War Song (The Rift Chronicles Book 2)

by BR Kingsolver

  He peered at the picture, then shook his head. “I may have met her once or twice, but I wouldn’t know where to find her.”

  “Our information is that she paid you twice in cases involving the defense of HLA radicals,” I said. “We’ve also been told that the two of you have a personal relationship. Maybe we can start over?”

  Montoya squirmed a bit. “I’m not at liberty to discuss my clients.”

  “I didn’t say she was your client. I said she paid you to defend HLA radicals. We’re investigating the source of those funds. We think they might have come from a bank robbery.”

  While the upper classes—both magikal and human—conducted most of their transactions using bank transfers, the lower classes still mostly used cash issued by the Families through their bank holdings. Novak and Domingo were the two major banking Families, but worldwide, at least a dozen banks printed paper money that was generally accepted for goods and services. Radical groups such as the HLA often robbed banks in poor neighborhoods to finance their operations.

  “I wouldn’t know anything about that. I’m an honest businessman.”

  “Since you started out by lying to me, I would take issue with that statement. When was the last time you saw Susan?”

  “Look, you can’t barge in here and accuse me of criminal activities.”

  “Ah. That’s the third time this morning I’ve run into people who’ve been watching too many vids,” I said. “Mr. Montoya, I represent the Magi Council, and I can do pretty much what I damned well please in investigating crimes against the Hundred. I’m also investigating the bombing of a bar in Baltimore, for which the HLA has claimed responsibility. One policeman was killed, and three were wounded.”

  I leaned forward, putting my hands on his desk, and gave him a tight smile. “Now, unless you want to continue this discussion down at Police Headquarters, where the hell is Susan Reed?”

  He broke out in a sweat. Carmelita ceased her appraisal of his nick-nacks and plopped her butt down on the back corner of his desk, leaning toward him.

  “Did you catch my last name?” she asked. “You do business with my grandfather’s bank. We know where you get your money, and where you spend it. One phone call, and I’ll have all your records. I’m sure our forensic accountants have the time to sift through them.”

  The sweat poured off him. He was breathing so hard I was afraid he might hyperventilate.

  “She’s staying with me.”

  “That would be your house on Emmet Road?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And is she there now?”

  “I don’t know. She goes out.”

  “And what does she drive when she goes out?”

  She was using one of his cars, and we quickly looked up the description and the license plate.

  “Well,” I said, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you and your employees into protective custody, confiscate your phones, and shut down your office.” I nodded at Carmelita, who left the office to take care of the receptionist and any other employees on the premises. “It’s really for your own good. These radicals can be somewhat murderous if they feel threatened.”

  I pulled out my phone and called Novak. “Are you doing anything important, or just sitting around drinking coffee and flirting with the waitress?” I asked.

  “Shutting down a bar run by a demon who got pissed at a customer and ate her.”

  “Lovely. Let the uniforms take care of it. I need you in Silver Spring with a couple of more detectives, and put out a stealth APB for this car.” I gave him the license number. “I don’t want it stopped, just identified and followed. Also send four uniforms to the office of a lawyer named Gordon Montoya in Silver Spring. And send a couple more detectives to watch an address I’ll text you. I think we’ve found Susan Reed.”

  “Is that all?”

  “One of those fancy coffees you like would be nice.” I hung up. “Mr. Montoya, thank you for your cooperation. I’m sure your HLA contacts will appreciate all you’re about to do for them.”

  Chapter 28

  I called Whittaker and got search warrants for Montoya’s office and residence just to be on the safe side, then we waited until the uniforms and two detectives from the Silver Spring station showed up. The uniforms took Montoya, his receptionist, and a paralegal down to the station, and I told the detectives what to search for. Then Carmelita and I headed over to Montoya’s house.

  “You know, I like this captain gig,” I told her as we drove. “Snap my fingers and get all the help I need. I used to have to do everything myself.”

  She chuckled. “Letting power go to your head?”

  “Hey, life is good.”

  We parked down the street from Montoya’s address and walked up to his driveway. He wasn’t the type who enjoyed manicured lawns. The house was hidden in trees. I placed a magitek warning device on the driveway to let me know about any cars going in or out, then we snuck through the forest to the house. No signs of anyone about, but there were three garages, so the car Reed was using could be in one of them.

  I stuck another magitek device on the back door, then we retreated to the street to wait for Novak.

  “So, you think Susan is that high in the HLA?” Carmelita asked.

  “We managed to pick up every one of the people at that meeting in Columbia except her. Since then, we’ve had two bank robberies and the bombing at Whodunit. The robberies followed the HLA pattern. If we captured all the top people in the HLA, someone is still directing things. If not her, then I’m betting she knows who is.”

  I opened my laptop, plugged into the datanet, and triggered my implant, sending my consciousness into the data stream. Susan Reed’s accounts hadn’t been touched since the last time I’d checked, which was shortly after she eluded our dragnet. She might be living off Montoya, but Susan was a high-maintenance girl, and I was betting that some of the money from those bank robberies was finding its way into her pockets.

  While I was hacking the banks, I checked on the major Findlay accounts and renewed the blocks I’d set to keep Courtney from accessing any Findlay funds. It was the least I could do for my grandmother.

  Then I checked my police files, reading reports from the detectives under me, assigning two new cases, and retrieving the search warrants Whittaker had ordered.

  Someone tapping on my car window pulled me out of the net, and I looked up to see Novak standing there. I shut down the computer and got out of the car. He handed me a large takeout coffee.

  “Thanks,” I said and took a sip. “This is good. What is it?”

  “Caramel mocha. So, what are we doing?”

  I took another sip. “I could grow to like this. When’s your next performance appraisal?”

  He rolled his eyes.

  “We’re waiting for Susan Reed to either leave the house, or come home.” I said. “Gordon Montoya says she’s been staying with him and driving one of his cars.”

  “We’re going to bust her?”

  “I’m thinking more about tailing her and finding the rest of the HLA radicals who are pulling off their operations. Once we’re sure she’s not in the house, we’ll search it and plant bugs, but I don’t want to tip her off. Where are you parked?”

  He pointed up the street. “On the other side of the house. This street’s a dead end at the school up there.”

  “Settle in. I have no idea when she might appear.”

  We waited until well past sunset. A car came up the street about eight o’clock and pulled into the driveway, tripping my alert.

  “That’s our cue,” I said to Carmelita, then I called Novak. “We’re going up to the house. Hang tight, and if a car comes out, follow it.”

  “Let’s go,” I told Carmelita. Reaching in the glove compartment, I pulled out two pairs of magitek night goggles. “Put these on. They have a simple on-off magitek control.”

  Lights went on in the house. A car matching the description of the one Susan was driving was parked in front
of the garage. Windows in another part of the house lit up.

  “Should we test the wards?” Carmelita asked.

  “No. If she’s any good, then she’s set a selective ward that will let her in without lowering the ward. Touching it might alert her that someone’s here.”

  The first thing I did was plant a tracker under the bumper of Susan’s car, and a microphone under the driver’s seat. Then we walked around to see what we could see. We got within five feet of the building, and I peered as best I could through the lit windows. Carmelita was too short to see anything, but I felt better with her there to cover my back.

  Susan was in a room in the back of the house, changing clothes. I figured she was getting ready to go out, so we retreated to my car and called Novak.

  “Mychal, I think she’s getting ready to go out somewhere. We’re going to go out to the main street and wait for her. You follow her when she leaves. We’ll switch off every so often so she doesn’t get suspicious of a tail.”

  “Sounds good.”

  We waited forty-five minutes, but then her car came down the driveway and out onto the street. At the end of the street she turned right, and I followed her. Novak made the turn in behind me.

  Susan took the freeway north toward Baltimore, but when she got to the city, she merged onto the beltway around the city. My tracker made it easy to keep her in sight, but all I was getting on the microphone was music, and her taste was terrible. Carmelita seemed to like it, though, and I made a vow not to let her choose music if we ever had a long drive together. She and Susan were about the same age, so maybe I was too old for what they liked.

  Susan’s destination turned out to be in the north part of Owings Mills, a Baltimore suburb uncomfortably close to the Findlay estate. I knew Findlay guardians liked to hang out at a couple of bars there, and another one was frequented by some of the servants. I didn’t want to see any guardians who had switched allegiance to Courtney.

  Susan passed the bars and drove to a house in a semi-ritzy neighborhood. She parked in the driveway and went to the front door. It opened and she went inside.

  “Quick, who lives there?” I asked Carmelita.

  My partner tapped on the keys of her laptop as I drove farther up the street and turned around.

  “Someone named Carleton Farringdon. Mean anything to you?”

  “Yeah. Damn.” I called Novak. “We need some heavy backup. Park and shield. I’ll call Whittaker.”

  “Why? Who lives there?” he asked, and when I told him, he cursed.

  “Let me in on the secret,” Carmelita said.

  “Shield us first.” I took a nervous glance at the house. “Carleton Farringdon is a spirit mage. Got busted and sent up to Gettysburg when he was about sixteen. Has a real bad attitude toward the Magi.”

  “Busted for what?”

  “He put together a gang—some mages, some vampires. They were running Rifter drugs, trafficking girls. I was still a uniform then, and Novak was new on the force. When a couple of detectives from Arcane went to arrest him, there was a full-scale battle. A lot of people died, and the whole neighborhood was devastated.”

  “And they only sent him to Gettysburg?”

  “Farringdon used to be just below the Hundred. His father paupered himself to keep his son out of a stiffer sentence. The Family was ruined, but Carleton got only ten years. Needless to say, he’s not fond of the Magi.”

  I called Whittaker and explained the situation. He cursed. Very creatively.

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked. “Wait until she comes out and keep following her? It was an hour-and-a-half drive up here. My bet is that when she leaves, she goes back to Montoya’s, and she’ll figure out he’s disappeared.” I glanced at the house. “There are five other cars parked in the driveway or on the street, so it looks like a meeting. We can try and pick up everyone who leaves, but I’ll need more manpower. If we do that, we can tail Farringdon when he leaves next. Easier to take him out in the open.”

  Silence, then, “I’m thinking.”

  I was glad he was, and that it wasn’t my decision. I turned to Carmelita. “Take those night goggles and record all the license plates in the driveway and on the street. Maybe we can figure out who else is in there. And for God’s sake, be quiet and careful.”

  “Damn straight.” She pulled the goggles over her eyes and slid out of the car.

  “Do you have any magitek tricks up your sleeve for an assault that would minimize collateral damage?” Whittaker asked.

  “Given enough time to collect the equipment. I have an enhancer, but I’d have to retrieve it from my mom’s house, and then I’d need a portable laser cannon and the strongest portable generator you can find.”

  I heard him snort. “Your mom’s house? No one can get within five miles of Loch Raven. There’s some kind of ward in place around the lake. What’s she doing out there?”

  “It’s a veil, not a ward,” I said. “My grandfather’s in town.”

  “Your grandfather?” His voice rose, almost to a squeak.

  “Yeah, the elves are concerned about mages working with demons.”

  More silence, then, “The last time we took Farringdon down, we had three spirit mages, and that wasn’t enough. I have three on the force now.”

  “I know a spirit mage, but he’s a civilian,” I said.

  “Who?”

  “Aleksandr Janik. Look, can we just wait until their little party is over, tail them when they leave, and pick them off one at a time?”

  He didn’t answer me directly. “The Germans have a militaristic tradition. Most Janiks serve in their version of guardians between university and their careers. What would your souped-up laser do?”

  “Obliterate the house from this reality. I’m not saying there wouldn’t be any collateral damage, you’d probably want to evacuate the houses behind it for, oh, half a mile, maybe a mile.”

  Carmelita opened the car door, slipped inside, and quietly closed it. She picked up her laptop and began typing.

  “Give me a couple of minutes and I can probably tell you who else is in that house,” I told Whittaker.

  It took my partner about five minutes, then she turned the screen so I could see it. I read the names and the magikal talents of the owners aloud. Whittaker started cursing again.

  “If I was this Carleton Farringdon,” Carmelita said, “I would know that another trip to Gettysburg was off the menu.”

  I nodded, waiting for Whittaker to come up with a genius plan that would take down the bad guys while leaving all the good guys still alive and walking. I was sure Farringdon was well aware of the difference between the magikal prison in Gettysburg and the one in Antarctica.

  Chapter 29

  “I’m sending in as many men as I can gather,” Whittaker said. “Either you or Novak needs to set up a staging area. We’ll need to evacuate the houses in the neighborhood.”

  “I’ll have Mychal do it,” I said, and Whittaker hung up.

  Great. It was ten-thirty at night, and half the houses in the area were dark, and their occupants had probably gone to bed. I got on the phone and told Mychal what he needed to do. He wasn’t happy. Both of us knew there wasn’t a good place nearby to gather a couple of hundred personnel and equipment. After looking at a map, we decided on a cul-de-sac two blocks away. I watched his car turn around and drive away.

  Fifteen minutes later, a dozen or so vehicles showed up and blocked the street. I got out and walked down to meet them.

  “Captain James?” a man in tactical gear with a Whittaker patch on his shoulder asked as I approached. Whittaker mercenaries, and the symbol on the patch indicated the troopers were mages.

  “Yeah.” I read the nameplate on his chest. “Captain Conway? We need a very, very quiet evacuation of every house on this street, and the next streets over, except for number thirty-six nineteen. That one’s our objective.”

  He shook his head, looking at the mostly dark houses along the street. “Just exactly what
do we have in that house?”

  “We aren’t sure how many people are inside, but there’s at least one psychopathic spirit mage, two pyromancers, an electrokinetic, a witch, and a general mage with unknown capabilities. That’s assuming they drove here alone. We know that from the license plates of the cars parked outside the house. It’s an HLA meeting.”

  A helicopter flew high overhead, and to me, it sounded incredibly loud.

  “Can you tell that fool to fly higher?” I asked. “I’d rather we use quiet little drones if you need aerial surveillance.”

  Conway nodded. “Will do. When do you need those houses cleared?”

  “Yesterday.”

  He chuckled. “Of course.”

  And of course the evacuation didn’t go quietly. Dogs barking, babies crying, people talking loudly. We tried to take as many residents as possible out their back doors to minimize the chaos on the street, but fairly shortly someone in our target house peeked through a curtain to see what was going on.

  I got on the phone. “Mychal, I think our chance at stealth has flown. Move people in. You’ve got men on the street behind Farringdon’s house, right?”

  “Yeah. I’ll set things in motion. Dani? You tie yourself to Carmelita, and tell her that maintaining her shield is her only job. No heroics, you hear me? Kirsten will tear me a new one if you get yourself killed.”

  “Will do. Take your own advice, okay?”

  I grabbed Carmelita and passed along Novak’s orders. She grinned nervously.

  “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  Two men and a woman walked up to me and identified themselves as Whittaker’s spirit mages. I placed the two men about a hundred feet on either side of Farringdon’s house and kept the woman with me and Carmelita across the street two houses away.

  When everyone was in place, I sent a robot up to the door of Farringdon’s house and had it ring the doorbell. Nothing happened for several minutes, but I had it continue to ring the bell. Pretty soon, the door opened.

  “What do you want?” a woman’s voice yelled. Susan Reed.

  I used a loudspeaker to answer. “Everyone in the house needs to come out, one at a time, with your hands empty and held away from your body.”