by Char Cam
“All right, how do you want me to help?”
“What goes on behind the level one hundred door?” Sterner asked intently.
“One hundred fifty,” she corrected. “Well, we all dress up in a bunch of funny clothes and role-play,” Ophelia said, shrugging and incidentally tucking her hair back behind her elf ear. “Its pretty intense and we don’t talk about the outside world--ever. There are designated areas where we can, but everyone is so involved in their roles we really don’t want to go to one and talk about real stuff. We’re having so much fun pretending to be our characters.”
Agent Sterner unlatched his briefcase and pulled out a folder. He set several 8 x 10 color photographs on the table. “Do you recognize any of these people?”
“Pfffft. Yeah, I recognize her,” Ophelia nudged a photo. "She’s currently playing my B.F.F. during my vacation. I’m sharing my prize with her.”
“She’s been missing for over a year. Her aunt reported her missing July of last year when she fell off the face of the earth. No calls, emails, letters, or communication of any kind. Is this a commune run program? Are you undergoing conditioning of any kind? You said you can’t talk about the outside world.”
“What? No! We don’t talk about the real world cause it ruins the atmosphere of really being an elf, or a dwarf or whatever we picked to be. So here I am in this magnificent elf dress with these ears and a crown on my head and people obeying my every command and I turn to Mable and say, “Wait till my friends at the Dime and Dollar store get a load of this!” and she says back, “I’d kill for a Mickie shake right now.” and boy that just kills the whole mood thing. How do you stay in character like that? That’s all the rule is for. So we don’t ruin it for everyone in the play area. We leave the ‘real world’ at the door.
“Look, maybe these missing people just don’t want to come outside. Heck, I’ve only been in a day and already I don’t wanna come out. There’s everything you need right there. There’s food, jobs, places to live, plus the added excitement of villains, heroes, and everything in between. It’s even got aliens,” she smirked. “Liaylaha, as I know her, when we talked in a designated area, said there’s nothing out here she wanted so she took a job inside. She just didn’t want to leave since she liked the place so much. And I agree with her. I’m gonna hate when my vacation is up. I may find my own job and bring my son here to live.”
Sterner looked frustrated. “Okay. Then get her to come out. Let us see she’s fine and let her aunt talk with her.”
“You know, maybe it’s me, but she sure looks like an adult. You said a child was involved,” Ophelia said crossly.
Sterner ignored her jibe. He set Liaylaha’s picture aside. “That’s one, but work with us to find these other missing people.” He withdrew a stack of files from his briefcase.
“Me. An untrained civilian,” Ophelia asked with heavy skepticism.
“Desperate measures, Ms. Ransom,” Crofton stated firmly. “We have no justification for getting a warrant. We need an inside informant and you’re the best opportunity we have.”
“Uh huh,” Ophelia replied guardedly. “Well if I see any of these other people, I’ll let them know you’re looking for them. Best I can do. I truly think that if they’re in there, they just don’t wanna be out here.”
“Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Ransom. The F. B. I. appreciates your service,” Crofton said, rising.
Sterner rose also. With a pointed look at the files on the table, he placed a cell phone in front of her. “We’ll be in touch.”
“Yeeeeeeeah. Okay. See ya around...if I decide to come out,” she joked.
“You’ll come out, Mrs. Ransom. You have an anchor 'out here’. Your son.”
Ophelia scowled. “Really need to work on your people skills.”
Sterner smirked, then followed his partner outside.
When the agents were out of sight, Jenkins motioned for her to follow him so he could watch the men walk away. “Something isn’t right. Right now, my cousin is inside the park. He won a golden ticket and he’s a detective. Why didn’t they approach him?”
“Do I look like a day old loaf of bread? Yeah, they’re screwy all right. Prolly bugged my purse. Crofton brushed against it when he sat down.”
“Then we’re agreed. I don’t know how they organize things in there, but you might want to locate my cousin Callahan. He’s a good guy. You talk to him and he will help. He’s got some pull with the captain, too. He can check out those files and see if they’re legit. And I have a feeling I’m gonna need to duck and cover. I might have an ‘accident’ if you know what I mean. They’re that fishy.”
Ophelia nodded solemnly. “How do I know who Callahan is? You have a name, race, class? Something to identify him?”
“Sure. He’s a Deathgiver most likely,” Jenkins snorted. “Prolly goes by Cryson--”
Ophelia couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing. “Officer Jenkins, your cousin may be one of the ones who doesn’t come out. He’s fallen hard for a doe-eyed brunette bombshell and she’s playin’ hard to get.”
“Pretty?” Jenkins grinned.
“Drop dead gorgeous!” she laughed. “And not a mean bone in her body, so of course we all adore her. But Cryson’s proposed to her a dozen times and she’s not taking him seriously.”
Jenkin’s went wide-eyed. “Just in game proposing right?”
“Nope. It’s forever.”
“Oh. My. Gosh. It’s the Callahan curse.”
“The what?”
Jenkin’s sighed. “The men in my family are cursed…or blessed depending on your point of view. We go along in life happy as you please. Then BAM! The one and only knocks us for a loop and that’s the woman we lose our heart’s to.”
“Oh. My.”
“So the curse has struck my cousin,” Jenkins said scratching his head.
Ophelia laughed. “Looks like. Well, I’ve got to get going. I said I’d be gone an hour or so and it’s way past that.”
“Watch yourself, Mrs. Ransom. Trust Callahan.” Jenkins walked to his table, grabbed his cap, set it just so on his head, gave her a nod, and left the shop.
Ophelia bit her lip. She couldn’t believe this whole set up wasn’t a coincidence. For years they’d lived under alias’s...then within weeks of taking back their true names the F. B. I. comes sniffing around? Uh uh. Nope. No way. The Ransoms were mixed into this somehow. This whole put up job tonight could have been just an identity verification. Well, she’d touched each badge, so they had her prints. Still, they had already known who she was.
Then she had an epiphany; they didn’t want her, they wanted her son! They thought she’d lead them to him. She laughed bitterly. Frell it all! They were never going to be free of the Ransoms. Well if they took him and held him against his will, she was declaring War and she would wage such a war the world would be in wonder of it. She wasn’t an ignorant seventeen year old frightened girl anymore. She. Would. Destroy. Them. What they didn’t understand was that she was willing to give up everything, leave it all behind, for her son.
No matter the cost to herself.
Sean was always saying she’d watched the terminator series one too many times, but Sean didn’t understand fully that Sara Conner had the right of it. Ophelia smiled grimly. She could handle weapons and fight hand to hand just as well as the movie character. The Ransoms would not keep her son!
Sean, at twelve, had the legal right to choose which adult he wanted to live with. So if they took him, he’d have the law on his side if he said he was being kept against his will…if he could find someone on the police force the Ransoms didn’t own. HA! What she and Sean had planned for was that if he did want to stay and get to know the Ransoms, there was a code word he was to say in the voice mail of a certain burner phone. Then, when he was ready to leave, if ever, another code was called in and they would meet at a prearranged location. Sean knew where stashes of cash, credit cards, clothes, and other travel necessities were hidden. On
e was very near his grandparents house just in case.
If they did get him and held him against his will...well, Sean had the same training she did. He was to just play along with the Ransoms until he could escape. She’d told him many times not to be threatened by anything they said about what they’d do to her if he didn’t stay. Hopefully the stubborn child believed her and wouldn’t protect her by believing the Ransoms could touch her. The only way they could was through her son--and that would never be allowed.
If Sean didn’t want to stay and couldn’t get away, she’d go in and bring him out in the best Arnold Schwarzenegger fashion she could devise.
Ophelia felt more settled. She wasn’t in the mood for a walk anymore. She simply disposed of her garbage, picked up the files, and headed back to the theme park. Once there, she found a janitor and bummed a trash bag from him and put the files inside it. Then she hid the bag in the lobby janitor’s closet; stuffed in the back cupboard above the sink. She worried momentarily about Officer Jenkins. She could only hope he was safe enough from the Ransoms.
She returned to her room, pulled an elfin outfit out of her closet, dressed, and left to return to her 'real' world.
“Got uh lead.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Uh person uh interest iz supposed ta be havin’ uh secret meetin‘, midnight tonight.”
“Hmmmmm. That could be promising.”
“Yeah. Ah wuz thinkin’, since we don’ have a invitation an all, maybe we cood crash it.”
“My friend? You have a certain style.” A pause. “And we’re of like minds.”
“Great! Jus’ one question though.”
“What’s that?”
“Who’s bringin’ the snacks? I vote fer popcorn.”
“Alas my friend, popcorn is too noisy. You’ll have to settle for butterscotch gumdrops.”
A heavy sigh. “Okay.”
TWELVE
Midnight. A rather warm midnight. Det. Mark Callahan, a. k. a. Cryson, had been on stakeouts so cold his gonads had screamed and raced all the way back inside up to his chest. This weather was so much more comfortable. A balmy seventy. He took a deep breath. Let it out.
Waiting. When you were a cop, you did a lot of that. Hurry up to get to roll call on time. Wait a half hour for the LT to show up--eating a breakfast you had to skip to be on time to wait for him to finish his egg and cheese croissant he went through the crowded drive-thru to get. Moral of the story?: If you can’t take a joke, don’t join the force.
He’d done a lot of waiting in his youth too. He hadn’t always been within the law. There had been a lot of waiting for a mark to be set up. A lot of waiting for marks to leave or get somewhere. He’d been a thief. No one had taught him. He’d figured all the angles himself. Callahan guessed that made him a self-made thief--but a thief was a thief. However, he’d been a thief with principles. Callahan smirked. He’d gone to private dicks and sold his services. Want some info? No problem, got it riiiiight here. It was good money. He’d supported his family. Cleaned up his neighborhood too. Callahan figured he’d got the dirt on a lot of the wheelers and dealers that made his place so dangerous. Anonymous tips saved time on getting warrants and alerting the ’perps’ their number was about to be called.
Most of the time, Callahan didn’t mind the waiting. It was a chance to conserve energy. Recap reports and notes. Just relax. It was all about being ready for that one percent of terror the ninety nine percent boredom before it should have prepared you for. Only you were never quite ready for that terror, but hopefully training and nerve would kick in and get you through it.
His afternoon had been very interesting. Against all reason, those riffraff coming for the hunter pets showed up despite the mega crowd on the front lawn. Lenny had led them into the silo sweet as a sugary lemon tart. He’d found the prisoners had a very interesting things to say once he’d explained their new status of either working for him or going to jail. He threw in a pay check and they were willing to deal. Most of them. There were a couple he was going to capture on the sly and put away.
He remembered how he’d walked into the lions den. Alone. That was enough to unnerve most of them. A good way to start. He picked on Lenny to give the rest a clue.
“So. Lenny. You’re in charge of this operation?” Cryson asked conversationally.
“Yeah. Sort of. Um...not really, no.” Lenny shifted nervously.
Cryson had smirked. “Man. I’ve been around too long. ‘Cause I actually understood that. You’re in immediate charge, but you’ve got a boss over you that constantly overrides you. But the boss over that boss is really the one in charge of you, so that’s the one who’s really in charge around here. He the one I need to contact to get the animal fights stopped?”
“No! No, Haro doesn’t even like the fights. Haro’s been after a way to shut Milly down without, you know, having her find out Haro shut her down. Technically, Milly’s not part of the Thieves Guild and she’s paying Haro to borrow us. Was paying.”
“Thieves Guild huh. So you and the rest of this crew belong to the Guild?”
“Yeah. We’re on loan, like I said. Milly done killed or ran off all her people guarding some woman and her kid. It was all hush-hush and anyone knowing ‘bout that got dead. Haro was gettin’ evidence. Everyone wanted Milly out. She’s bad for business. And she was pushing against Guild territory.”
“So...you think maybe this Haro might feel like owing me a favor for helping rid the city of Milly?” Cryson asked nonchalantly. “And for not turning you guys in?”
“Wha...not turning us in? Are you a crooked Deathgiver then?” Lenny asked, disappointment clouding his eyes.
“Nope, not at all. You see, I rather fancy starting my own guild,” Cryson said as the idea took shape. “My guild will be a spy guild.”
Lenny grunted. “There‘s dozens of spy guilds,” Lenny informed him like he was a poor ignorant child. “The Shard has the best. Aint nothing you can find out that he don’t know already.”
Cryson knew ‘The Shard’ was like saying ‘The Crown’ in the ’real’ world. The Shard represented the Imperator of the royal family, but it was also an object of great power. He hadn’t quite figured out what it was, but awe and trembling generally went along with its mention. The game always shrouded it in mystery. The game he was playing now could cost the whole world of Igen if he lost. Cryson barked a laugh. “I‘ve got people that can get where no one has gotten before,” he said with a knowing grin. “I‘m willing to prove that.” Lenny’s eyes widened. Cryson thumped him on the back. “When I do, I want the espionage part of the guild ceded to me. Partners. ‘Cause right now your boss is missing the fact that we have HoSafe here. Right now. In this city. And I want access to the Imperator. Your guild leader’s got a ready supply of people I can recruit from, and I have the training to make the business not only profitable, but I‘ll pinpoint where the bastards are hiding.”
“Um....”
“Here’s what’s going to happen. The hunting arena is now closed. I’m gonna let you all go as a show of good faith. You are going to your boss with my idea. Your boss will agree to a meet. Just so you know, I can find you anywhere, so don’t be thinking of running off. Carry my offer to your boss. To prove my worth, I’m gonna tell your boss where the guild HQ is. That’s a big secret, isn’t it?” Lenny gulped and nodded. “Now, if your boss thinks to kill or dismiss you to prevent me from finding HQ, tell him all negotiations are off. If you end up dead, I will personally apprehend the Chief and good health isn’t necessary for a trial. There won’t be a trial.” He’d paused grimly. “And I already know where the HQ is.”
Cryson leaned in close to Lenny and gave him a very earnest look. “Think I can do as I promise?”
Lenny looked back and he saw something in Cryson’s eyes that had him holding his breath with mind-numbing fright. He nodded.
Cryson straightened. “Off you go then gentlemen. I want word by ten tonight about where and when t
he meet is. Otherwise, I’ll start cutting in on the Guild territory. And I’ll take it over.”
The midnight hour had come and gone, and still he waited. Not alone, however. Moving shadows and the barest whisper of clothing alerted his heightened senses that others lurked somewhere in the darkness.
Abruptly a pool of light appeared in the middle of the empty grotto. A hooded man stepped out of the inky night into it. “All right. You’re here. We don’t know where. You’ve made your point. We can’t find ya.”
Suddenly in the darkness, furious cursing and the sound of scuffling broke the quiet like a surprise party shout. The cursing was distinctly female and she was getting closer. Actually, her carrier was getting closer.
She was being carried forward into the light. By two very familiar gentlemen.
“Ya mad milk beast! When ah ge’ lose, yer gonna wish yer sire didn’ share his light in yer creation! Ahll twis’ yer head twice around’ an watch yer eyeballs pop ow so fas’ thay’ll be flung across two counties!”
“Well now, thas real encouraging’ for me ta le’ ya go then, isn’ it? Ahll jus’ se’ ya down an le’ ya have yer way wi’ me,” the shorter of the two men said silkily.
The one being restrained was Cryson’s target; a dwarf female by the name of Zeharote. Haro for short. Leader of the Thieves Guild in the capital city of Azdromadarim, Izanpuf.
The larger of the two men shook his head, then stared into the darkness. “We just want information,” he called loudly. “Everyone tells us this woman might have what we want to know. However, getting an appointment didn’t seem to be in her schedule, so we’re making our own appointment. I don’t know who you’re meeting tonight, but it’s canceled. We’re going to have a little talk with your boss, then we’ll let her go.”
Cryson sighed. Silently he strode forward. “I’m afraid I can’t let you take her,” he said into the tension fraught gathering.
“Cryson? That you?”
“Hello Alvaro, Bliztarf.”