Swing Shift: Book 2

by William D. Arand

  “Can’t… see it,” he said finally. “I’m sorry.”

  Frowning, Gus let his control over himself slip.

  Instantly, he became the Boogieman. It was easier to do since he’d nearly died. Since his weeks of lying in bed with a touchy-feely Nymph he couldn’t do anything with.

  Reaching up with a single claw tip, Gus pulled down on the portal.

  It immediately ripped open and continued to do so as he pulled on it.

  Till it was finally a size anyone could walk through to the other side.

  “There,” Gus said, his voice sounding like a growl in his ears.

  Faintly, he could scent fear from Janelle for a second, but then it faded entirely.

  From both Sam and Jes though, he could smell fear.

  Taste it.

  It was distinctly different from anything he’d ever encountered before. Turning to look at the man next to him, Gus took in a sniff.

  Sulfur and… flowers?

  And the woman is more like roses and… I can’t identify it. Almost like oil.

  Staring at Gus, Sam looked slightly unnerved, but he smiled nonetheless.

  “Remember a long time ago when I told you I didn’t want a Boogieman for a foe?” Sam asked, looking toward Jes. “This is why.”

  “I… yes. I see now,” said the woman.

  “Though… this portal… I know it,” the man said with a sigh.

  “Is it her?” asked Jes.

  “No.” Sam shook his head. “But it’s another taught by her. Much like the last one. Though that seems odd. From everything Melody said, this organization you’re after… doesn’t seem like a plot she’d get herself into.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Jes said, shaking her head. “Not after everything we’ve seen and gone through.”

  “I’m sorry, who?” Gus asked, slightly annoyed.

  “Ahem, ah… someone who doesn’t need to be named or even become a concern for you. I promise you, they’re completely uninvolved, except for perhaps teaching whoever made this portal.” Sam indicated the glittering oval of magic. “I can certainly put together something that might help you track down this portal maker. Though I can’t guarantee it won’t lead you around for months in the chase.”

  A hunt? Mm. I could do with a hunt right about now.

  “That’ll be fine,” Gus said. “I don’t mind hunting.”

  Sam nodded and then grabbed the portal on each end with one hand. Then he brought them together with a soft pat.

  There was a grinding noise as he flexed his hands together. Then a crack, like someone breaking a pencil in half.

  “And there we are,” Sam said. Holding out his left hand to Gus, he opened it.

  Inside his palm was a small glowing stone. It was a strange blue color.

  “Merely hold on to it and, provided you’re at a location they’ve been, it will lead you ever onward toward them. Will only work if the spell or ‘scent’ as it were was there within the last day or two,” Sam said. “Obviously that means you’ll need to find a fresh trail, and then you’re off to the races, as they say.”

  Grunting at that, Gus took the stone from the man.

  For whatever reason Gus had a strange desire to eat the stone. To put it in his mouth and swallow as if it were nothing more than a pair of pain killers.

  He couldn’t explain it, but he wanted to devour it. It was an almost overwhelming compulsion.

  To eat it, right then and there.

  Then suddenly he did just that, popping it into his mouth and swallowing it down with a grimace.

  “I…” Sam said, clearly at a loss.

  “I don’t know why, so don’t ask,” Gus said, flexing his hand. “I wanted to eat it. Really badly. It was… almost like a demand from someone else.”

  Looking down at himself, Gus couldn’t feel anything different. Everything felt normal.

  Nothing out of the ordinary.

  Though he definitely could feel that there was magic working. It was constantly seeking out more of itself.

  “I see,” Sam said, his confusion clearing up. “I guess that’s not terribly surprising. I don’t envy you for when you have to get that stone to pass later, though, once it’s removed of all its magic.

  “The hunter spell should fade once you find your target in person.”

  “Uh… why isn’t it surprising, Sam?” Melody asked. “Because I’m pretty surprised.”

  “Because he isn’t just a normal Boogieman,” Sam said, staring at Gus. “I mean, I know he’s a telepath as well as a Boogieman, but… that’s not all.

  “In fact, I think I met your mother once. You remember her, Jes?”

  “She was beautiful,” said the woman.

  “What about my mother?” Gus said with a hint of annoyance.

  “What’s your family lineage?” Sam said, not answering the question.

  “Dunno. Mom never knew her parents,” Gus said with a shrug.

  “A long time ago there was a particular family of Boogiemen that were… different,” Sam said. “I don’t want to say any more till I know more, but it isn’t a bad thing. Just different. Like saying a Husky is different than a Malamute.”

  Gus growled. He wanted to hit this man.

  “Okay, okay! They were sanctioned and blessed. By churches and deities alike. They were used to hunt down rogue Angelics,” Sam said. “Far as I know, the line died out, but it was said they often devoured planar magic.”

  “And?” Gus asked, his patience very thin.

  “Planar magic is just another way to say Angelic magic. Angelic beings are just… planar beings that use planar magic. That’s simplifying a lot of complex things considerably,” Sam said. “And that spell you just ate was planar magic.”

  “Whatever,” Gus said, then shook his head, pushing himself back into his human guise. “Anyways. Job to do. Nothing more you can tell us?”

  “Not about this portal,” Sam said. “Other than to tell you whoever the planar magician was, they were about average strength. Slightly stronger than your Elven sorceress over there.”

  Gus didn’t say anything to that, turning to Melody instead.

  “Okay,” Melody said, getting the hint. “Let’s have dinner and get ready for that boat arrival.”

  Chapter 22 - Bagged

  Watching from a nearby building, Gus was rather impressed with Captain Hershey’s handling of the order he’d been given.

  Not only had the base commander taken the order and run with it, he’d executed a plan that ran to the best of his ability to carry out that order.

  Taking an egotistical officer’s approach, the base commander had deemed that the Merribund would be subjected to a captain’s inspection of its crew and ship.

  It would be his very first such inspection, so it was being given all the proper pomp and circumstance. There was also an expectation for all the crew to be present and accounted for at this little ceremony.

  Gus had no idea if it was a real thing, if Captain Hershey was pulling fluff from his ass, or if it was all just frippery.

  “I like him,” Melody said. “He’s trying very hard to do everything we asked him.”

  “He is. I honestly thought we were going to get about as much pull as a cat convincing a dog to hand over a bone,” Vanessa said. “Maybe less than that, actually.”

  “Normally I’d agree,” Janelle offered. They were all watching through a window to see what would happen. “Army doesn’t much care for the Fed poking around in our business. I imagine the other branches are the same or worse.

  “That was before I got promoted several grades and shoved into the Fed as a liaison.”

  “I was going to bring that up,” Trish murmured. “It would seem either the Fed has more power than we ever imagined, or things are that much worse.”

  The Dryad leaned in closer to Gus, till her hip pushed into his.

  “Probably the latter,” Gus said. “I’m really starting to think maybe the Curator had the right idea. Get out of
town, lie real low, let it all blow over.”

  “Why don’t we?” Melody asked. “Did we ever really talk about it? I mean… just on what we’ve already earned and have in the bank, we could live quite comfortably for a long while.”

  That doesn’t even take into account all the blood money I get every month.

  “Probably my fault,” Gus said. “I’m sure I’m the reason we’re not leaving. And that probably goes back to the fact that Mark wouldn’t leave.

  “I can’t leave him here alone. I can’t.”

  “And we’re not asking you to,” Trish said as a hand laid against the middle of his back. “I think we’re all well aware of how you two feel about one another.”

  “Closer than brothers,” Vanessa said. “And speaking of that… my mom wants me to come over for dinner.”

  “Guessing that’s an invitation for the rest of us as well,” Melody said.

  “I wouldn’t go without you all… but… my mom’s not going to like it,” Vanessa said. “Not at all. Bad enough when I just had a girlfriend.”

  “Then have her come over for dinner at our house,” Trish said, turning to look at Vanessa. “She just loves you, Ness. Invite your family over for dinner, show her the house, and ease her concerns. I’m sure you and I together can whip up something magical for everyone.”

  “That’s actually a great idea,” Melody said. “Then we can invite Gus’s family over.”

  “I’m afraid I have no family to invite over,” Trish said, her voice catching. “That’s… something we should talk about later, I think.”

  That’s right. You’re not normal.

  I’m very curious about you and your family.

  “I only have one person I could invite over. My father,” Melody said. “But I think… maybe… no, it’s time to talk about that, too. When we talk about Trish’s family, I’ll talk about my father. Mom died a long time ago.”

  Outside there was a scuffle.

  People were suddenly moving in every direction, and it looked like there was actually a fight going on.

  Then there were several gunshots.

  “Holy shit,” Janelle said. Everyone except Trish, who Gus practically had to yank to the ground, immediately hit the floor.

  Gus and Janelle were the first to lift up their heads and take a quick peek through the windows.

  There was no more gunfire, but the mad scrum of people and bodies was still ongoing.

  “Seems like someone really didn’t want to go without a fight,” Gus said. “I mean… would they even have a sidearm?”

  “No,” Janelle said. “Navy doesn’t carry unless you’re an officer or a muppet. Even then… it’s typically reserved for an area where conflict could occur.”

  “A muppet?” Trish asked.

  “Military police,” Gus said, watching what was going on.

  Slowly, the mad pit fight was clearing up.

  Trish lifted her head and peeked out the window next to Gus.

  When everyone finally stepped away, three people were at the center.

  Two were down on the ground, unmoving. The third wasn’t far away on their knees.

  Several people went off running in different directions while others shouted for something Gus couldn’t make out.

  “Looks like…” Gus paused, trying to figure out what he was looking at. “Looks like the one closest to us shot the other two, then himself.”

  “That’s my read as well,” Melody said. “Which means we might have one to talk to.”

  The one on their knees slumped forward and hit the ground, slowly sprawling out.

  “Make that none,” Vanessa said with a sigh. “This is just too much. Maybe we should kidnap my family, Gus’s family, and Mark. Throw them all in a truck and leave.”

  “Going to bet that boat has a lot of stuff on it they really don’t want us to see, though,” Melody said. “So that’s kinda exciting. I can’t wait to peel it apart. Can’t wait.”

  Looking over at the Contractor—who was more like his wife, now that he really thought about it—he found her Orange contract glowing rather brightly.

  Of course, she’s excited. Something to solve.

  A big something to solve. This case only seems to get bigger and bigger.

  But… that Humanity First thing still doesn’t make sense to me.

  The only answer I keep coming up with is whoever was posing as the coven wanted the HF movement to see it. To know of it.

  Then to act on it and kill Dunyasha.

  But Dunyasha was acting more like a normal mortal and wanted to bring the coven away from the more illegal activities and stick to white-collar stuff.

  So that doesn’t make sense at all.

  Shaking his head, Gus looked back out at the pier. People were working on all three downed suspects, trying to get them stabilized or their bodies working again.

  Gus didn’t really think that’d happen.

  ***

  Staring into the massive wooden crate, Gus found nothing but large transparent bags. The size of sandbags.

  He wasn’t a rocket scientist, the world’s greatest detective, or a basement chemist, but he was willing to bet a considerable amount that this was what they were looking for.

  Drugs, drugs, and more drugs.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” Janelle said, peering down into the crate next to Gus. “Is this a lot? A little?”

  “It’s more than I’ve ever seen in my entire life, added up,” Melody murmured, looking in from the other side. “Here, maybe this’ll put it in perspective.

  “All of this requires not just chemical agents, but a medium. Blood of a Were or something like that for Vamp drugs, something similar from a Vamp for Were drugs. Or either for anyone else, really. All of this required a living being in one way or another. I’m going to bet they’re not exactly letting people ‘heal up’ between uses. Blood is the best medium, and the body has a lot of it.”

  In other words… a whole lot of people probably died to make this.

  “On top of that,” Melody continued. “This is all a very new market. It isn’t something that can be produced everywhere. This is… this is a lot of money. In this crate alone.”

  Melody walked away from the crate and went to one side. She had a hand on her chin and seemed to be deep in thought. Her Orange contract was burning away as she stood there.

  Janelle gave Gus a smile and then left, walking over to the next crate. With her were several sailors with crowbars.

  Joining Melody, Gus stuck his hands together behind his back.

  “Out of curiosity, what would you put the value of that crate at?” Gus asked.

  “That crate? Twenty million, easily,” Melody said. “The problem is there are another ten crates I’m pretty sure are the same. Then another twenty crates I suspect could be the same, but I’m not sure.”

  “Speaking of that, how’d you figure out this was where we needed to be? I never asked,” Gus inquired.

  “Oh… a guess, really,” Melody said, turning to him with a smile. Slowly, her Indigo contract began to glow. “When I started really digging through all the records we had, I couldn’t find anything that would single out the crate they’d found. It was clean, no errors, no issues. Nothing that would indicate it was wrong at all.”

  Gus nodded.

  “Okay, I mean… that’d make sense. If you didn’t want it flagged, you’d need to make sure it had no reason to be inspected,” he said.

  “Well, that became my criteria,” Melody said with a shrug. “They were so meticulous in their attempts to make sure it’d get through, and that’s what I began to look for.

  “Once I set that as my limiter, I started working through everything to see if I could identify what could be a possible shipment.”

  Smirking, Gus found he understood exactly what she was talking about.

  If he was in charge of pushing crates through, he wouldn’t care if one was perfect. He’d push it through and think nothing of it. I
n fact, the more perfect, the better.

  The less work he’d have to do.

  They weren’t being inspected for authenticity, just problems. The scope of the search didn’t match the problem being looked for.

  “Except every time I felt like I’d found something, I’d find the cargo didn’t exist. Gone. Vanished,” Melody said. “As if it never existed and never would. Just… poof.”

  “I suppose that’s a confirmation in and of itself,” Gus said with a snort.

  “I mean, yes? But also, no. Needed confirmation,” Melody said. “So… I searched for any cargo like what I’d found that was out at sea when this all went down. And here we are.”

  “Mm. Well thought out, a logical answer, and brilliant in a quirky sort of way,” Gus said, smiling at Melody. “Sounds like you to the millionth decimal point.”

  Sticking her tongue out to one side, Melody smiled back at him.

  “I love you,” she said, and her Indigo flashed brightly.

  “Love you, too,” Gus said. “So… let me guess… based on this, and what you’ve been finding with the missing cargo… this drug route is toast.”

  “I’d believe so, yes,” Melody said, putting her hands on her hips. Her humor vanished immediately. “Annoyingly so. Sure, we’ve probably stopped it, knocked it down and given it a good thrashing. But that doesn’t mean it’s over or gone.

  “No one would give up on making as much money as this was probably pulling in. I mean… come on, Gus. That’s a lot of money.”

  Gus sighed and looked at Janelle. She and her helpers were moving crate to crate. Each one with drugs was meant to be marked with a red piece of tape on the side. Of the seven crates they’d opened, seven were marked.

  “Hershey’s going to need to pull a damn platoon to guard this boat, with the amount of money on it,” Gus muttered.

  “Yeah, definitely going to be a problem,” Melody said. “Big one. Think Ness and Trish got a hold of Mark?”

  “Yeah,” Gus said. “Probably. The bigger question, though is whether this is the end of this little case. It’s not really…”

  He didn’t know how to put it, but it felt unfinished to him.

  “Yeah. It’s not finished. Even if the case gets closed because the end goal was met, it isn’t… done. Or over, even.” Melody shook her head. “I’m really starting to dislike this whole ‘case is the case’ thing. I want to be working on the larger problem here. Working on it and trying to fix it.