“The new particle and gauss weapons used by the armies of the Third Watch—?” The woman said with a shudder. “It makes anything made in the past hundred years look positively antiquated by today’s standards.”
“Recoilless weapons’ technology. High powered Ultra Wave guns and soliton feedback devices—all designed to atomize human flesh in a heartbeat.” Tillie said from memory. “Supposedly, the last word in human warfare of the last Great War.”
“Then you add the Gen Ones and the Mark Twelves into the mix—?” Sarah continued softly from her side of the table.
Tillie nodded mostly to herself.
“You’re just lucky you haven’t tangled with any of them. They are relentless. Not too mention…fucking persistent on top of that.” The teen said with a cold shudder of her own.
“But you survived, didn’t you?”
Tillie glanced at Sarah for a second. “Barely. An alleyway is not the best venue for a firefight of any length. Especially when it comes to dealing with those damned Gen Ones.”
“That’s true. But we trained you for that eventuality. This is Old New York after all. It’s famous for a lot of things lately.”
“Some of which has come back to bite us all in the ass,” the girl reminded the table at large.
Alicia couldn’t argue that point away so easily. They were living proof of it. Or living in denial because of current events.
However…no one said being a magical familiar would be easy on the twenty-third century. Or a witch for that matter.
“Yes, but we also have a responsibility as well. Duty as it were.”
Tillie picked up a cold slice of pizza from her plate and bit into it experimentally.
Yuck.
She put it back down and sighed. Then she chewed what she had in her mouth and swallowed. After which, a long drink from her soda glass.
Finally, a long-winded burp from somewhere down below and she started feeling a little bit better than she was moments earlier.
“Good luck carrying that out,” she motioned with a free hand while pounding on her chest to get rid of the lingering heartburn and suffocating feeling deep down along the way.
“Any one of us show our faces between now and in the next couple of days is only asking for a world of pain.”
“Tillamook, nobody here is suggesting we tackle the problem head on. That’s just foolhardy.” Sarah rebuffed her gently.
“That wasn’t my point. Right now, the three of us are safe because I happened to get lucky along the way. You two followed from the Witch’s Guild. My guess is that you used the emergency exit and subsequent tunnels to get to this part of the city by eventually homing in on my magical aura.”
Alicia nodded. “That part is true. We did. We couldn’t stay. It was too dangerous.”
Tillie nodded excitedly. “If I hadn’t did what I did, who’s to say what might have happened next? Because I can tell you right now, much of the city is currently occupied and under martial law. Felix said so himself.”
Sarah glanced at her friend for a moment. “All right. So how would you play this if we had to leave and go back?”
Tillie pulled out a wet map of the city that was given to her before she left the travel lodge with her mother by the male attendant as a way to welcome all new arrivals.
“The city’s northeast tunnel is currently unoccupied and not in use. It’s only sealed by a large metal door from what I remember of the schematics. We can get in that way and only pop up next to the Dayton Narrows Reservoir’s secondary drain plug. It’s this large pipe with a simple cover affixed to it. We pop it off and jump out and get into the back area neighborhood of Westmont. From there, Hampton’s Crest high rise apartments is just a stone’s throw away.”
“—but by how many patrols would we be talking here?” Sarah asked with a slight raise of her hand. “Three against a million isn’t such great odds.”
“If I had to guess, most of the Third Watch would be concentrated at the northern end of the island near Brooklyn—possibly at the army’s old staging area that used to house the former federal government’s one time surplus munitions depot. What I encountered last night was simply a bit of resistance, but it wasn’t the entire army.” Tillie said—pointing at one particular area of the map which she then marked with a bit of cooked ham.
“Good so far,” her mother approved. “That means…we won’t either.”
“Not if we play our cards right—borrowing from one of dad’s more popular sayings.” The girl giggled. “But it would mean that they won’t expect us either.”
“So how do we get in without being detected? Or noticed?”
“The Shroud incantation. It will buy us a couple minutes at most when we need it. But we’ll need to hurry.” Tillie said with a wave of her hand.
“Honey…only a High Witch knows that spell. How could you?”
The girl paused for a moment.
“Because…” she stonewalled deliberately.
Alicia frowned in disapproval. “You read my spell books—didn’t you? The ones that are forbidden and not for the eyes of someone so young? Or should I say…the most curious?”
Tillie’s face colored. “Sorry?” She apologized lamely.
“Now we know how she’s getting stronger.” Sarah Winters opined with a laugh. “It’s those damned spell books from that Merkovian spell trader.”
Alicia nodded openly to herself, while studying her daughter closely.
“Baby…how much did you learn from those books while I wasn’t looking?”
The girl held up two fingers.
Sarah whistled in surprise. “Well, at least we know she’s not going down the same dark path as Greta Freeman did.” She sighed with quiet astonishment on her behalf.
“But it’s still dangerous regardless.”
“That would explain the Enchanted Gatling Gun and the Storm of Blades incantation that I caught her experimenting with on the off chance. Nobody that foolish would draw the ire of the One Sage so brazenly as she apparently has done.” Alicia muttered with a suspicious look.
“I don’t suppose you pissed him off somehow to get your enchanted weapon—now did you?”
“No,” the girl said. “H’miny was very gracious about it. In fact…he was pleased as punch to have someone other than his former pupil use his knowledge for the betterment of good rather than ill—like Greta had done.”
Alicia actually blinked at that one.
“Come again…the One Sage said…what to you exactly?”
Tillie repeated what she was told to say—in case anyone had come asking.
Alicia listened with strong disbelief tinged with shock that someone so wise and ancient would take a shining to her little girl.
But she couldn’t escape the feeling that her one and only daughter had been doing other things behind her back when she wasn’t around to mind the store either.
“Was your father aware of your activities?” She bluntly asked—once Tillie had finished her cover story. And it was a damned good one too!
The girl nodded meekly. “Maybe a little. But seeing how things were going back in those days—especially with Greta Freeman sinking further into the abyss like she had been doing—?” She took another deep breath.
“—something had to be done.”
Taking that bit of ham that she placed on the map earlier, Tillie popped it into her mouth and began eating it—leaving her mother to figure out what to do next.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Safe Haven
Jake looked around the kitchen in a most perplexed manner since coming into the house.
“Hey, babe…?” He called out.
“Yes?” Kara responded breezily, taking a bite of one of the chocolate covered walnut bars that were included in the sampler box of chocolates.
“I thought we were going out tonight?”
Kara got off the love seat in the living room and joined him in the kitchen—taking a quick glance at what he was doing wi
th the sauce pan filled with angel hair pasta and another with fettuccini noodles. Both were simmering on medium heat with the right amount of sauce in each, slathered in a butter/parsley mix—and partially covered.
She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Changed my mind, lover boy. I thought at the least we could have a nice home cooked meal before we went out to see that Pulp Fiction remake that you enjoyed so much two months ago.”
“It’s not in theaters anymore. I think it’s going straight to Light Wave Streaming.”
“Then you’re in luck. I happened to renew my company subscription only last month. So we can at least enjoy a quiet evening together watching your favorite movies on the flat screen.”
“65”?” Jake inquired with a hopeful voice.
Kara looped a hand around the back of his exposed neck—causing him to jump a bit in response.
The woman giggled.
“If you’d like. Or you can watch the Platinum anniversary edition of The Little Mermaid on streaming.”
“The Disney version or one of the four live remakes?”
“It’s your choice. I’m partial to the Disney version myself.”
“Could we watch both?” Her boyfriend asked.
“Of course. I’ll even throw in my famous bowl of garlic parmesan popcorn.” She promised him then.
The A-6 Aroma steamer beeped a few times in response and the woman went over to the other counter to check on the steamed rice and vegetables that were to be a part of tonight’s dinner venue—along with the promise of scented candles and a nice selection of wine from the downstairs cellar.
The heavenly smells of steamed rice overpowered everything else and the woman laughed as she began to stir both in each dishwasher safe warmer.
“How’s it looking?” He wanted to know—keeping an eye on the cooking timer on the electric/gas range. He still had about a minute and a half left before the first pan of noodles was done.
Pan number two was two minutes at least.
“Looking good so far,” Kara told him—before snapping the cover shut and resetting the timer.
“You?”
“Five by five,” her boyfriend reported breezily. “And I think this time I outdid myself on this front.”
Kara came up from behind and embraced him and sighed.
“You always do,” she responded softly—before kissing the nape of his neck.
Jake squirmed a bit under her gentle assault and starting laughing uncontrollably when she began using her teeth on him. Then she bit down and added a bit of suction to the abused portion of his neck.
“Stop!” He cried out, almost dropping the wood spoon that he was using to keep the noodles from sticking and burning.
“Or else this won’t come out right!”
Kara didn’t care at this point. She was in a most forgiving and frisky mood right at this point.
“You can still cook,” she purred happily, licking and kissing his neck—before moving towards the side and passed his exposed jugular vein.
“I promise I’ll leave you alone after that, baby.”
Jake snorted derisively. “I highly doubt that.” He said. “Once you’re locked onto something—you’re very difficult to pull off.”
Kara smiled as she continued to kiss him gently along the side of his neck—then moved up to plant a couple butterfly kisses to the soft and pliable skin of his throat—beneath his jaw line—and then proceeded up to his face…
Now that she had his undivided attention.
Jake set the spoon down on the small serving plate as his persistent girlfriend tried everything she knew to keep him from doing much else.
“Kay…” he breathed once in quiet defeat—knowing what was coming next. “Let me cook.”
Kara shook her head playfully—just as the other timer went off.
“No.” She decided right then and there—even as her boyfriend tried to make a play for the button pad.
The woman stopped him right there with a light push on his chest and turned to do the honors for him. Then she turned back with total love in her eyes.
“Now where were we?”
“Dinner?” Jake ventured.
Kara ran a playful finger down the center of his chest—teasing and toying with him as she went before she went for the kill.
“You sure?” She eyed him speculatively. “This bad boy seems to think otherwise.”
“That’s because you got be turned on earlier with your little foreplay.” He flat out accused.
His girlfriend grinned. “I know.” She said with a predatory look. “Seeing you cook is such a turn on for me.”
Jake gazed at her for a second and smiled. “And here I thought it was my backrubs which did you in?”
Kara reached up to kiss him on the mouth. “That too,” she whispered solemnly in turn.
“You have such wonderful hands, baby.” Then she took his hand and placed on her partially exposed hip where her t-shirt rode up a bit.
“Hmm…right there.”
“You sure?” Jake asked.
Kara nodded, her eyes closed. Then she started to hum that strange lullaby which her boyfriend had only heard a few times in the past couple of years since they had been together and seeing each other.
In a language as ancient as time itself.
He caught a few familiar bars in return and mimicked the parts that he could remember and the two spent the next few minutes in a slow and coordinated dance which had them entwining their hands together in a non-specific way.
Jake smiled as he let his girlfriend lead them and then asked: “Should I turn the stove off?”
Kara paused ever so briefly in her routine and did the honors for him—before resuming—dancing for another three or four minutes more before she ended things with a light kiss to the bridge of his noise.
“Let’s eat,” she suggested then. “We still have a wonderful evening planned together and I don’t want to miss it for the world.”
“Fair enough.” Jake relented easily enough, breaking away from her and grabbing two serving plates from the stack sitting next to the toaster oven.
“So who goes first?” He asked then.
***
Travers Street.
Tillie held back after her mother led the way to the women’s mission in another section of Level Two which had taken the trio a couple of hours to traverse on foot—because the subway line ran in a completely different direction than either were expecting.
“Well, here we are, honey. Safe and sound.” Alicia announced as they came up to the mahogany oak doors with a bronze plaque stamped on the front of it.
“Hopefully a bit cleaner,” Sarah Winters observed with some quiet distaste. “By the looks of things, the buildings around here look a bit homely and run down. Way worse than the Broadway Plaza high rise I used to live at.”
“That’s because some of the regulars we spoke to on the way out of the pizza parlor said something about how the first two levels were cobbled together after the war ended and nobody thought to add some maintenance to it.”
Her friend sighed. “So what happens if this place were to flood? Or an earthquake? I mean, I‘m pretty sure we could all feel those vibrations under our feet during lunch.”
“That’s because that part of Level One was situated next to the subway terminal. Used to run underground from I remember. Times Square Station. I saw recreations of the actual place at a museum once. But the place had always been a miasma of convenience married with technology and quaint décor schemes.”
“Some of which were easily pocketable.” Tillie said with a small grin of her own, showing both her mom and her friend what she had stashed in her belt pouch.
It was an old trading card still in its protective sleeve.
“Where did you find that?” Alicia asked with surprise.
“I traded it for one of my flash caps.” The girl said with open excitement. “Can you believe it? An actual 2167 rookie card of Hall of Famer Richie D’S
avio!”
Sarah Winters looked at her friend in dismay. “Please tell me you’re not letting her watch baseball…?”
Alicia shrugged. “It was one of my late husband’s favorite vices. I saw no real harm in letting Tillie partake in a few games here and there.”
“You took her to an actual game?” the woman thundered in fear. “You know the rules set by the Witch’s Guild about interacting with humans!”
“She didn’t play, Sarah. She just watched from the other side of the diamond—where there weren’t too many people.”
“That’s still breaking the rules,” she continued to remind her stringently. “The High Sorcerer would have kittens right now if he heard about this.”
“But he’s not here,” Alicia was kind enough to point out. “And for that matters, those rules were written in antiquity—when distrust with humanity was at its highest.”
Sarah sighed miserably. “I suppose…it goes with the times.” She said as her friend grabbed the brass knocker and banged on it the door a couple of times.
A minute passed between them.
“Did you try and open the door first?” She interjected with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.
Alicia pointed to a sign that had been buried into the soft earth next to the standing fern pot.
It read: KNOCK FIRST FOR SERVICE. WAIT TIMES MAY VARY.
Sara read it to herself and then sighed.
“Oh, that’s just wonderful. We’ll be here for hours.”
Tillie shrugged. “I got time to burn—with me and Richie here.” She gushed shamelessly.
Sarah gave her friend a slightly questioning look.
“She, ah, has a small crush on him.” The woman patiently explained.
“But the guy is in his seventies…?” the woman pointed out delicately.
Alicia laughed.
“Doesn’t matter. My daughter has a one track mind when it comes to boys. Or guys as the case may be.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
Another minute passed between them.
“Maybe we came at a bad time?” Sarah echoed impatiently. “Maybe we should try knocking again?”
“Have patience,” Alicia schooled gently. “We’ll be in before you know it.”
Generation Witch Year One Page 11
