Mage Hunters Box Set

by Andrew C Piazza

  “No, you’re not,” Shifty said, stepping in front of Cass to face down the warden. “Listen up, Peck. I need to interrogate this prisoner to find out exactly what this death mage can do and what she’s planning. This little lady here can get into Fly’s head and find out the answers. So back off.”

  Warden Peck bristled and his face turned red. He looked around at us, and then at the prison guards who had moved in behind him to back him up.

  That seemed to boost his confidence a bit. “This is my prison. My prison.”

  Shifty looked at the guards standing behind Peck. “Fine. Your prison. So if you want to flex your asshole, I’ll take my Wreck Squad with my firepower and my prisoners and we’ll go hole up somewhere else and the rest of you… well, you can try to hold off what’s coming all by your lonesome. Good luck with that.”

  This was awful. Getting to the hub was supposed to be like getting to home base; it was supposed to be the safe spot. It was supposed to be where the nightmare would end for me and I could finally go home to my cats and a giant, giant bubble bath. Instead, it was filled with a bunch of angry people with guns yelling at each other and arguing over who was in charge.

  I was tired, really tired… whatever I did to everyone when I shouted “Stop” had really taken it out of me, I guess… but I took a little look into Warden Peck’s mind and saw that he was seriously considering taking a stand against Shifty. It was all ego in there, in the warden’s head; how dare they, this is my prison, I can’t show weakness, blah blah testosterone, that sort of thing.

  I had to push him. I had to. It was going to be yet another infraction I would have to explain to my oversight, but oh, well. Add it to the list of my many transgressions for the day, I guess.

  We have to work together, I pushed into the warden’s thoughts. To make the push a little more palatable and fit in more easily with the rest of his indignation, I added, I may not like it, but for the greater good, I have to work with them.

  Like I said, I felt really tired, so I wasn’t sure it would work, but finally, Peck said, “Very well. We have to work together. I may not like the situation and I certainly don’t like you, but I have a duty to my prison and my people here. So we need to work together.”

  I blew out a slow breath and plopped to a seat right there on the floor. This day couldn’t be over soon enough. I needed my bed. I needed to sleep for about a year.

  This day was long from over, though.

  ***

  Shifty made a sour face as he clicked a set of handcuffs over one of Dread’s wrists, cuffing the other end to the metal leg of a nearby desk. “I hate to do this to you, big dog. You know I hate it.”

  “Forget it,” Dread said. “It isn’t you. It’s the situation. I know it.”

  “I’m going to put all of you in this corner over here. It’s as out of the way as any place in the hub. I don’t want the guards or the warden to give you any static.”

  “Sit Cass down next to me, okay? I haven’t had much time to talk with her since…”

  “You got it. You got it.”

  Shifty had just secured Cass to the same desk as Dread when the warden approached. He had two prison guards at his side and his face was stern.

  “Get mage restraints on these two,” Warden Peck said, indicating Lysette and Jolly.

  “Oh, Warden, we don’t really need to go there with me, now, do we?” Jolly said, holding up his hands with a little smile. “That would be unfriendly.”

  The warden paused. “Jolly is fine. We may need his skills. The civilian, too. She needs to interrogate Fly, so her hands stay free. For now.”

  “What was that all about?” Mickey asked Jolly in a whisper.

  “Oh, Warden Peck and I have a little history that he doesn’t want me to share with the crowd,” Jolly whispered back, sitting down in a nearby chair and pulling another one close for Mickey to sit on. “A little something about him creeping on his old lady and picking up some STDs that I cleared out for him on the low-low.”

  “That figures,” Mickey said with a little snort, dropping heavily into the chair Jolly offered to her. “God, I’m really tired. Why am I so tired? It’s like I can barely think straight.”

  “You ever pull this many Tricks this close together before?”

  “I…” Mickey thought about that for a second. “No, not really. Not this intense of stuff.”

  “There you go. Pulling Tricks depletes your neurotransmitters.”

  “Right, almost like taking a difficult math exam. I remember now. They taught us that back in school.”

  Jolly handed her a couple of tablets and a can of soda from one of the pockets in his vest. “Try these.”

  Mickey frowned. “Drugs?”

  “Vitamins. B complex, some other stuff that helps pump up your neurotransmitters. I can boost you a little bit with a Trick I know, too, but I’m starting to get a little worn down myself.”

  “Is that why you always have snacks around? For your energy levels, so you can do more Tricks, heal more people?”

  Jolly shrugged. “No. I just like snacks. Don’t you?”

  Shifty stepped over to them to interrupt. “Mickey. I need you.”

  She nodded. “With Fly?”

  “You got it. We’re going to interrogate him right here, in our little corner, so that Cass and Dread can hear everything.”

  “Against my advice,” Warden Peck cut in.

  “Well, you may not realize how valuable their expertise is, but I do,” Shifty said. “Besides, it can’t hurt anything, can it?”

  The warden crossed his arms over his chest as an answer.

  “Right. Okay, let’s do this,” Mickey said, getting up out of her chair and rubbing her hands together.

  “How is this going to go?” Shifty asked. “We ask a question, and you look in his head for an answer?”

  “Mmm, not the best way,” Mickey said. “That would be really labor intensive and slow. I think a direct connection would work better.”

  “A direct connection?” Cass asked.

  “Yeah. I put my hands on his head and sort of plug in, you know?” Mickey said, then shook her head. “No, of course you don’t. I essentially am going to channel his thoughts through me. So you ask the question, and I’ll actually be the one doing the talking, but he’ll be the one who’s answering your question. Through me. But he can’t hide anything or lie, because I’m in charge. Got it?”

  Blank looks were her only answer.

  “Just… you’ll see. Sit him down here.”

  Fly struggled against his mage restraints as Shifty and Ryan man-handled him into a chair. “You better take your motherfucking hands off me, son! You better not let this little witch touch me with those grubby motherfuuuuuuuu….”

  Fly’s voice trailed off as soon as Mickey touched the sides of his head with her hands. His eyes went wide and then rolled back into his head as his body relaxed.

  “That’s better. Ask away, motherfucker,” Mickey said.

  Shifty frowned and looked at Cass. “Is that… is it working? Do you think it’s working?”

  “Yeah, it’s working, motherfucker!” Mickey said, her eyes closed. “Don’t it look like it’s working, you dumb-ass, extra simple mother…”

  “Hang on,” she said, taking her hands off Fly’s head and shaking them like she was trying to shake some water off of them. “I’m going to see if I can tone down his language a little bit. This guy talks like a Quentin Tarantino movie. I’m worried he’s going to make me drop an N-bomb or something.”

  “The… hell… you doin’… to me… bisssssh?” Fly slurred drunkenly in the chair.

  Mickey placed her hands back on Fly’s head, closed her eyes, and again, Fly’s eyes rolled back into his head. After a moment, she nodded.

  “Yeah. Yeah, that’s better,” she said. “I got this muffin lover under control right now.”

  “Muffin lover?” Cass said.

  “Better than the alternative,” Dread said. “Ten years i
n the Corps, and I never heard anybody use the word ‘motherfucker’ as much as this guy.”

  “So what do you want to know?” Mickey demanded. Her tone was aggressive and although her eyes were closed, her expression looked like she wanted to punch somebody in the face.

  “I guess this is her channeling Fly’s mind,” Cass said. “All right. Let’s try this out. You’ve been working with Kel, right, Fly?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been working with Kel. Of course I’ve been working with Kel. You already know that. Why are you wasting my time…”

  Mickey’s face scrunched up and her voice seemed to go back to normal momentarily. “No, Fly… nicer. Let’s try nicer.”

  The Mentalist’s face relaxed and her voice returned to Fly’s verbal cadence. “Okay, fine. Yes. Yes. I have been working with Kel. You are correct.”

  “What is she after? Why is she here?”

  “To help us escape, of course.”

  “Help ‘us’ escape? All of the prisoners? Why? Does she know you?”

  “Naw, she doesn’t know me. She came to me with an offer. Said she would teach me what she knows, make me a heavy hitter, a full-on death mage, you know? All I had to do, was get things set up for her, and I could help her break us all out of this silly prison.”

  “Silly?” Cass said.

  “I think it was going to be ‘shitty’,” Dread said. “Remember, Mickey is tuning down his language.”

  Cass shook her head. “Whatever. Why would she offer you all this, Fly?”

  “How the fudge should I know? Some crazy powerful death magic baby shows up, offers to make me more powerful than I’ve ever been, I’m not trying to foul it all up by asking too many foolish questions.”

  “Girl, I hate talking like this. What are you doing to me?” Mickey continued, then she cocked her head to the side and said in her own voice, “Stop… struggling, Fly. Go ahead, Cass.”

  “Kel wants to take control of the prison and let the prisoners loose? How? How will she get past the shield enclosing the prison?”

  “Well, obviously, she’s coming for the sphere,” Mickey answered.

  “The… the what? The sphere? What sphere?”

  “The sphere. You know, the sphere that powers the shield? You silly bunnies don’t even know what I’m talking about, do you?”

  “The sphere,” Warden Peck said, pointing to the concrete pedestal in the center of the room. “The device that creates the shield surrounding the prison.”

  Cass thought about that for a second. “So how does Kel know about the sphere?”

  “Uh, maybe because she’s the one who built it,” Mickey said. “The outer shield that stops anyone from getting out is powered by a charm made with death magic.”

  “What?” Cass said, straightening up until her handcuffs pulled taut and stopped her. “What the hell… Peck?”

  “That’s not true,” Warden Peck said, shaking a finger at Mickey. “That is not true. The sphere absolutely does not operate from death magic.”

  Mickey snorted out a derisive laugh. “Oh, really, dumb bunny? Is that so? So you tell me… how does Kel know all about it? And how come it’s powered up so much you muffin lovers can’t get out of here yourselves?”

  “What are you talking about?” Peck said, sneering at Mickey. “That’s… he’s making stuff up now.”

  “Try it. Go on, try to get out of the front gate. I’ll wait,” Mickey said.

  Shifty looked at Ryan and gave him a nod. The rookie ran out of the hub and headed down the hallway toward the front gate.

  “He might be telling the truth,” Dread said. “Earlier, when Mickey and I were out in the yard, we saw a mage try to fly over the walls. He hit the shield like it was concrete. You could see the impact. The shield became visible; it glowed red around where he hit.”

  “And later, when we were all together in the yard, in that big crowd,” Cass said. “We saw the impacts of the rain on the shield. It didn’t get through.”

  “No, no, no,” Warden Peck said. “It doesn’t work like that. The shield only dispels magic. You try to fly out, you don’t actually hit anything, your spell cuts out and you fall back into the yard. We tested this, many times. It’s not a physical barrier.”

  “It wasn’t a physical barrier,” Cass said. “It sounds like it is now.”

  “I’m telling you, it’s not possible…”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Ryan said once he returned, breathing heavily from his run. “I tried to toss a pistol mag out of the front gate and it bounced off this force field that glowed red around where it hit.”

  “See?” Mickey said. “I told you dumb bunnies. You can’t get out. Kel’s not going to let you. And none of your funny friends running around outside can get in. Not no more. She’s gonna wipe you all out and make you her puppets. And I’m gonna watch the whole thing.”

  Shifty clicked on his radio. “Central? Central? Central, this is Team One Actual. I say again, this is Wreck Squad One Actual. Anyone?”

  He shook his head. “EM traffic isn’t even getting out. God damn it! There’s a hundred cops surrounding this prison. They set up a perimeter right before we came in.”

  “They may as well be on Mars, now.” Dread said. “We’re on our own.”

  “This is not… this is not possible,” Warden Peck said, clenching and unclenching his hands. “The device… this isn’t….”

  “How did Kel do this? Make the shield stronger?” Cass asked.

  “All part of the plan,” Mickey shrugged. “I told you; she’s the one who built the fancy thing. Built it while she was in Korea. So she made it work whatever way she needed it to work. The more killing she does, the more power goes into the device.”

  Cass looked at the warden. His face was ashen.

  “The device… he’s right, it is from Korea originally, I know that much,” he said, adding quickly once he caught the angry stares from the others, “Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t build this place. The corporation outsourced the creation of the device to a company based in Korea.”

  “The charm that forms the most important defense in this prison, and you outsource its creation to a foreign company, sight unseen?” Cass said.

  “Do you have any idea how expensive it was to build this prison?” the warden said. “This place was falling apart when Trubuilt bought it. They had to rebuild entire sections of the prison. Hiring the mages to ward even just some of the cell blocks cost so much money…”

  “That you didn’t bother to ward the guard towers,” Dread said. “Son of a bitch. Those guards’ deaths are on your hands.”

  “I told you, I didn’t build the place. When Trubuilt asked for bids on the outer shield, the costs from local contractors was insanely prohibitive.”

  “Let me guess,” Cass said. “Trubuilt suddenly got a sweetheart bid from a company in Korea. And they jumped on it even though they didn’t know the contractor.”

  “It was a legitimate company.”

  “I don’t know about legitimate. Kel was working for them,” Mickey said. “She didn’t tell me much, but I know she arranged for the low ball offer to Trubuilt. Some mutual contact of hers let her know about it, and she jumped on it. She needed a way to get that device into the country, into this prison, and once she saw her opportunity, she took it.”

  “That… that doesn’t…”

  “God, Peck, don’t you see?” Cass said. “Kel used the whole deal as a way to smuggle this thing into the country. And she’s been on a killing spree in this prison, increasing the power of the device more and more with every death, until now it’s out of your control.”

  “She’s gonna come get it,” Mickey said. “Oh yeah. You muffin lovers better believe that. Our plan was to charge that thing up so that nobody else could get in, and that way, we would be able to take over the prison completely. No outside intervention once it was obvious how bad the situation was going to get. Then, Kel takes over the hub, gets the sphere back, and makes the shield go aw
ay. After that, we all get free to live a new life on the outside. Resurrection Day, baby.”

  “Jesus,” Peck said in a whisper, shoulders drooping. “Jesus.”

  “I don’t buy it,” Cass said.

  Dread looked at her. “What are you thinking, Cass?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t buy it. It doesn’t add up. What does Kel care about this second rate lowlife?”

  Mickey stiffened. “Hey, you watch who you’re calling second rate, you frilly…”

  “Shut up, Fly. Seriously. Kel goes to all this trouble to smuggle this device in, put herself at risk by infiltrating the prison to teach Fly here how to do death magic…”

  “Yeah, how’d she do that, anyway?” Dread asked.

  Mickey shrugged. “I told you; Kel built the device. She could build it to do anything she needed it to do… including communicate with someone on the inside, who could help her out. Someone like me.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Cass said. “The point is, why? What’s she after? From what Lysette said earlier, this is someone who’s been travelling the world, working for whoever is going to help her push her agenda forward.”

  “What agenda?” Dread asked.

  “Power, probably,” Cass said. “She’s basically just another street mage. Off the radar, no access to officially sanctioned books or training. So she wanders around, looking for anyplace she can learn or train or practice death magic or anything else anybody will teach her.”

  “Staying in the shadows,” Dread said. “Building herself up wherever and whenever she can.”

  “Right. Don’t let the flash and dazzle fool you. She’s still just a person. But she doesn’t want to be just a person. Remember what she said to us, Lys? When we first saw her?”

  “I am your master,” Lysette said. “I remember.”

  “That’s how she sees herself. Above us all. We’re just her subjects, right? Her pawns. Her… her material.”

  “See, Peck?” Shifty said. “This is why we want to include Cass in on this. Inmate or not, she’s a goddamn genius when it comes to dealing with these bastards.”

  “Death magic… what we know of it, anyway… is about using dead people as material to create an army of thralls,” Cass continued. “And from the sound of it, that’s what she’s been doing her entire life: using people as material to meet her needs.”