Mundane women throw shoes or hurtful words at you when they are upset. Supernatural women throw harnessed lightning at you like a spear.
“I bet you thought I didn’t know the first thing about war either, you damn dumb monkey. Let me show you the culmination of years of ceaseless study!”
An idea popped into mind just as Momodara was about to do her best impression of Thor. I drew my pistol and shot out the red lights flashing up above. Shards of glass and darkness covered the room as I leaped to action.
Pitch darkness fell on the room. And not a single Owl Tengu on hand.
As Momo screamed in fury, I drew my wand-sword, willed a blade of arcana upon it, and swung it twice. Once to cut the shackles chaining Anzuki’s feet. And again to sever the binding on her hands. I threw her over my shoulder and then charged the flagging crowd of Tengu.
Strength is relative. If I’d tried this when fighting Oni, Giants, or Dagonians, I’d have them all laughing their heads off. The Tengu however didn’t think it was funny at all how hard a Human with a sturdy shoulder could hit.
I cleared past all of them, scrambled to keep my footing in the benighted hall, and made for the elevator in the chaos that ensued.
If the dungeon hadn’t been set up on the second basement instead of the deep underground facility I was sure they’d have had time to cut the power or stop the elevator. Or at least have a strike team ready to gun us down at the entrance.
Luckily, they didn’t have any chance to organize.
Ding. Ground floor.
Buxom Oni swordswoman still shouldered, I ran like I didn’t have enough money to pay for a restaurant bill. Past the main desk, past the startled greeter, out the glass doors and into the parking lot. I left them all in the dust.
“What the-- What’s an Oni doing here?” squawked a familiar voice.
A Crow Tengu leaned against the open door of Momo’s Limo. The survivor from the night I hit the Yakuza pub. He had a cigarette in his beak and his beady bird eyes were wide in shock.
I slapped his hand away from the pistol he was trying to draw, slammed his head against the car door and nabbed the keys from his dress pants. The Tengu collapsed like a ton of feathery bricks.
“Owe you a pack of cigarettes,” I told him as I got in the limo and slammed my foot on the accelerator.
The massive Ten-Ko tower slowly shrunk as I put distance between us and it, the limo purring as I floored it onto the highway. A groan from the seat beside me marked Anzuki regaining her wits.
The Ogre rubbed her head out of the corner of my eye.
“Goddammit all. You’re very lucky to be alive, Anzuki. What were you thinking, coming in after me like that? No, wait, don’t answer that.”
It was better to not go into the details. My mind reeled, trying to assess the fresh trouble I found myself in. What a hectic day. I got off the highway at the first turnpike and drove until I found myself on a middle class residential street. Semi detached homes and green lawns as far as the eye can see.
“All right,” I said, heaving a sigh. “This is what I need you to understand Anzu--”
The smell of magic filtered through the air like a heady incense. The flash I saw out of the corner of my eye was the only warning I had. Quickly forcing the car seat backwards, I narrowly avoided the blood red blade that buried itself through the driver’s side door.
Anzuki gulped ragged breaths of air. She was holding on to the grip her blade so hard her knuckles had turned white. Her eyes were red with fury.
“I think I understand exactly what’s going on, Charles Locke.”
Chapter 16
“I bet you thought I was too dumb to get it,” Anzuki muttered, her voice and intense with rage.
“What the hell are you talking about? Anzuki, listen to me,” I replied.
Useless. I doubt the words even registered.
“But guess what Charles Locke. I have you all figured out now.”
I nearly crashed the limo into a street lamp when she drew her sword from the door. I ground the car to a halt and leaped out, narrowly avoiding another lunge aimed at my neck. I rolled to my feet and drew my wand-sword.
Anzuki slowly stepped out of the car laughing weakly, sword limply held at her side.
“You’re on their side, you two timing bastard double agent,” Anzuki declared, drawing back her blade and whirling it into an attacking stance.
“I don’t want to fight you. It was never my intention to betray you dammit!” I called out.
“I trusted you. You know?” Anzuki replied. “I really thought you would help me; help us. You were strong and merciful when we fought. Clever and cool. I was an idiot.”
The Oni swordswoman raised her katana high and brought it down as I scrambled to parry. It struck with enough force to rattle my bones and chatter my teeth. With grace and natural might, she swung again and again. The longer her attack went on, the more I felt something odd about it.
The blows were anything but sincere. No effort was put into paying attention or even maintaining defense. I caught her blade on my own and rammed an elbow into her stomach. She reeled just enough to give me space.
“Anzuki. I am not your enemy. I don’t want to see you or Momodara hurt, and I have every goddamn intent to make sure I keep my promise to you. To both of you.”
She stared at me with uncertainty, her chest rising and falling with every breath.
“But,” I called out. “I can’t help you without you helping me too. Trust me. Please.”
Anzuki smiled, dark red hair obscuring her eyes. “I cannot.”
The Oni swordswoman drew back her crimson sword, reversed her grip on it and stabbed it into the ground. I recognized the gesture well.
Magic poured into the asphalt. Abyssal holes like black polka dots materialized. Short, thick-boned skeletons covered in spikes, horns, and fangs crawled out of the holes like it was Halloween at the graveyard.
“When we next meet Charles Locke, I swear to you I will cut you down myself,” Anzuki said, and as one, the skeletal Oni advanced.
Every bone in my body screamed at me to stay. My heart ached from the double blow. Even though I knew it was useless, I hesitated to run. Even though I knew there was no getting through to her.
One more wistful glance towards Anzuki and I turned tail with the skeletons in hot pursuit. My heart weighed me down. My mind was numb. Unfortunately, the threat of death at the hands of the skeletal horde nipping at my heels was very real.
I leaped over a stone wall and dashed through a quaint little park, through the childrens’ sand box, thankfully devoid of actual children, and down a narrow alleyway.
I ran. I ran and ran until I had no breath left. Until my chest ached. I craned my head around and widened my senses. No smell of acrid air. No clip clop of skeletal limbs. No rattling skulls or leering eye sockets. I lost them. I was alone.
Alone to pick up the pieces.
It’s not really about how many times you fail, I mentally reminded myself in a voice dangerously similar to Lis’. It’s about getting back up again when you’re screwing up. Yearning. Persistence. Determination. All saving graces of Human kind.
I crouched down against the wall of a nearby corner store and took stock of what I had to show for all the trouble I’d gone through.
The hotel room was compromised now. Momo knew all about it and would be ready. My car was also probably in Tengu hands. Oni were likely to begin tracking my every movement by sundown, and the ghost of a puppet master still hung over the whole mess.
Thankfully, I wasn’t caught naked in the coming storm. “Wand and guns, check. Tide jewel, check. Momo’s flash drive, check. Oh. And useless Taro’s equally useless magical lamp.”
“I am not useless.”
I flinched at the invasive voice. I looked around to find myself completely alone.
“Lis,” I spoke.
“Incorrect.”
The whisper of a half forgotten memory tugged at my mind. Around here, o
bjects that have lived for a hundred years grow little souls of their own. This lantern is just such an item.
The lantern. So it could talk? I drew the key chain sized ornament out of my back pocket. It looked a little mishandled but largely none the worse for wear. The uncanny face-like wrinkles in the plastic were just as unsettling as I remembered them.
“A talking lantern with its own soul. Perfect. Now I have something to criticize me when Lis isn’t around.”
“Weakness: Hides behind an impenetrable wall of cynicism for fear of suffering emotional hurt,” the lantern declared.
“I wonder if there’s a river around here to throw you in,” I retorted.
The lantern shuddered fearfully in my hand. “If you give me fire to eat I shall be of aid to you, my master.”
The tiny lantern had more than the power to recognize weakness at a glance. It also seemed to have mastered the ability of changing the subject.
That’s why I bought the cigarette lighter from the corner store, plus a birthday candle in the shape of the number six. In the lantern’s mouth the candle went, and I wasted no time lighting it up as well. The lantern seemed to relax. A sigh of smokes fled its ‘mouth’.
“Well done, my master. What weakness would you have me illuminate for you?”
“Answers first. Why didn’t you speak til just now?”
“Weakness: Poor conversation skills coupled with crippling shyness. Particularly around those it is not introduced to.”
I perked an eyebrow. “I guess you’re not exempt from revealing your own weaknesses then, hm?”
“That is correct. What may I call you, my master?” it asked.
“Charles Locke. I need to make a call. After that, we’re going to sit down somewhere nice and quiet and you can tell me everything you know about weaknesses.”
Chapter 17
“An exorcism will not be very effective, master! I am of this world,” the lantern proclaimed nervously.
“That’s not why we’re going to the temple. Relax, weakness dispenser. I need to meet up with a few friends.”
Not that I’d call them friends. Colleagues would be more accurate. Smug elites that lord over filthy warlocks like me more so.
I didn’t even have to call a taxi to get to them either. Three blocks and a winding bit of roadway and I’d reached the foot of what appeared to be a grandiose hill. Stone steps wound up to the heavens and occasionally had great wooden arches above them.
“I’ve never been to a shrine like this before. Back where I come from, we have big churches bedecked in ornaments and stained glass windows and frescoes on the ceiling.”
“Weakness: Fear of the after world. Desperate need for a happy ending resulting in over emphasis on the joys of the hereafter,” the lantern declared. “Especially if there is no definitive proof to be found.”
He must really like doing his job.
I took the first step of countless, trudging up the stairs as fast as I could manage.
“Tell me about yourself,” I asked the lantern.
“Weakness: Can only discern weaknesses if privy to sufficient knowledge. Insufficient knowledge may lead to incorrect weaknesses. That is the extent of my usefulness.”
Then I would do well to keep him out in plain sight. He could pass for a key chain or a tourist knickknack. If he knew how to stay quiet around Mundanes, at least.
“Good to know, but you misunderstood me,” I replied, “Tell me about yourself. Your nature. Ambitions. History. You’re a hundred years old.”
“One hundred and five. I was born only once I became a hundred years old though. I have no memory prior,” it replied.
“What do you remember then?”
“I think I was a good luck charm to a sick child. A family heirloom thought to bring good fortune. Weakness: Putting stock in good luck charms instead of medicine. I can not cure terminal illnesses.”
“I see,” I replied. “We’re here.”
It wasn’t every day that I’d do something as scandalous as give a call to a good girl like Sibyl Smith. If the warlocks in the service of Nine Towers were university freshman, then Smith would be the sporty girl that got consistently high grades.
I called in a favor, and she eagerly supplied me with two names and one location. Maki Hishanaki, Sato Saito, and Sarasemi Shrine.
I cast my eyes about the desolate hilltop. Not a soul to be found. Probably for the better. I wouldn’t want any more ears to hear or eyes to see than strictly necessary.
The wood squeaked as I stepped up to the center shrine. A bell and a nearly empty donation box were prominently featured front and center. I could use some good fortune. I dropped a thousand yen bill in and focused my thoughts.
“Tea’s inside, Mr. Locke,” spoke a man’s voice.
That goody two shoes Smith. Of course she’d call ahead and tell them about my visit. Without saying a word, I walked into the building, took off my shoes and suddenly had the sliding door shut behind me.
“Were you followed?” the voice demanded.
I shrugged, a wry smile widening on my lips, “So this is where the honor students hide when the going gets tough, huh?”
“It’s not our fight and Nine Towers knows it,” the man shot back, sitting down at a Japanese chess table, game in progress.
He was noticeably shorter than me, scowl faced, and dressed in old fashioned clothes that reminded me of the eighties. Sato Saito.
In came another. A diamond in the rough of a woman.
She was wearing a tank top and had her hair cut short and simple. She was wearing pajama bottoms and had a head set on. The head set was sharp pink and had fluffy cat ears on it. Maki Hishanaki.
“To what do we owe the pleasure, Locke? If you’ve come here to conscript us for the front lines you’re wasting your time,” she said.
“From what I understand you two are better at the information game than anything else. Care to help a poor brute of a man, down on his luck? You are hiding out in a church after all.”
Sato shot Maki a glare, but the woman seemed unperturbed. “It’s a shrine. Who else knows we’re here?”
Business first. I can appreciate that.
“Just myself. I had to call in a favor to get the info. Your secret is safe with me. Now, do you or do you not want to help me save some lives?”
Maki almost managed to say “Not sure how” before I produced the flash drive.
“This, Miss Hashinaki, is a very large amount of information, courtesy of Ten-Ko.”
Saito’s brow was slick with sweat. Maki’s eyebrows wiggled. “Intriguing. How many Bothans died for this information?”
“A Star Wars reference?”
“I’d make anime references but I don’t think you’d get them,” she replied with a shrug, snatching the flash drive from my hand. “Thank you, please hold one moment.”
Her impression of an answering service was impeccable.
“How did you get your hands on that?” Saito asked, incredulous.
“It wasn’t easy. Or fun, for that matter. Hopefully, it’ll be worth it in the end.”
“If our door gets kicked down by a Tengu hit squad I’ll come back and haunt you to the ends of the earth,” Saito cursed.
I grinned ruefully. Not everyone is suited to duking it out with Supernatural beasts. I didn’t particularly like to do it either. Unfortunately, that was what warlocks were set to do. Proper sanctioned sorcerers like Maki and Sato got to sit back at the wizard equivalent of a desk job.
No wonder Saito cringed at the mere chance of getting dragged away from his safe cushy job and into harms way. I don’t hold it against him either.
Maki returned promptly, chewing on a handful of Doritos.
“Mr. Locke, you just gave me the entire Ten-Ko company catalog, employee database, and emails.”
“That sounds useful.”
Maki almost fell over laughing. “It’s useless. Nothing but digital trash. Hardly worth the gigabytes it takes up.”
“It couldn’t be totally useless, otherwise you’d be more upset,” I replied without missing a beat.
Maki grinned like a fox. “You’re good at reading people. Three files were deleted after being dragged into the flash drive. How suspicious, said I.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Thankfully, restoring ‘dead’ files is easy for anyone who isn’t an old geezer,” Maki added, bringing up a top of the line phone with the processing power of a middle tier personal computer. “Here we are. File one documents a series of emails blackmailing a district manager.”
“Worthless for the current issue.”
Maki nodded. “File two outlines a list of known corporate spies currently operating within Ten-Ko. All Mundanes unfortunately.”
“And three?”
“That’s the one that doesn’t make sense,” Maki said. “An immense order of dirt. Landscaping contracts. Private property and claimancy discussion logs from a dozen lawyers. Maybe he caught this banal one when the other two were deleted.”
I shook my head. “No. It’s no mistake. What else is in the file?”
“Exactly one word document. Looks like math homework. Thirty point four four on and on numbers, and then comma, a hundred and thirty fo--”
“Is that all that’s there?” I asked.
Maki sighed. “That’s it. Too bad.”
I grinned, “What do you mean? That’s just what we needed.”
I’d seen something like that exactly once before on a remote trip in the North American wilderness. Maki and Saito leaned in.
“They’re global positioning coordinates,” I replied. “And that’s where I’m going next.”
Chapter 18
Time was of the essence. With the files deleted the Tengu might not realize the info they’ve dropped. And if the information was purposefully removed knowing I’d do something about it, then that meant that the puppet master is likely involved.
“What now, master?” the lantern asked.
Two to Tengu (Secret Magent Book 2) Page 7