Chapter 24
A late-season hurricane hit the Carolinas that night and barreled up the Eastern Seaboard, shutting down the ports of Baltimore and Wilmington. Sea traffic from Europe was shuttled toward the port in Montreal. Findlay took advantage of it and launched a major offensive against the Akiyama facilities in Montreal and gained control of the ports both in Montreal and Quebec City.
For a while, forecasts showed the storm might track up the Chesapeake, but it veered more to the east, and we had to endure seventy mile an hour winds and torrential rainfall only for a couple of days. Wilmington was hit harder, but Mary Sue reported that our buildings didn’t sustain any damage. In the wake of the storm, she transported most of the equipment she had ordered to Wilmington. With all of the other traffic going into the area—as Akiyama and Moncrieff dealt with cleanup and construction—our shipments weren’t noticed.
Two weeks after our meeting at my mom’s house, Mary Sue reported that she was ready to start production. She had hired thirty magitek engineers and another thirty engineers, draftsmen, and warehouse personnel. She had transferred the office personnel from her own business to Cerberus Corporation.
The storm slowed down military activity in the area, and intelligence reports from Findlay said that Courtney had finished her purges. After talking to Olivia and Whittaker, I decided to venture out and go back to work. Kirsten reopened her shop and moved back to our house in Baltimore, with two elven roommates taking over our guest bedroom.
Mychal Novak picked me up and drove me into the police station for my first day back at work. He was driving a shiny new unmarked car.
“The Council fired the police commissioner last week,” Mychal said as we drove. “They didn’t frame it as a firing, of course. He’s been moved to a position in the Mayor’s office. The joke going around is they wanted all the idiots together in one place. Whittaker is now the commissioner.”
As soon as I entered the building, the desk sergeant pointed me toward Whittaker’s new office. Being at Mom’s and simply watching the news hadn’t prepared me for the true situation I would be facing.
“You’re coming up in the world,” I said as I walked into Whittaker’s big new office.
“So are you. It’s good to have you back,” my boss said, as he slid a captain’s badge across his desk toward me. “Help yourself to some coffee. Novak’s a lieutenant now, still reporting to you. You’re in charge of the Arcane Major Crimes desk. Congratulations and good luck.”
I filled a cup from a carafe on the credenza.
He gave me a dry chuckle. “Things have changed a lot since you were here last. In addition to the normal monster-eats-human murders, we have more assassinations—such as the Carpenter and Greer cases—gangland-style hits of Akiyama, Moncrieff, and Findlay personnel, and demons running around wild without a demon lord to control them. I’ve given Novak his own vehicle and a new partner, so that Toyota you souped up is yours full time. Can’t have you catching pneumonia riding around on that damned motorcycle in the winter. And pick yourself a new partner. You are not—repeat not—to go out investigating cases without backup. Under any circumstances. Understood?”
I sighed and nodded. He sighed.
“All of the Families want things to be as normal as possible. Mage wars are bad for business. My budget’s increased, and we’re hiring additional cops into the Arcane Division. Just between you and me, I’m hiding a lot of Osiris’s people that way.”
He went on to tell me that Courtney had challenged Olivia taking George Findlay’s seat on the Council. She accused Olivia of using magitek to kill George, and claimed that she, as his daughter, was the legitimate heir anyway.
I had to hand it to the bitch—she managed to accuse both my grandmother and me without even naming me.
“Gee, you really know how to welcome someone back after a vacation. Do you have a case for me, or am I just supposed to wander around and generally clean everything up?”
He projected a map on the wall. The Metroplex was carved up into different colors, and few of the lines were straight.
“The light blue is the territory we hold,” he said. “Red is demon, purple is Akiyama-Moncrieff-Findlay, dark blue is controlled by other members of the Five.”
“Who is ‘we’?” I asked.
“The Metropolitan Police under authority of the Council. The lines on this map change—sometimes hourly. Our job is to make sure the light blue area doesn’t get any smaller. If it gets larger, that’s a bonus. And to answer your question, I want to clean everything up. By tomorrow, preferably, but I can give you until next week.”
Kirsten’s shop and the Inner Harbor were inside the light blue, as was my house, Loch Raven, and the Novak and Domingo estates north of town. Most of the Port of Baltimore, the Port of Wilmington, Findlay House, and most of the coast from Wilmington down to Virginia—with the exception of Annapolis—were shown in purple. West of the coast and south of Baltimore were Red.
The Findlay estate was a small purple area inside light blue, and anyone traveling from the Novak or Domingo estates to the city would have to cross a purple area.
“If those colors denote territory,” I said, “some people may be a little uncomfortable.”
Whittaker nodded. “Anywhere Akiyama personnel go, they go in an armed convoy. I don’t think anyone from Findlay-Moncrieff goes anywhere at all. We had a rash of assassinations, and Courtney is now a widow.”
“I heard. I assume that’s not a case you want me to handle. How extensive is this little disagreement?” I asked.
“I’ll let your aunt find her husband’s killer, if he wasn’t hiding under her bed. Other than North America, South America, and Europe? Not much going on at all. My intelligence sources tell me that in Japan, China, and Southern Asia, no one really knows about the war. I mean, they know about it, but it doesn’t impact anyone’s life or business. Akiyama definitely has the upper hand and the momentum. If we struck a cease-fire right now, they would be the clear winners. But we’re launching an offensive to take back the Port of Baltimore at midnight tonight.”
Confused, I shook my head. “You and my grandmother keep saying there’s a war going on. Where are the armies, the navies? How can you have a war without governments?”
Whittaker sighed. “It’s more like battles between medieval feudal states. No one has true armies anymore, except a few places in Africa and South America. The combatants have private security forces, mercenaries, and police forces. The Magi Council has hired mercenaries from me for decades.”
He got up from his chair and took his cup to the credenza where he poured more coffee. “Here in Baltimore, it’s urban guerilla warfare—gang warfare. We’re pretty sure the Palace of Commerce bombing here in Baltimore was carried out by Akiyama operatives. The HLA attack in Prague was a copycat. All sides are disseminating a lot of propaganda. The HLA is against all the Magi. The Grand Coven has come out in favor of democratic elections and inclusion of witches on the Council. The Rifters are being opportunistic, as you would expect. And God help us if the masses of humanity decide they’re sick of it all and revolt.”
“What you’re describing is chaos,” I said. “How can there be any order if everyone is fighting everyone else, and there are too many sides to keep straight?”
“I’m glad you grasp the fundamental problem.”
Chapter 25
That evening, I went to meet Kirsten at Enchantments. Downtown and the harbor had seen rioting, looting, and general mayhem over the previous few months. At first, people picked up the pieces, hauled off the debris, fixed their buildings, and got on with their lives.
That was no longer the case. Windows boarded up, stores smashed and burned, piles of debris littered the street, burned-out wrecks of cars. There were more cops and soldiers on the street than civilians. Most of the larger office and apartment buildings had contingents of security guards. The area looked more like the fringes of the Waste than the Metroplex’s foremost tourist attraction.
“Let’s go to Jenny’s,” Kirsten said as she got in the car.
After a day of reading incident reports, intelligence assessments, case notes, and statistics on the violence engulfing the Metroplex, I was horrified.
“Are you crazy? We’re living in the middle of a war zone.”
Kirsten chuckled. “You’re letting your job get to you. Were you outside at all today? I did about triple a normal day’s business. Pent-up demand. I’ve been closed and all my customers just flooded the place. Mychal and Aleks are going to meet us for dinner, and I’m starved.”
As I drove, I noticed that there were a lot of uniformed cops on the street, both on foot and in patrolling cars. Reaching out with my magik, I also encountered an unusual amount of drones overhead. At least downtown, Whittaker was controlling the streets.
I relaxed a little bit. “So, what kind of gossip did you pick up from all those customers?” I asked.
“The mages are anxious, concerned. But a lot of my customers are trophy wives and the Magi’s children. As long as the supply of cosmetics isn’t affected, they don’t get too worked up. The witches are either oblivious, or the politically aware among them are excited that the magiocracy is undergoing a shakeup. The norms are concerned about the demons and the escalating violence.” Kirsten shrugged. “About what you’d expect.”
Not what I would expect, but I lived in a different world than her customers. On the way up the north-south freeway, I saw a lot of little red and blue blinking lights in the sky over the freeway. More drones.
The neighborhood around the Kitchen Witch Café was lit up, decorated, and there were a lot of people out on the streets. It was a completely different scene from the part of the city we had just left.
“Christmas?” I said.
“Yeah, Christmas. Only a month of shopping time left. Do you realize what all this craziness with Findlay has cost me? I lost three weeks of time between Samhain and Thanksgiving. Do try to keep the lid on things for another month, okay?”
Walking along the sidewalk, I couldn’t see anything in the faces or demeanors of the shoppers that indicated fear or concern. People sounded happy, laughing and chatting. The shop windows were filled with goods.
Aleks had arrived at the restaurant before us and dropped Kirsten and my names. Jenny had seated him in a private booth. When we approached the booth, he jumped up and came toward me, taking me in his arms, and kissing me. Right there in the middle of the restaurant. Some of the other customers cheered and clapped while my face felt as red as the Santa hanging above the kitchen door.
“I was so worried about you. You’re all right, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s sit down.”
“Mychal had an errand to run, but said he’d be right back,” Aleks said as he took my hand and led me back to the booth. We ordered drinks and an appetizer.
Mychal showed up about fifteen minutes later carrying a shopping bag, slid into the booth beside Kirsten, and gave her a kiss. Looking at my roommate’s smiling face, I realized that her relationship with Mychal might be more than a passing fling. He made her happy.
The brownie waitress took our orders and almost immediately brought our drinks.
“To the new captain of the Arcane Division’s Major Crimes Unit,” Mychal said, raising his glass.
I thought Kirsten’s eyes would pop out of her head. “You’re joking!”
Shaking my head, I said, “Just goes to show you really can sleep your way to the top. I go on an enforced vacation, catch up on my sleep, and get promoted. The only downside is that I have to find a new partner.”
Kirsten turned a puzzled face toward Mychal.
“They promoted me to Lieutenant. I have to choose a new partner also.” He looked at me. “Any ideas?”
“For you? Davis. He’s an electrokinetic, good shot, smart, but a little bit reckless. You’re more cautious and methodical. I think you’d make a good team.”
“Just what I need, another reckless partner. And you?” he asked.
“I have to speak to her, but I’m thinking Carmelita Domingo. I’ve learned the advantages of having an aeromancer for a partner. Of course, my reputation precedes me, but my last partner didn’t die, so that’s a mark in my favor.”
Mychal and Kirsten laughed, Aleks looked a little confused, but I didn’t attempt to explain.
After dinner, the four of us stood out on the sidewalk in a cold, blustery wind trying to decide what to do.
“I came with Mychal,” Aleks said.
“I came with Dani,” Kirsten answered.
“Need a ride home?” I asked Aleks, and so I ended up driving back downtown.
His place turned out to be an apartment in a fancy high-rise about six blocks north of Enchantments. I knew the area but didn’t hang out there much. Expensive boutiques, expensive bistros, expensive galleries, and expensive apartments. Most of the inhabitants of the area were young, midlevel mages and witches working in the corporate offices of Magi businesses located downtown. The fringes of the area included centuries-old brownstones to the north and west, the traditional arts district to the north, office buildings to the west and south, and the harbor district farther south where Kirsten had her shop.
I went up with him, curious to see his flat. The lobby downstairs had marble floors and crystal chandeliers, with paintings and sculptures I was willing to bet weren’t copies. His apartment was a little more subdued. Heavy brown-leather furniture in the living room with a dining nook, a wet bar, an open-galley kitchen, and two bedrooms, each with its own bath.
“Very nice,” I said. “Although I admit, I expected fancier. No hand-carved marble toilets?”
Aleks laughed. “I saw some apartments like that, but I grew up with pretention, and I don’t need it. One would think European history would warn the Magi about extravagance, but they haven’t seemed to get the message. Would you like a drink?”
He moved behind the wet bar. I took a look at the bottles arrayed there.
“A cognac, if you please. Where did you grow up?”
“The Janik Family is based in Munich, and I spent my childhood there and in Prague, mostly. I went to university at the New Sorbonne, in Lyon.”
“I heard Janik suffered some casualties when the Palace of Commerce was bombed in Prague.”
He nodded. “My Granduncle Gunther and five of my cousins. I also lost a lot of friends. Before I took this job, my office was in the POC.” Walking out from behind the bar, he presented me with a snifter, clinked his glass against mine, and kissed me. “If I had stayed in Prague, I’d probably be dead, too, and I never would have met you. I think you are spectacular, Captain Danica James.”
I stepped back, took a sip, and half-turned away. “We barely know each other. I prefer to take things slowly.”
Aleks grinned. “As you wish. Will you spend the night?”
I wanted to, but… “I didn’t bring a change of clothes. I think, especially with my new position, I should be a little discreet.”
He closed the distance between us and nuzzled my hair. “Too bad.”
Turning my face to his, I said, “I didn’t say I wouldn’t go to bed with you, I just said I can’t stay the night.”
A couple of hours later, I kissed him goodbye and started out the door. He held up a two-inch gold tube on a gold chain—a key to his apartment.
“No, I can’t.” I said.
“Yes, you can.” He slipped the chain over my head. “The closet in the other bedroom is empty.”
I suddenly felt a little light-headed. “What about your other girlfriends?”
“If you become a bother, I’ll let you know.” The man had a way of dropping his voice into a purr that lit parts of me on fire. “Anytime you decide you don’t want to use it anymore, just leave it on the table next to the door. For now, if you find another woman in here, arrest her, she’s a burglar.”
He backed me up against the wall and kissed me. For a few moments, I almost decide
d to get undressed again, but managed to put my palms against his chest.
“I’ll call you.” I opened the door and fled. With his key. I was flustered, a bit apprehensive, uncomfortable, and embarrassed, but there was no way I was leaving that key behind. If the man wanted to put that much effort into making me feel special, I’d let him. On the way down the elevator, I wondered if there was someone still alive in Findlay House I could pay to smuggle all those fancy dresses in my closet out to me. For the first time in my life, I had someone I wanted to wear them for.
Chapter 26
I had a cop uniform, but I almost never wore it, except for funerals and the yearly ceremony when they handed out medals. I always got one. I had a scrapbook where I paired the citations for bravery and outstanding service with the reprimands for breaking protocol, procedures, and rules.
But I figured a captain should dress up a little more than a street detective. I chose a pair of black slacks, a white shirt, and a red jacket, along with a newer pair of boots that I brushed a dab of polish on. Then I put some lipstick on. I even used a couple of barrettes to hold my hair back from my face instead of my standard braid.
I drove into the office through the city, avoiding freeways and major streets. When I was first on the police force as a beat cop, I spent every day driving around residential streets, watching kids play soccer in the road, the old men hanging out in front of the liquor stores and carry-outs, the women gossiping on their front steps. I had seen pictures from before all the wars, and some things hadn’t changed very much. I knew some cops looked at the humans in the poor neighborhoods only as potential criminals. But the majority of them were the people we were sworn to protect against the criminals.
My route took me past the rubble of the Palace of Commerce. It would probably be spring before it was all cleared away and the new building started. I also drove by Aleks’s apartment building and realized it was only a three-block walk from my office.
War Song (The Rift Chronicles Book 2) Page 15