkily outfitted crew would be able to squeeze through after me was small consolation as I imagined the huge metal boxes tumbling over and crushing me like an insignificant bug.
“Looks like they found the container they were after,” Chase’s voice buzzed in my ear. “One of them has an angle grinder to cut the locks.”
The high pitched whine of the grinder burning through metal echoed throughout the containers. It was so loud I wondered how it didn’t attract any unwanted attention, but we were far enough away from the admin building that I guessed the sound didn’t carry quite far enough for anyone to raise the alarm.
“I don’t get why these guys aren’t using magic,” I whispered to Chase. “It wouldn’t take much to cast a barrier spell to muffle the sound of the grinder. Hell, it’d probably be easier to just melt the locks away than to use power tools. Trey and his crew could have managed it easily with the power they’d had access to.”
“Maybe Montgomery decided to go old school after being burned by Trey?” Chase ventured. “This is
a pretty straightforward job. No security to speak of. No building to breach. Training a crew to work with magic would be overkill.”
I snuck back into the space between the crates to give myself more freedom to talk to Chase. “Which means all of this was a waste of time. If they’re not using magic, I’m no closer to learning who Montgomery hired to teach Trey and his crew in the first place.”
“Should we call the police or something?” he asked. “We might be able to get them to block off the access. Maybe losing this team would convince Montgomery to teach the next ones to use magic just like she did with Trey’s crew.”
“Too risky. We barely lucked into learning about this job. If this team goes down, I doubt we’ll be able to identify the next one in time.” I chewed my lip and tried to think of a way to turn this to my advantage. “I guess we call it a night and hope Montgomery decides to bring in her magic contractor for the next job.”
“Alright,” said Chase, disappointment in his voice. “I’ll meet you back at the car.”
Figuring I might as well learn what Montgomery was after, I moved back into a position that allowed me to watch the thieves in action. They’d cut the lock at the bottom of the container and were now working on the second lock up top. A shower of sparks flew into the night, lighting up the focused faces of the woman working the grinder. Her forearm muscles bulged beneath her shirt from holding the heavy piece of machinery above her head, but she showed little sign of strain or fatigue. I wondered if maybe she wasn’t getting some sort of supernatural boost after all, so I activated my mage sight and scanned the area for even the smallest sign of a charm or talisman.
Like a floodlight snapping on to bathe the area in light, I sucked in breath at the shock of seeing a large flare of magical energy moving down the corridor of shipping containers. The initial surprise faded quickly, and I realized what I was seeing was nothing more than a concealment spell. I couldn’t see around it to make out who or what was behind it, but the extreme brightness of the spell meant someone was inefficiently pumping way too much energy into it. That was enough of a signature for me to tie it back to a nearly identical version I’d seen not so long ago.
“Trey,” I muttered to myself. I doubted they’d managed to tap another power nexus so quickly, but it seemed their alliance with Trang had given them access to new wellsprings of magic.
“What?” Chase asked in my ear. “Did you say ‘Trey’?”
“I have a feeling things are about to get ugly down here. Are you back at the car?”
“Uh, not quite,” he said reluctantly. “I was hoping to see what they’re trying to steal before I pulled back.”
“Keep watching the area then,” I said. “But be ready to get down and pick me up in a hurry.”
“Alex, what are you going to do? Tell me you’re not going to get in the middle of this.”
There was a clang of metal as the severed lock hit the pavement. I edged out as far as I dared, watching Trey and his gang work themselves into a position in the middle of Montgomery’s team. The woman with the grinder laid it on the ground, then swung open the container doors to expose what looked from my vantage point like nothing but empty space. Whatever they were after must have been farther back in the container, because the woman nodded to her partner and then radioed her team to bring the van around.
I almost had to admire how patiently Trey’s crew waited. Given how young and immature they’d come across when they’d been keeping me prisoner in their garage, they didn’t seem like the kind of people who’d be able to hold a position until the optimal moment to strike. Watching them in action, I was able to see how they’d managed to get in and out of Trang’s warehouse without leaving a trace. They arranged themselves as far apart as the concealment spell would allow, shifting around until they were practically on top of me. Johnny stood at the back of the group, softly muttering the words to an incantation over and over again. He was close enough I could see the sheen of sweat glistening on his temples.
Completely unaware of their new guests, four of Montgomery’s crew entered the shipping container while one remained behind to pull a thin metal ramp down out of the van. The other team members emerged a minute later, pushing a refrigerator-sized plastic container with built-in wheels. The container was completely devoid of any shipping labels or identifying markings.
“That doesn’t look like a shipment of cell phones,” Chase informed me. “Whatever’s in that case must be pretty valuable if they’re trying to sneak it into the country this way.”
With the crate halfway up the loading ramp, Trey himself had begun mouthing the words to a spell of his own. It was now clear they were waiting for Montgomery’s team to load the van before attacking, giving them a chance to take out all five members while they were close together. Once they’d done that, it’d be a simple matter of hopping in the van themselves to drive away with the prize. If I was going to try to stop them, it had to be soon. There was no way I was willing to go up against four magic users at once, no matter how inexperienced they might be.
Drawing up my own energy, I focused my will on Johnny before aiming a kinetic blast at the spot between his shoulder blades. The force of the blow broke his focus, shattering his hold on the concealment spell. He was lifted into the air with so much force that he sailed right into the middle of Montgomery’s team. The impact, combined with the shock of people suddenly appearing around them, threw them just enough off balance that the heavy plastic crate began to roll backwards. Only one of Montgomery’s crew still had a grip on it, but he was too far to the side to keep it from sliding back down the ramp where it hit the pavement and fell over on its side.
“Weapons free,” shouted one of the women on Montgomery’s team, hand reaching for the gun strapped to her hip.
Trey held his ground long enough to unleash the spell he’d been working on. A shockwave of energy rippled outwards from his position, chewing up pavement as it raced towards Montgomery’s crew. Helpless against the invisible wall of pressure, they tumbled over like bowling pins sitting dumbly in front of a perfectly thrown ball. They rag-dolled backwards, grunting in their efforts to minimize injury. One of them rolled right back up to his feet, right arm hanging limp at his side. Without missing a beat, he reached across his body to pull his gun with his off hand, dropping to one knee in order to stabilize himself as he fired into Trey’s crew.
Bullets ricocheted off metal and pavement, zinging through the air wildly after being deflected by a kinetic shield one of Trey’s crew had conjured at the last second. He couldn’t hold it long against the barrage of fire now coming from the rest of Montgomery’s team, but it was enough for Trey and the others to get to the cover of nearby containers without taking a bullet in the back.
“I know you’re here, Alex!” Trey shouted from his hiding spot. “Trang told us all about you. We’re not leaving empty handed, and we’re prepared to kill all of you in the process. Is that what you want?”
“Yeah?” I called out from the safety of my hidey hole. “How did taking me on work out for your buddy Chen at the night market?”
“You’re gonna die for that, bitch.” Johnny screamed wildly.
A small fireball whumphed out of the darkness and slammed into the container just above my head. The impact sent glowing hot shrapnel pinging into the containers behind me as I dove for the ground. A ribbon of searing hot pain on my side made me look down. A charred gap in the fabric of my shirt gave me a good look at the inch-wide gash where a fragment of metal had narrowly missed embedding itself in my gut. Blood dripped freely from the wound, making it look much worse than the narrow miss it really was.
I couldn’t see a damn thing from my position in the containers, so Chase filled me in from above. Montgomery’s team was taking advantage of the distraction to press forward using the van as cover, while Trey’s crew hung back as though waiting for something.
“They’re working on a spell,” I grunted. “Their power isn’t innate like mine. They c
an’t do anything without a spoken incantation to focus the energy.”
“Shit, Alex,” Chase said urgently. “One of Montgomery’s team slipped around to flank you. He’s coming up on the outside. It looks like he’s heading right for the same space between containers you’re hiding in.”
I pulled myself to my feet and looked around. It would take too long to squeeze back through narrowest part of the gap I’d used to get into this position. Short of trying to climb up and over, the only other option was to tuck myself back into the narrow V formed by the last line of containers on this side of the row. I wedged myself into the tight space as far as I could manage. Grimacing against the pain in my side, I gritted my teeth in an effort to quiet my breathing as much as possible.
I saw the gun before I saw my target. For a second I thought he’d walk right past, then he turned and looked right at me. Before he could pull the trigger, I let loose a kinetic blast aimed at his head. His skull cracked against the metal container behind him, his gun clattering to the floor. I worried I’d killed him with a knock on the head like that, but he still had a faint pulse when I scurried forward and pressed two fingers against his carotid artery. I snatched up his gun, hoped the safety was off, and edged out to where the two crews were locked in a standoff.
Montgomery’s team couldn’t get the heavy plastic case into the van without putting themselves into the line of fire from Trey’s crew, and Trey’s crew couldn’t get any closer to the van without breaking from their own cover and putting themselves at risk of getting shot. I briefly considered trying to blow up the van and the shipment with a bit of mage fire, but that wouldn’t accomplish much more than killing Montgomery’s team while giving Trey a chance to escape. I’d been content to let them go once before under the impression Trang would bring them to his own form of justice, but now that they were as free as ever to abuse their newfound abilities, I had no intention of letting them get away again.
Black Market (Black Records Book 2) Page 18