by W H Lock
Quinn strolled around the table to take a seat by Rube. "Nice work, Karen. Alright. If we're going to go over the wall, what are some ideas?"
"Can we just jump it," Freddy asked.
Karen said, "No. He's got the basic suite of detection wards. Anything not already authorized to be there will get picked up right away."
"What if we get him out of the compound and keep his attention, then does it matter about the detection? Eno and Freddy disable the Ghouls." He looked at Freddy and asked, "you can command Ghouls, right?"
"Ghouls?" Freddy shrugged. "It depends on how batshit crazy they are."
Quinn said, "Let's assume they're full on bat crazy then what?"
"At night, probably, for a little bit. Maybe. Daytime, no way. The closer they are to having been human, the better shot I have."
The two mages nodded. Karen pulled out a notebook and wrote a few things down.
"You could cover us with an invisibility field," Oscar said. He leaned in over the map and traced a route down the mountainside and to the wall. "From there we go over the wall and then enter the compound. We'll have to figure out what he's got going on inside for protection." Oscar looked at Karen.
She shrugged and said, "Warmouth's ward doctrine has always been shoddy. Which means, if he really went there, he'll have a very strong outer front defense. The inner sections will be lightly warded. Probably things to keep his pets away from the living quarters. That matches up with what I've seen so far from observation. The more modern approach, of course, is to have a softer outer layer that gets progressively more aggressive the deeper you...," she stopped when she realized everyone except for Rube had gotten bored with her impromptu presentation. "But, basically, there's no way to know until we get someone inside."
Quinn leaned forward and said, "What about his human security? We could ride one of them with a few different spells."
Oscar nodded and said, "Freddy snares us one. We ride him with a few different enchantments. We'll have a clear look at whatever he's got going on in there. Heck, we get a stupid enough one, we can marionette him and grab the skull. We're done!"
"Sounds easy enough. Anyone know where he's getting his human security from?" Oscar looked around at the table. No one had any answers.
"I can find out," Eno said. "We could also get one of us hired on. I spend a week casing the place from the inside, and we walk out with the skull."
"That sounds even better," Quinn said.
"I'm going to be honest," Karen said. "He's got to have something against marionetting. That's older than old. He's paranoid. He's running all sorts of stuff up there. He's going to spot a marionette."
"We need someone on the inside. Someone who's clean but still in on what we're doing," Quinn said. "How the hell do we get someone in there without tipping him off? Whoever it is has got to be invited in."
"Right," Karen said. "If we're let in, it's not going to trip any of the wards or alarms he's got set up."
"Great," Quinn said. "Sounds like a plan to me. We find the firm he hires through, we convince a few guards to quite, and we'll get Eno on board. Scope the place out. Sounds like about three months, maybe four."
"Bullshit!" Oscar pounded the table in anger. "That's bullshit! I'm not going to be sitting on my ass for three months and hope that Eno gets hired by this son of a bitch. Is Bankroll going to be happy with us twiddling our thumbs for that long?"
"What the hell do you want to do, Oscar?" Quinn shouted back at his friend. "We can't kick the fucking door down. You heard what Karen said, he's been holed up there since the Thirties! We can't just scale the roof and drop in through the skylight like you did in Atlanta, Oscar. What the fuck do you want me to do?"
There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence.
"I got a question," Rube said in the silence.
"Sure," Quinn said as he turned away from Oscar.
"This guy is pretty much a normal fella, right? Like, I mean, sure he's got walking dead all over the place, but other than being a necromancer he ain't nothing but ordinary, right?"
"Yeah," Oscar said. "Karen, Eno, Freddy? He's human, right?" Oscar turned to the other three.
The three shrugged and nodded. He was mostly human.
"Well, if he's human then why don't we just back up his shitter."
"Oh God," Karen said, holding her hand up to cover her mouth. She made a few retching sounds and then pulled out her flask to take a few hard pulls.
"What?" Quinn stared at the younger man and cocked his head to the side.
"I got a cousin back in Tupelo, and he's a plumber, right? Anyway, most people wouldn't have much to do with him on account he smells like shit most days. Except when their toilet gets all backed up. All of a sudden, they're calling him up and walking him through the house like he's royalty or something."
"Okay," Oscar said. "But how does your cousin figure into this?"
"Well, not my cousin, so much, but what he does. We back yon fellers sewer up. He calls the plumber."
"And we show up," Quinn finished for him excitedly. "Once inside, we get a solid look at where the Skull is kept, scope out what's going on ward wise, and presto! We're back in business!" Quinn jumped up from his seat and spun around.
"How do we intercept the cell call? Anyone got anything on that?" Oscar asked the group.
"You said it yourself, that place has no cell signal at all, Eno, you cased the place out. You ever see anyone using a cell?"
Eno thought about it for a bit and blew his nose experimentally. Then he said, "Come to think of it, no. And my cell didn't work out there either."
"Okay! Freddy! I'm going to need two trucks. A phone company truck and a plumbers truck. And equipment for both. Also, phone company duds for me and plumbing outfit for Rube."
"Why am I the plumber?" Rube looked around the group confused.
"Because he'll see any one of us coming the moment we step across the gate. You're a regular human. You can go through without him noticing," Karen said. "Well, he'll know you're there but won't be suspicious. Not a lot of plumbers are also magicians."
"Alright! Alright! Alright," Quinn said as he did a quick little moonwalk back that ended with a clap and a twirl. "Oscar, Karen, Eno, I need you to put something together that Rube can wear and will either broadcast what he sees while he's in there or records it. You know what? Just record it. That way we can watch it a bunch of times. Whew! Yeah!"
"What are you going to be doing? A two-minute waltz?" Oscar asked.
"Nope! I'm going to figure out how we can back up his shitter and tap his phone line without him noticing," Quinn.
Karen shuddered in disgust.
Chapter Fifteen
It was, Quinn decided, the stupidest idea he had ever come up with. Not a problem, he had said. I'll just climb up a pole and intercept the phone call, he said. Just a little bit of the old magic and I'll have this in the bag he said.
But Freddy hadn't been able to get one of the trucks with the bucket that could be raised up to the pole. He'd been able to secure one of the phone company's vans. The only equipment Freddy could get was the sort you strap to your feet and climb up a pole with. Quinn had never used climbing spikes, so it had taken him twenty minutes to put them on properly. And the way that they dug into his ankles, Quinn suspected that he still hadn't figured that part out. The online videos he'd watched about climbing up phone poles had made the whole process look easy. It wasn't.
It hadn't looked that high when he'd started, but once Quinn made it to the top where the telephone and power lines ran, he looked back down. He swayed in the harness, looking down at the ground as it seemed to wobble back and forth. Quinn closed his eyes and shook his head to try and clear the vertigo from his head.
Quinn took a deep breath and cleared his mind. The Circle he was going to summon was always a tricky one. He tensed his legs, to hold his lower body still. Quinn meticulously moved his hands through the required movements, whispered the words that focused his m
ind, and his will to summon a Circle of Rhyngosod. It was a circle that he had used from time to time with varying levels of success. Quinn moved slowly and precisely. A poorly formed circle could cause all sorts of problems, if it worked at all.
The first outer ring formed, coalescing out of the air. The aquamarine light was pulled into existence by Quinn's will, forming where his fingers danced through the air. The filigreed lines spiraled off, hooking the circle into this world. The required runes etched themselves, white lines writing along the aquamarine of the first circle. The second and third circles formed at the same time. Lines crissed and crossed the inner circles, drawing connections between the runes that etched themselves along these new smaller inner circles. He added a Rune of Cysylltiad to complete the enchantment.
Once the Circle was fully formed, Quinn pushed it away from him. The Circle floated away from its creator until it came to a stop with the utility lines directly in the center. The circled increased its brightness, Quinn felt the corresponding pull of magic from deep inside his body. He was exhausted from climbing up the pole. With the costs of the circle, he wasn't sure that he would make it down. He gulped and looked down at the ground.
Karen was staring at him.
"Why didn't you levitate up there?"
"Because I'm disguised as a telephone worker in case anyone drives by," Quinn said. "It would look really odd to see a line worker just levitating in mid-air."
"Would it be odder than a telephone worker that casts," she gestured at the circle Quinn had summoned and continued, "Whatever that is."
Quinn looked back and said, "That's a Circle of Rhyngosod with a Rune of Cyswlltiad. Not too bad, if I say so myself." Quinn looked back at his circle with satisfaction. He looked back at Karen with a huge grin and a nod.
"Great, you're a phone worker that casts a pretty good Circle of Rhyngosod. Whatever that is. And that's less weird than a phone repair guy who's levitating?"
"Look, if I could levitate up here I would, okay? I don't have anything for levitation. Now, can you get me down fast or do I have to fall on you?"
Karen laughed and very quickly summoned up a platform for Quinn to stand on. The burning orange lines formed in the air at Karen's direction. Triangles drew themselves into existence, each one pointing in a different direction to form a sort of star. Straight lines bisected the many-pointed star. Quinn removed his foot from one of the climbing spikes and gently placed it in the center where the lines crossed each other.
"No, no no no!" Karen suddenly shouted in a sudden panic.
Quinn jumped back, lost his footing and got tangled up in the rope.
Karen laughed, a deep snorting laugh that came through her nose. She covered her face and doubled over with laughter. "It's fine. I was just messing with you."
"Hah hah. Hah," Quinn said. He started the process of getting himself out of the ropes.
"I was just playing around, Quinn. You can step anywhere in the pattern."
Quinn sneered at Karen, which only made her laugh harder. He gently stepped out on to the pattern, which held his weight easily. He quickly disconnected the equipment from around his body and pulled it free of the pole. He nodded at her. She took control of the pattern again with a sweeping gesture and gently lowered Quinn to the ground.
As he stepped off the pattern, he asked, "Where's Oscar? He was supposed to be with you."
Karen shrugged. "After we got the spells into place, he took off. He said he had something to do."
Quinn paused and looked back at Karen. "Did--did he say what?"
She shrugged and shook her head.
Quinn looked at the ground and then back at Karen. After a bit, he said, "Well, Oscar is a big boy. I’m sure it’s fine."
Karen nodded and dismissed the floating pattern with a sharp clap and sweeping gesture with her hands. The orange lines burned out of existence.
"How did it go?"
"All done," Karen said. "We used Apearesco's Abjuration in combination with Racino's Recursive Revitalization."
"You know, when you say it like that it sounds like really evil math," Quinn said as moved to the shade. Quinn had set up a small pavilion over an equally small folding table.
"Well, it kind of is," Karen said. She pulled out her flask, unscrewed the top and took a long hard swallow. "Of all the things I've done, causing someone's house to flood with feces has got to be the most reprehensible."
"Didn't you run an entire retirement community out of their community project money on a golf course scam?" Quinn asked as they opened up two folding chairs.
"Yes, and you should let that sink in about what we're doing now," Karen said, shuddering again. "But it should take about an hour or so to back up through the drains and toilets. Which means we've probably got around twenty minutes before they'll see anything."
Quinn nodded. In the center of the table was an old style rotary telephone. There were no cables or cords other than the original curly cord that connected the large handset to the bulky base. He took a deep breath and cleared his mind again.
With a series of focusing gestures and words, Quinn drew forth a Circle of Rhagamcaniad. It was a companion to the interloping circle that he had placed on the phone lines. This circle was much easier to summon. Quinn added a Rune of Cyswlltiad to this new circle to complete the enchantment. With the binding rune, the two circles were connected to each other. The circle settled around the vintage rotary phone. The aquamarine lights of the lines of magic underlit the old phone.
"What is this going to do and where did you learn how to do that?" Karen sat down in one of the empty chairs at the table.
"I learned it from my mother, and it's going to allow me to intercept whatever communication is going through the phone line."
"Your mother taught you how to tap phone lines with whatever this is?" Karen nodded at the circle.
"Oh, no, she didn't use them for phones. She used them for mirrors, moonlit lakes, and stuff like that."
"Your mother listened in on magical mirrors?"
Quinn leaned back in the other chair. The strain of calling the enchantments was evident on his face. "What? I'm a sorcerer. I know all sorts of crazy unconventional stuff. I didn't go to fancy magic school like you and Oscar. I don't know enough to know what isn't possible." Quinn flashed a smile and a nonchalant shrug.
The phone on the table rang. Quinn leaned forward and squinted at the circle. He tugged at the rings, moving it around to look at different parts of it. He nodded and picked up the handset.
"Jake's plumbing. Jake speaking."
He nodded. Made some agreeing noises. "Not a problem. I have a guy in the area now just finishing a project now. He can be there in twenty minutes." Quinn picked up his cell phone and sent Rube a message. "Yes, sir, we do operate with a great deal of speed and greatest attention to det--."
Quinn stopped when the line disconnected. He put the handset back in the cradle. He didn't dismiss the arcane circles of magic that he had created.
"This is going really well," Karen said. She pulled out her flask and took another drink. "What are you going to do with your share?"
Quinn leaned back and crossed his fingers over his chest. "I hadn't really thought about it. You?"
"There are a few tracks I want to hit in France and Spain. I hear the action in Spain is almost a different world than anywhere else," Karen said.
"What's bookmaking like over in France? I've never done anything with it."
"It's hard to run anything like a Wire scam because the government switched to only granting licenses to internet sites. There were some nice pickings back when they first made the switch, you could run a site that looked authentic, but you didn't pay out. But now?" Karen shrugged. "You have to have a dot PMU dot FR site, and you can only get that with government approval."
"What's the underground scene like there?"
"For horses?"
"Yeah," Quinn said as he leaned in over the circle again.
"Almost nothing. Eve
rything is governed by traditions there. In France they keep the horse training super secret and away from where you can see the horses," Karen said, taking another drink from her flask.
"Really?"
"Yeah," she said and nodded.
"Sounds ripe for a pig in a poke kind of thing," Quinn said, getting a far-off look in his eye.
"I thought so too. Maybe a down on her luck minor noble? Which means she needs to sell the horse to just the right guy with money?"
"I like where this is going," Quinn said. "We'll have to cook something up once this is done."
Quinn released the small circle around the phone and stepped out from under the pavilion. He waved his hands at the much larger circle that was still surrounding the utility line.
"Let's get this packed up and back to Freddy."
"Why?" Karen looked around at the van and equipment with amazement at Quinn's suggestion.
"Because I don't want the guy he borrowed this form to get in trouble. Can't go back to the well if you poison it, Karen."
"I guess," she said with a shrug. She took one last drink from her flask.
Chapter Sixteen
Quinn tossed the keys of the utility van to Freddy when he walked into the warehouse and then made a little spin move with a shuffling dance step. Freddy immediately joined in. The sorcerer and the vampire two stepped it in time together across the room. Karen followed the pair, shaking her head.
"What took you two so long?" Freddy asked as he danced along with Quinn.
"We were talking about getting something going in France after this is done," Quinn said. "Something with horses."
"Sounds good to me," Freddy said. "I've always wanted to go to France."
Quinn nodded and shot Freddy some finger guns.
Karen pulled a laptop out of a bag that was sitting on the table. She opened it and waited impatiently while the computer booted.
"Have you heard from Oscar," Quinn asked Freddy.
"I am here," Oscar said as he walked in.