Without missing a keystroke, he fast-forwarded through the tapes, finding Annie searching through Marielle’s desk and deleting Annie’s presence on the tape. He continued forward to the morning, 5:00 a.m., where Cham and Shiff retrieved Brite and helped him home. He stopped the tape when Marielle entered and zoomed in on her.
“She’s wearing the amulet,” Bucky said.
“Same one?” Cham asked.
Bucky blew up the size as much as he could and printed it, handing it to Cham.
“Yeah. I think we can assume for now that this is how she avoided the spell.”
“You think she’ll tell Amborix?” Bucky asked.
“That would be my play if I wanted to achieve something, though Amborix for now is thankful for our help,” Annie answered.
Bucky continued through the recordings, finding Annie and Gibbs working on the memory modification spell. “I see you placing the pin on her,” Bucky commented as he copied this portion to the flash drive and handed it to Annie. When the tape was finished, he deleted their presence and the deed.
“Do you think she’s got copies?” Bucky asked.
“Maybe. They’re not as computer savvy. You can check her computer, but if she’s smart she’ll take it home with her, make additional copies,” Cham said.
Bucky pulled up the French Wizard Hall network and searched for the computer belonging to Marielle. So familiar was he with the inner workings of the computer system, he easily broke into her computer and took the files he wanted.
“That was too easy,” Annie said.
Bucky entered the human resources server and printed Marielle’s employee file for Annie. When the computer finished spitting out the information, Annie grabbed the stack and perused it quickly.
“Have Graham take care of it from here. She purposely set you up,” Bucky said.
“Yeah. Thinking back on it, she was insistent we do the spell. Was very apologetic for her boss’s behavior. See if there’s a connection to any one person. She’s got to be working with someone. Her emails, maybe?” Annie asked. But Bucky was already back inside Marielle’s computer and pulling up her emails.
“What will you do if we find something?” Bucky asked as he typed.
“Not sure yet. If they’re doing this to their own people, who knows what other units they’ve done it to.”
“Why don’t you guys head out? I’ll call you when I find something.”
“Thanks, Bucky,” Annie said with a sigh.
*
Annie had learned her lesson—never let a threat linger; take care of it immediately. It had almost been too late with Rebekah Stoner, the television reporter who had found out too much about Annie and magic. They hadn’t been able to risk the exposure. As a result, Graham performed a memory modification spell on the reporter at the last minute. Annie didn’t want that to happen again.
She knocked on Graham’s cubicle. He was hunched over his desk, writing something in his notebook.
“Hey, Annie, Cham. What’s up?” He waved them in. Annie plopped down the folder and passed it over.
“Marielle Beauchamp,” Annie said.
“You’ve discovered something since last night’s Wizard Council meeting?” Graham asked as he perused the file.
“Yeah,” Cham said.
“We’re having Bucky looking for a partner. But that memory modification spell, she blocked herself from it. She sent this pin to Ryan,” Annie said and held up the evidence.
“She can blackmail you with this,” Graham said. “We’ll take over from here. Are you going to test the pin she sent?”
“Yeah. We’re heading to the lab next. I’ll give it to you when we’re done. In the meantime, you can take this one I swapped out from the security guard. And you have the notes from Bucky.” She handed him the pin.
“At least you didn’t wait this time,” Graham said and offered a wink.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re a funny man,” Annie said.
Chapter 34
The Wizard Hall laboratory consisted of two large spaces, the first being the morgue. It contained three gleaming tables that shone under the intense light above. They were laid three in a row at the center of the room. Above each table, a large mirror was tilted for easy viewing. The walls were lined with cabinets and drawers that stored equipment for autopsies, storage containers, beakers, test tubes, cauldrons, mortar and pestles, herbs, and crystals.
To the right of the entrance was the door to the changing room and showers. And just outside the door was a thick plastic chute that lead to the incinerators. The roaring fire could be heard from the tube.
When Annie and Cham entered the empty morgue, the bell above them chimed softly. Perkins Abernathy, the lab manager, exited his office.
“Hey, Annie and Cham,” Perkins greeted them with a warm smile. “How can I help the Wizard Guard?”
“Well…” Annie pulled out the plastic bag containing the pin. “We need to figure out what this does.”
Perkins strolled to them and took the plastic bag. “I thought you tracked the magic in this already. Did something change?” As lab manager, Perkins, just like Graham Lightner, sat on the Wizard Council and was privy to not only the memory modification spell but also to the pin that Annie held.
“Actually, this one was sent to Ryan this morning,” Annie informed him.
Perkins Abernathy’s eyes rose in surprise. He stared at the pin, felt it hum and vibrate inside the plastic bag.
“That’s disconcerting. Someone wasn’t affected by that memory modification. Do you think it’s a warning?” He handed the pin back to Annie.
“Possibly. As we said in the council meeting, we’re tracking Marielle Beauchamp. She strongly suggested we do the memory modification. After reviewing French Wizard Hall security tapes, it appears she was wearing a protection amulet the day we performed the spell,” Cham said.
“She can’t possibly be acting alone,” Perkins surmised.
“That’s the assumption. Bucky’s searching her computer for a link to anyone else. I can’t imagine she could get away with so many memory modification spells without assistance from someone either at her level or above.” Annie took the pin back and glanced inside the evidence bag. The pin bounced and vibrated as if excited. “I have an idea of what magic should be in this. What we want to know is: Did Marielle alter the magic, add something, change something? Is she tracking us, does she want to harm us? We know she sent it, but we want to know if it’s blackmail or something else.”
“Well, let’s see if this pin does something or not, shall we?” Perkins asked.
He led them into the second lab space, a large room behind a thick, magic-infused pane of glass. The large gym was empty except for large mats that covered the walls. Whatever wasn’t attached to the wall lay in a tall pile against the right wall.
Perkins switched on the overhead lights, which flickered and hummed as they came to life. He summoned a folding table stored along the wall and set it up at the center of the room.
“You know, if you’re busy we can do this on our own,” Annie said as he lowered the legs and righted the table.
Perkins chuckled. “You could, but Annie, you always bring in the most unusual items. I’d hate to miss this.”
When the table was set at the center of the room, Perkins walked to the window where cabinets stretched the length of the wall, removing several crystals to collect any magic that may be stored inside the pin.
Annie placed the pin on the smooth surface of the table. It vibrated against the hard top, bouncing and jumping a few centimeters from its starting point.
“The magic is powerful,” Perkins said and handed Annie a crystal.
“Yeah, it is. The pins I found in Marielle’s desk didn’t do this. She definitely added something.” Annie held the crystal above the pin, summoning the magic inside. The crystal glowed immediately, illuminating the table, her hand, and her arm in a bright, white light.
“It’s not black magic?” Annie
asked quizzically. But within seconds, the light flipped and changed to a dull beige before glowing white and flipping to red.
“What the hell?” she asked. Cham and Perkins watched intently, unable to take their eyes from the crystal as it burned through colors at a dizzying pace. Red, orange, green, blue, and back to white. The colors gained speed, twirling in front of their eyes.
The crystal vibrated and hummed in Annie’s palm, shaking her arm. A spark flew from the crystal cracking the stone.
“Run!” Cham screamed. Annie dropped the crystal on the table; he grabbed her arm and pulled her through the doorway into the morgue. Perkins, following close behind, slammed the door shut. They poked their heads up watching the crystal continue to flip through thousands of colors without stopping. Colorful sparks shot into the air. The table shook under the vibrations of the crystal. The double-thick pane of glass rattled in its frame. As the crystal quivered and leapt in the air, the colors changed so frequently that Annie could no longer make out individual colors.
Even through the thick glass and closed door, they heard the wheezing buzz emanating from the crystal.
“It’s gonna blow!” Annie shouted. They ducked below the window. Magical energy burst from the rock as the crystal exploded.
Energy pounded the wall, sending Annie, Cham, and Perkins across the smooth floor. Annie hit her head against the leg of the autopsy table. Cham flew into a cabinet door, leaving a large crack. Perkins skidded across the floor, crashing into the incinerator pipe and knocking it off the hole. Steam from the incinerators billowed out. Perkins rolled over as steam burned through his pants, singeing his leg.
“Damn it!” Perkins shouted. He ran his hand across his pant leg, ripping the drenched fabric. A large, red welt covered his shin and calf.
Cham scrambled to the lab manager, summoned a bottle of water, and poured the water into his palm where he warmed the liquid. He placed the heated water over the burnt flesh to heal the wound.
“There’s been an explosion in lab services,” Annie shouted into her cell phone. The incinerators popped and hissed as heat from the roaring fire rose and filled the morgue with hot air and rancid smoke. “Sound the alarm!” she ordered.
She rose slowly, her head throbbing from the bump at her temple. She glanced at the window, and her jaw dropped. The glass was melting. The door hung loose from the jamb.
Annie rushed to the door and stared in disbelief. The gym had been eviscerated. Mats melted against the walls. The floor where the table had stood was covered in a dark char mark that had spread like a starburst across the floor and up the walls to the ceiling. The explosion had blown out so much energy and heat that the ceiling just above the table had melted. Its tiles dripped to the floor. A fog billowed from the point of the explosion and hung in the air.
Through the fog, Annie could see that the wall between the gym and the maintenance office had been blown apart. The manager of maintenance, Joey Sampson, stuck his head through the hole. His face was covered in soot.
“Joey, go back! Evacuate your office!” Annie shouted across the gym.
He nodded in understanding and ducked back into his demolished office. When he was gone, she slammed the door but it still hung loosely.
Through the window, the white smoke or fog began to stretch toward maintenance.
Back into the phone Annie shouted. “Yes. Maintenance is being evacuated. Just get a team down here now! There’s something blowing out of the impact!”
The sirens began to wail through Wizard Hall.
“You okay, Perkins?” Annie asked. She knelt beside him. He was pale, and sweat gathered at his temple. Though his leg was beginning to heal, he grimaced in pain.
“Been better,” he said through gritted teeth.
“We’ll get you to the hospital. Where is the rest of your staff?” she asked.
“They’re…” he took a breath as Cham stopped healing the burn. It was expending too much energy. “They’re… Roscoe should be in Wizard Hall. He can help secure the lab. And Minka, she’s at a market in India, researching some eggs we had come across.”
“Their phone numbers in your office?” she asked.
He nodded as Cham helped him up. “I’ll get him to the hospital,” Cham said as the morgue door flew open.
Milo, Lial, Spencer, and Gibbs sprinted in the room, their mouths agape as they laid eyes on the melted window for the first time.
“It’s gone!” Lial gasped.
“Lial. Help Cham get Perkins out of here!” Milo ordered.
Holding the lab manager up, Cham said, “We’ll be back.” They assisted the injured Perkins from the lab, teleporting him through the building to the hospital.
“Start securing the lab. I need to get the staff back here.” Annie ran for the list and texted both lab assistants, notifying them of the attack on Wizard Hall and the lab.
“What else do we need?” Annie asked as she re-entered the morgue. Spencer and Gibbs were covering the cracks around the door with a thick duct tape.
“What the hell happened?” Milo asked. He leaned against the wall, his hands shaking more than they had earlier in the week.
“That pin. Marielle… she sent one to Ryan in an unmarked envelope. We came here to test the magic. I ran a crystal over it, and the magic… it did something. Colors flipped. So fast I couldn’t distinguish the individual colors anymore. The crystal buzzed, hummed, jumped in my hand and it sparked.” She took a deep breath, her hand shaking now that she had a moment to think it through and remember what had just happened. “Cham yelled for us to run. I dropped the crystal and it exploded. A huge energy burst and exploded.” Behind the melted window, the smoke or mist was so thick they couldn’t see anything in the room. “Someone needs to block the wall in maintenance. That mist is going to escape.”
“She sent us a bomb.” Milo ran his hand across his chin. “You sure it’s her?” he asked.
“We had Bucky find her on the French security tapes. We saw her do it on the tape,” Annie said. Spencer and Gibbs taped the last of the cracks around the door and turned to the melted mirror.
“The French Wizard Hall is small. Maybe the size of one floor here. Five hallways branch off from the main floor. The prison, the hospital, the executive government wings, the front entrance. She… Marielle knows we’re bigger, but she maybe didn’t realize how much bigger. Maybe she thought we’d examine it at our desks.”
Annie looked back through the melted window as the glass rolled downward pooling at the sill. “The lab is secure, but had this gone another way, it could have killed hundreds of us.” Her voice choked up.
“Annie. I need you to get a hold of yourself. This is clearly an assault on one wizard guard by another,” Milo said. He glanced at his phone, dialing a number. “Ryan. Annie was examining that pin that was sent to you. It’s definitely a bomb. The entire gym is destroyed,” he said.
Ryan’s voice shouted through the phone.
“Was he evacuated yet?” Annie asked. Milo held up a finger; he was almost done.
“Yeah. Perkins was burnt by the incinerator steam. He’s on his way to the hospital.” Milo explained into the phone. On the other end, Ryan’s voice continued to drip with a fury Annie had never heard before.
Roscoe, the first of the lab employees to return, burst in the morgue. A pale stare fell to his face when he saw the destruction through the window.
“What the hell?” Roscoe asked.
Annie explained the pin, the explosion.
“Damn.” He walked to the window and glanced out at the space that once was the gym. “Someone’s out there,” he said.
“That’s Jimmy Chamsky. Damn, they were supposed to evacuate,” Annie said as she dialed his number. “Jimmy, get the hell out of there! What the hell are you doing?” she shouted into the phone.
“I’m preparing to deal with the explosion,” he replied. She could hear him packing items into a box, or moving them around.
She watched in horror as the
mist grew thicker, rolling toward the ceiling and toward the maintenance office.
“Look outside the wall and get the hell out!” she bellowed.
“What’s the…” The mist wafted through the hole in the wall. “I see it now. Thanks.” Jimmy hung up. Annie hoped he was leaving the building with the others.
Roscoe ran for the changing rooms. The sirens continued to blare through the building, screeching in their ears. When Roscoe returned, he held four sets of gas masks and protective clothing. “Who’s going in?”
“I’m going to direct traffic,” Milo shouted over the deafening siren. “Annie, you come with me. We need to call an emergency meeting. Spencer, Gibbs, help Roscoe secure the maintenance room and keep that mist out. If you feel queasy, sick, or odd, get out.”
Before the door between the rooms were reopened, Annie followed Milo from the morgue and headed back upstairs.
Chapter 35
While the sirens blasted a repetitive, annoying cadence that shook the walls and reverberated through the Hall, Wizard Hall employees evacuated the breeched government building. The elevators were stuffed with people. The lines for them were so long, employees began to panic and push. Others descended the stairs, becoming trapped in the clogged stairwells. The hallways between the cubicles were filled with people heading toward the only safe exit in the wing.
“Have the security team direct them at the elevators and stairwells. There’s a jam of people!” Milo shouted.
The wailing siren drowned out the panicked voices. The horde began to push against itself.
Milo tripped his way up the stairs from the basement. “Outta the way!” he barked, pushing people from his path until he positioned himself at the troublesome junction.
Emerson Donaldson, Wizard Guard researcher, was doing her best to lead the crowd out safely. “Everyone will get out. Just move this way. One at a time. Stop pushing.” She directed an employee from human resources toward the door. “That way, Hilda. Follow this crowd.”
Wizard War Page 32