War Song (The Rift Chronicles Book 2)

by BR Kingsolver

  But in spite of Tina’s treachery, he had enough funds to disperse among the Magi that he got only ten years in Gettysburg instead of life in Antarctica. It had pissed me off and given me my first lesson in how corrupt the magiocracy actually was.

  A vampire guard came out of the gatehouse. “What do you want?”

  I showed him my badge. “Please tell Miss Stewart that Captain Danica James is here to see her.”

  He looked skeptical, but went back into the gatehouse and made a call. His expression was replaced by one of baffled curiosity when he buzzed the gate open.

  “That was pretty easy,” Carmelita said.

  “Tina likes me. Likes pulling my chain. Likes sparring with me. Thinks I’m funny,” I said.

  A robot butler showed us in to what once might have been a parlor or a salon. Tina had redecorated it into a harem, complete with couches and beautiful young men and women without any clothes. Tina wasn’t wearing any, either, but I didn’t worry about being over-dressed.

  Tina Stewart was a little under six-feet tall, and as curvy and voluptuous as they came. Thick, wavy black hair spilled down her back, a perfect counterpoint to her pale skin and startlingly blue eyes.

  “Danica!” Tina cried, rising from her couch and tumbling the young man who shared it with her to the floor. “It’s so good to see you! It’s been much too long. Come in, come in.”

  She noticed Carmelita.

  “Ooo, isn’t she sweet? How delicious.” Turning her face back to me, she said, “But I’m sure you didn’t bring her as a present. Too bad. Captain, now, I hear? Congratulations.”

  I didn’t waste time on false pleasantries. “Brian escaped from Gettysburg last night.”

  Tina froze, her smile sliding away. Her mouth pursed, and she took a ragged breath. “Well, I assure you he isn’t here.”

  “I didn’t think he was. Not enough blood on the floor.”

  That earned me a nasty look.

  “I just thought I’d drop by and deliver the news personally,” I said. “Also, he escaped with a woman named Susan Reed. I would appreciate you letting me know if either of them contacts you.”

  “Oh, of course I will.”

  I chuckled. “Tina, you’d be a fool to try and take on Brian. And Susan’s his new witch. Just call me, okay?”

  She invited us to have some tea, and I accepted, which surprised my partner. We chatted for half an hour, and I inspected some of Tina’s new art. As I expected, it all had an erotic flavor.

  As we were driving away, Carmelita asked, “Do you think she’ll call you?”

  “Oh, hell, no. But I left half-a-dozen bugs in her house and on her property. I also got the number and internal ID code for her phone. Simple for a magitek.”

  I was rewarded before we even reached the end of Tina’s driveway. Her phone call came in through my implant.

  “Tony, Brian’s escaped from Gettysburg!” As opposed to the languid, devil-may-care attitude she tried to project in person, she was practically shrieking in panic. I assumed Tony was Anthony ‘Big Tony’ Pelosi, one of Crozier’s lieutenants who took over most of his drug trade that Ashvial didn’t snag.

  “No one escapes Gettysburg,” Tony replied.

  “Bullshit. James was just here looking for him.”

  “James. The cop?” Deep sigh. “Hell.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’ll go to the cabin,” Tina said. “We need to do something.”

  “Hell, he could go a lot of places. Why there?”

  “That’s where he is, Tony,” she practically screamed. “I know it. I know him!”

  “Okay. Round up all the muscle you can and send them over to my place. I’ll get my boys together, and we’ll all take a ride up to the cabin.”

  Tina’s voice scaled down a few decibels, but it was still shaky. “Thanks, Tony. I owe you one.”

  I called Whittaker and told him what I’d learned. “Do you know where this cabin she’s talking about is?” I asked.

  “Crozier’s family owned a lodge on Triadelphia Lake. His parents are deceased, so I guess the ownership would fall to him.”

  His parents were deceased because he killed them for the insurance money, something I uncovered but was never allowed to prove. His plea deal with the Magi tribunal had shut down the investigation into his truly serious crimes.

  “I’ll put together a team and send them out there,” Whittaker said. He gave me a set of map coordinates to meet them.

  The location turned out to be a church parking lot.

  “Captain James?” A mercenary commander I had met before came forward to meet us when we arrived. “We have four helicopters loaded with men ready to drop into the woods around that house.”

  He led me over to a truck and showed me a screen. “We have a drone up. We haven’t seen any activity as yet. The commissioner said to wait for you to give us the go.”

  “We’re waiting for a gang of criminals to show up and assault the place,” I said. “They should drive right by here sometime this afternoon. We encircle them and nail the people inside the house, as well as the thugs who want to kill them.”

  Chapter 39

  The sandwiches the mercenaries offered us were pretty good, and we sat around, watched the video from the drone, and played cards. By the time Big Tony’s men showed up, I had won two hundred bucks.

  “I think you cheat,” said one sergeant about twice my age after a streak where I’d won five out of seven hands.

  “Of course I cheat, but until you catch me at it, stop whining and deal the cards.” Even the rough old sergeant laughed.

  We allowed Tony and his men to park along the road and fan out into the forest. The drone overhead tracked their movements as they surrounded the cabin, which was about twice the size of my house. Cute little vacation spot, similar to the one I owned out by Harper’s Ferry.

  The plan was to let them go in after Crozier and Susan, then we would close in and take them all. And as per usual, the plan went sideways almost immediately. As soon as Tony’s men were in place, they let loose a barrage of lightning, fireballs, machinegun fire, and explosives.

  The house wasn’t warded, and no one fought back. When the noise stopped, what little was left of the cabin was on fire.

  “I guess they were really happy to see their old boss again,” I said to the mercenaries’ commander.

  “Well, at least we know how they’re armed,” he replied.

  The overhead drone broadcast an order to lay down their arms and come out of the woods to the road with their hands up. Two minutes later, the magikally shielded helicopters set down in the area around the cabin and troops poured out of them. As soon as all the soldiers had disembarked, the ones I was with launched an attack into the woods at the gang members’ backs.

  “What do we do?” Carmelita asked.

  “Watch the drone screen,” I said. “They’re all mages and trained soldiers. I’m not going to get in their way. If you think your shield is strong enough, you can go watch the fun.”

  She gave me a really funny look, but didn’t make any effort to go see the fighting up close. We stood there and monitored the fighting through the drone’s cameras.

  Shortly after the mercenaries moved in, a voice behind me said, “You bitch. You’ll pay for this.”

  Whirling around, I saw Big Tony about ten feet away with a gun pointed at me. He fired, and I dropped to the ground, at the same time attempting to draw my pistol. It wasn’t necessary. Tony’s bullet ricocheted off Carmelita’s shield.

  “Drop the weapon,” I said, pointing my Raider at him. He shot at me again, with the same effect.

  “Drop the shield,” I said, much quieter. I felt air move around my face and fired the Raider. The explosive incendiary blew Tony’s arm off at the elbow.

  “How’s your first aid?” I asked Carmelita.

  “Adequate,” was her response.

  “Good. Do you want to do the tourniquet, or the bandage?”

  The battle took a little
over twenty minutes, and thirty thugs were arrested. Five were killed, and two of the mercenaries were wounded. The mercenaries’ medics patched up the wounded on both sides, and I watched all of Tony and Tina’s men get loaded into buses that would take them to Gettysburg.

  “Well, let’s go see if there are any bodies in that cabin,” I said, leading Carmelita toward the ruins of the cabin. We searched for half an hour, but found no evidence that anyone had been in the structure when it was destroyed.

  “No car, no tracks. Not even a hint anyone has been here in days,” my partner said. “Why do you suppose Tina was so convinced he came here?”

  I thought about it. “He told her. He told her that if he ever broke out, that’s where he’d go. Of course, that was before she double-crossed him, but she remembered it. And I’m sure he did too.”

  Sudden horrified realization hit me, and I accessed my implant to check the bugs I’d placed at Tina’s. My head filled with the sounds of people screaming. I took off running for my car. I had the engine running by the time Carmelita caught up and jumped in.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as I found a straight, empty stretch of road and took the car airborne.

  “To Tina’s. Call for backup to meet us there.”

  By the time we reached the old Crozier mansion, two marked cop cars already sat in front of the house. We drove through the open gate and Carmelita gasped. I slowed and craned my neck to see what she was looking at. Two mummies dressed in modern clothes lay outside the guardhouse.

  “Crozier’s trademark,” I said and drove on.

  We identified ourselves to the uniformed sergeant, and he said, “The front door was open. Inside is as bad as anything I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry, ma’am, but one of my men got sick, and I couldn’t get him outside in time.”

  Carmelita and I pulled on gloves and shoe covers, then we ventured through the door. The robot butler greeted us and asked for our names. I rolled my eyes and turned it off. We walked through the house, seeing several more mummies and two people dead from gunshot wounds. Some rooms appeared untouched, while others had been ransacked.

  The grand dining room was a horror show. Crozier had crucified Tina. She was spread-eagled on one wall, pinned by spikes through her wrists and ankles. Her nose was broken, her eyes blackened, and her body was a mass of bruises, cuts, and burns. Her hair was burned off. I delicately picked my way past the pool of blood to try and look behind her. Her back appeared undamaged except for burns I attributed to her hair, so all the torture had happened after he nailed her up.

  None of those injuries would have been fatal, however, no matter how painful, so the final act had to have been when he impaled her with a four-foot length of steel pipe.

  “What’s that smell?” Carmelita asked as she fumbled in her bag and pulled out a filter mask.

  “Burnt hair,” I said. I didn’t blame the uniformed cop for puking. I’d seen worse done by demons, but the idea of a human doing that to another human turned my stomach.

  “Go check the rest of the house,” I told Carmelita. “Find any more bodies, and pay special attention to the rooms that have been searched. By the time he finished, Tina didn’t have any more secrets, so he would have gone through all of her hiding places as well as his. He needed money and weapons, so I’ll assume he has both now. I don’t know if you noticed, but those guards out at the gate had pistols when we were here before, and they don’t have them now.”

  Carmelita left very quickly, and I understood why. I went back outside to call Whittaker and to wait for forensics and the medical examiner. I also told the sergeant to get the license numbers of all the vehicles on the premises.

  “Hi, Boss,” I said when he answered. “We blew it. I blew it. Crozier wasn’t at his cabin, don’t know if he ever went there. While we chased that wild goose, he hit his old home and slaughtered Tina Stewart and everyone else here. He’s gone, and if Susan Reed is still with him, she’s gone, too.”

  I asked for a list of every property that Crozier or any of his companies ever owned. The man had to go to ground somewhere.

  About the time forensics showed up, Carmelita came out and handed me a tablet with a list of casualties and also of areas in the house that appeared to have been searched.

  I trailed her back inside, and she showed me the locations. Most looked like secret storage places in the walls or floors—often in closets. A hidden staircase in the library led to a part of the basement accessible only from that one door. The room at the bottom had shelves filled with canned food, water, and a small stove.

  “This was his bolt hole. A place to hide while the house was being searched,” I said. “This is where I found him when I arrested him.”

  “How did you find it?”

  I chuckled. “Bookshelves don’t need electronic fingerprint readers.” I took Carmelita upstairs and showed her where several books had been taken out of the shelf next to the one that moved. A small plate, almost unnoticeable, was screwed to the back of the shelf.

  “He was very surprised when I came down the stairs and shoved my gun in his face.”

  I looked around. It had been six years since I was last in the house before my meeting with Tina. She had redecorated, but some things stayed the same. I figured Crozier had stashed some money she never found, and he now had any money, jewelry, or other easily carried form of wealth Tina had in the house. He had a few hours head start on us, and could be anywhere in the Metroplex, or even out of the area. One car registered to Tina was missing, so I put out a bulletin on it.

  We had missed the target I was hoping for, but we had also put a large crimp in the Metroplex’s top criminal leadership. Not completely a lost day.

  It was getting dark when I drove Carmelita back to the police station and checked my messages. I called Kirsten to check in, then called Aleks.

  “I would love to go to dinner with you,” I said when he answered. “Can I come over and take a shower first? Then let’s go someplace close to your apartment.”

  Chapter 40

  My telephone was ringing. It was still dark, and it took me a moment to figure out that I wasn’t in my own bed. By the time I crawled around the room in the dark, found my pants, and fished the phone out of the pocket, the caller had hung up. I would have tossed it and gone back to bed, except the call was from my mom. She knew better than to call me at five-thirty in the morning, so I knew it was important.

  I made my way to the bathroom and called her back.

  “Good morning, Miss Merry Sunshine,” Mom said when she answered. I must have done something terrible in a previous life to draw a mother who loved to wake up at the crack of dawn.

  “What’s up?”

  “One of the elves up at Elk Neck sent us a report on Karolyn Moncrieff. Why don’t you drive up here?”

  So, I hauled my ass into the shower and was almost awake when Aleks joined me. That delayed my departure, but eventually, I got dressed and prepared to leave.

  “Dani,” Aleks said, reaching out and pulling me into his arms. “If you ever need any help, you only have to ask.”

  I loved looking at him, his finely chiseled features, the deep brown of his eyes, his incredible lips. I had known other lovers, but none who looked as fine as he did, or treated me so well. I kept waiting for the day he woke up and realized he could do so much better.

  “It’s my job,” I said. “I don’t want to pull you into all that crap.”

  “If it’s anything to do with Akiyama and their allies, or the HLA, it’s my job, also. They’re my enemies, too. And I would be very, very sorry if anything happened to you, my sweet girl.” He gave me a kiss that made my head swim and almost buckled my knees.

  “You’re a terrible man,” I said when I surfaced for air. “You shouldn’t get my hopes up.” His eyes widened in surprise. Shock perhaps.

  I pushed away from him, fumbled the door open, and ran. My face still burned when I hit the street, in spite of the cold outside. Why did I say something so
stupid?

  By the time I retrieved my car from Police Headquarters and headed north, the sun had risen, but traffic was still light. Deciding I didn’t want to deal with the morning commuters, I took the car into the air, where I didn’t have to pay as much attention to my driving. I spent the time on the way to Loch Raven replaying those last few minutes with Aleks over and over in my mind.

  Surely, he was just being kind. Men, after all, would say anything to get laid. He hadn’t made any promises, or said anything stupid about love. And I had practically told him all he had to do was crook his finger and I’d be his. Which was true, but it was stupid to give a man that kind of power. It had been years since I cried when a man dumped me. I was setting myself up again. Stupid, Dani. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It was just sex, just a good time, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d ruin it.

  I composed myself and landed on the road leading to Mom’s house. I hoped the elves didn’t freak out and stick a brick wall in my path. Or a tree as wide as the road, which would be more their style.

  They let me in, however, and I brought the car to a stop in front of her house. The smell of peaches hit me as I walked through the door, and when I entered the kitchen, I found a plate full of peach crepes waiting for me.

  “Fresh peaches?”

  “No, silly,” Mom said. “I canned them last summer. Tea or coffee?”

  Joren came down and joined us along with a female elf named Triana. After we ate, Mom waved the dishes away, and Triana spoke.

  “Your cousin Karolyn is at the compound in Elk Neck. We have managed to have one of our spies assigned as her servant-cum-jailer. They have her closely watched, and she isn’t allowed to leave the house.”