by S. M. Savoy
* * *
Captain Williams turned from the security screen as Charlie boarded a jet. “He had everything last year, now... I feel sorry for him.”
* * *
Charlie took a cab directly to the hospital where his mother winked at him. Relief made him lightheaded. He’d been sure it was a ruse, but what if it were based in truth? His father greeted him with a hug and a worried expression.
Rick called from their parent’s house. “Come home. Leave Mom there. She doesn’t need to know this.”
Charlie and his father arrived home. Rick paced the floor beside the entryway, his boots echoing against the hardwood. He grabbed Charlie’s shoulder when he entered and shook him lightly, then gave him a hug before pushing him away and resuming his short, sharp movements. “Let me start by saying I have proof they’re alive and relatively uninjured at the moment.”
Hope surged hard, tightening Charlie’s throat enough that he wouldn’t be able to speak even if he could have found the words. He nodded mutely for his brother to continue. The slight movement was slow and ungainly as if the rage he’d carried inside himself had condensed to tar, making all of his movements difficult.
Rick glanced at the file he’d placed on the small table beside the door. Charlie followed his glance and reached for the file, his eyes narrowing as Rick put his hand down on the folder and shook his head.
Charlie’s magic burst form him to swirl around his brother and he knew Rick was nervous and scared beneath a raging anger.
Rick licked his lips. “Lee is looking right now. We’ve narrowed the area down considerably. Major Nelson knew for at least one month. I don’t think he was involved in taking them, but... I’ve been wrong about him before. Stasia and Joy are following him around. Drew is tracking the man who contacted him. Tony and Sam are on the way there now. Toric and Gina are still looking for Sara’s father.”
“Hawk?”
“Is in Iraq.”
John inhaled sharply.
“Mike is joining him.”
John’s expression grew grimmer.
Rick hugged Charlie, surprising him. “I never wanted you to know what we found, but you need to be told to understand when I show you the proof that they’re alive. I don’t want you to ever see the pictures. You’ll take my word for this.”
Tears came to Rick’s eyes as he glanced at their father and he held his hands out helplessly. “I’m so sorry.” Rick took a deep breath and grabbed Charlie by the shoulders. “They cut up their brains when they removed their m-nerves,” he said quickly as if pulling off a bandage, hoping speed would lessen the hurt.
Charlie staggered unable to keep his balance in the suddenly spinning room.
“They don’t remember anything. Not who they are, or what happened— nothing. For two weeks they were vegetative. They’re regaining function with increasing speed but they don’t know who they were. At this point they can walk and talk again and believe whatever they’re told. The scars are healing. They’re regenerating.”
The room continued to whirl around Charlie. His father looked sick.
“Their brains?” Charlie said haltingly, the words felt foreign. He glanced at his father questioningly, wanting him to say he’d misunderstood, and John winced.
Rick put an arm around his shoulder and his magic surrounded them. “Charlie, they don’t remember it. It’s a blessing, believe me.” Tears leaked down Rick’s face as he glanced helplessly at John.
“Will they regain memory as they regenerate?” his father asked as he rubbed Charlie’s back.
“I sincerely hope not.” Rick stopped talking and shrugged. He opened his mouth, then closed it without speaking.
Like a child seeking reassurance Rick took his father’s hand in his. The three men stood in the hallway unmoving a moment. Rick released his father and brother and opened a flatscreen where he displayed the photo Stasia had copied.
Charlie leaned forward and made the screen bigger. One finger traced the red lines on her hand and face without touching the picture hanging in the air. Knowledge burned like acid on his soul. He’d wanted to know what had happened for so long, but the truth was unbearable. His beautiful Sara…
Rick flipped the picture, showing the writing for a moment before turning off the screen. “They don’t know, Charlie. No memory remains. Not of who they were, or magic, or us, but they do have each other.”
“Their brains,” Charlie said in a soft voice full of horror. Rick hugged him. A fine tremble shook Charlie’s entire body. Oz’s beautiful mind… Vomit burned the back of Charlie’s throat.
“Don’t think about it. Think about getting them back.”
Charlie pushed away from his brother and the table and stumbled away in a daze. Her terror, she’d known. He ran to the bathroom and was sick.
- 20 -
Project Blackout
John turned horror filled eyes on Rick.
Rick closed his eyes, pressing them with the heels of his hands. “Don’t ask me. I told him the truth, but not the full horror of what they did. He can never know. God help us if they ever remember.
John paled and cleared his throat. He started to speak and had to clear his throat again. “You’ll find them soon?”
“Oh yes, if I have to beat it out of Major Nelson one scream at a time, we’ll find them very soon.” He slid the file to his father. “Don’t open the sealed ones. Lock them somewhere he won’t find them. Go through the rest of them.”
John took the sealed pages by a corner as if they were poisonous and carried them from the room at arms-length. Minutes later he returned and started to go through the files with Rick.
Every few minutes Rick wiped his eyes. John took his hand. Rick turned to him and cried on his shoulder for a moment. “I’m sorry,” Rick said gruffly as he pulled away.
John squeezed his shoulder, and they returned to searching the files.
* * *
Charlie returned to the table and sat but couldn’t concentrate. Memory of her terror kept intruding.
He tapped the icon that connected him to Stasia. “Take him and force him to talk.”
“We can’t,” Rick said.
Charlie growled, so angry words deserted him.
“I’m not protecting him. We don’t know who he’s working with but he’s obviously in touch with the men who have them. We can’t afford to tip our hands. Stasia already called Amy and she’s working on a program that will show Nelson in the hotel, but she needs one day. We can give her one day.”
Charlie screamed in rage. He was thwarted at every turn, always too late and too trusting— but Rick was right.
“One day,” he bit out and called Hawk.
“Hawk, if you find the general’s involved, do nothing. I’m handling him.”
“Charles,” his father said, laying a hand on his.
“If they’re involved, if they did this after we trusted them, I’ll kill them all. They know it too. I’ve never hidden my nature from them. Her father, her stepmother, they hide what they really are. If the president is lying too, he deserves what he gets!” He stomped from the room and went to his target dummy in the basement and beat it until it was small pieces crushed into the cement of the wall.
* * *
That night the major disappeared.
Stasia ransacked his room in a towering fury. Her voice shook with rage when she called Captain Sanders. “Where is he?” she screamed.
“Who, Stasia? What’s happened?”
“Don’t play with me, Captain. Tell me right now where Major Nelson is!”
“I thought he was with you.”
“If you’re lying to me, you’ll be very, very sorry!”
Stasia called the general next and got the same response. Wild now, she called the president on his wristcomp. “Where is Major Nelson?”
“Stasia, Captain Sanders called and said you were looking for him and very angry. I don’t know where he is—”<
br />
“Fine! No one knows! I’m coming. I won’t be alone, and I won’t be friendly!” Panting hard she raced from the room to ransack the home of the man who’d given Nelson the pictures while Joy searched for Nelson himself. They’d known he had spell bracelets and she cursed herself for not stealing them when she’d had the chance. He could evade her for a very long time by spell stealing Invisible.
Brenda called Stasia.
“He hired a plane. Joy’s chasing.”
“Use deadly force. Don’t hesitate. He knows we’re onto him.”
The man’s home, who’d given Nelson the picture, was small and Stasia searched it in moments, linking pictures of all the documents to Brenda.
“I’m on my way. We’ll make him talk,” Brenda said grimly.
Stasia grabbed the man as he came in the door, hitting him hard and following him down to kneel on his chest. She waved a copy of the picture in his face.
“Where did you get this?” she snarled.
He babbled a spate of indecipherable words.
“I got it,” Brenda said. “I’m marking your HUD. Sam, cut the damned links already!” she said in an aside. Tie him but don’t kill him. If it doesn’t pan out, we can go back.”
Stasia tied the man to his own bed and raced out the door.
The address he’d given was a stinking hovel, squalid and filthy. Two men half passed out in the corner yelled something to Brenda and an armed man stepped onto the stairs. Stasia laughed as he reached for his gun and appeared behind him, slitting his throat in one clean move, and letting the body tumble down the stairs. She killed the next guard just as quickly and let herself into a locked room at the top of the stairs.
Brenda followed her in and began rifling the papers as Stasia grasped the man at the desk and shook him hard before hitting him once. Knock-Out Punch left him unconscious on the floor and she threw a glance at a naked woman in the bed in the adjoining room but she slept on.
“Anything?”
Brenda clamped her lips tight. Charlie had just sent a raid wide message asking the Scouts to gather and observe Project Blackout.
“Another address. Let’s go.” She grabbed Stasia’s hand and yanked her from the room. “Leave him. We don’t have time to move him, and they’ll just untie him. But maybe he’ll be dumb enough to stay here if we need to question him again.”
* * *
“More pictures,” Stasia said triumphantly and scanned them into the locate program as Brenda flipped through the files. She withdrew a folded letter and slapped it into Stasia’s hand.
“Head to Hawaii. Limited time remains to find them before they do that again.”
Stasia handed it back and wiped her hands on her pants. Brenda waved the letter in the air, her face grim. “This says, ‘No child yet. Keep trying for four months, then repeat procedure.’ We have less than two months remaining. If she has a baby, God knows what they’d do to it. Two months,” Brenda repeated angrily. Let’s do it in one. Lee is in serious danger. The major will have to kill her to stop her from finding him and them.”
Voice a repressed snarl, Stasia said, “We’re all in danger. Get Marcus, Todd, and Mike and tell them to come to Hawaii without the others knowing where they are.”
She scanned the pictures and entered them into the locate program.
Stasia called Lee. “Go to Hawaii. Call me, not Charlie, when you find them.”
Lee said, “You think the Scouts are involved?”
“I know our commander was. Until we have them back and are somewhere safe, it would be foolish to trust he wasn’t acting under orders. We’ve been trusting fools. Stupid ones at that. Not once did we consider it would be in the United States best interest to take them when it should’ve been obvious. This is a modified Project Erasure. And we fell for it.”
While she spoke, Stasia was texting and sending copies of everything to Rick.
Rick called the raid. “Get to California and we’ll meet there. Keep a low profile. The team is on the way.” Shoulders tight and scowling furiously, Rick turned to his father. “Major Nelson is in hiding.”
“Our jet is in Florida. I’ll get you the next flight out.” His father said as he called the airline.
“Not a flight. A plane. Rent us the fastest jet you can. I hate how slow we are!” Charlie said savagely.
Rick paced the room fuming while John made tea with a generous helping of whisky in each glass and handed it to his sons.
Charlie was so angry he felt sick. Without thinking he threw his glass of tea across the room. His father said nothing. He gave him a shot of whiskey without the tea.
“Sorry.” Charlie shook his head but his brain felt muddled from the clash of hope and anger. “Get the Rheal Lucky there and all of the magic she had stored.” Charlie knocked back the glass of whiskey without tasting it.
Rick called Liz. “Hang the cost and get the Rheal Lucky shipped to Hawaii in one day. We need the magic it contains. The boat can’t be taken apart. By land, by sea, by air, by rail, I don’t care— get it there!”
“I’ll do my best.”
She hesitated for a moment when she hung up, then called General Campbell.
“Major,” the general said angrily.
Liz winced. She’d been ignoring all phone calls not from Valor. “General, Charlie has ordered no contact. None of the raid will disobey him.”
“What’s going on?” the general sounded gruff and tired now.
“Major Nelson was involved with kidnapping—”
“What!” the general bellowed. “Sorry— carry on.”
“The proof is inconvertible. The depth of his duplicity unknown. Valor is panicked and taking the raid with them.”
“Jesus Christ, they think we ordered it?”
“I’m afraid so, sir.”
“But you don’t?”
“No, I believe this was Nelson’s idea. If the president wanted them stopped there were easier ways available. Give them time to calm down, and they’ll see that.”
“Meanwhile, how do we keep the president alive? Stasia informed him she’s coming for him.”
Liz winced again. “Stasia is busy now. Until they retrieve Oz and Sara, everyone will be busy. You have until then to convince Charlie that the president wasn’t involved.
“Right. And how do we do that?”
“Sorry, sir, I don’t know. This puts me in an untenable position. If I call and report movements, I’ll be perceived as a traitor. If I don’t, I’ll be a traitor.”
“No.” The general took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Call me if and when you can but stay with them and help smooth the situation. I’ll cut the orders. In fact, I’ll cut orders for all of them leaving them under your command. Do your best, Liz.”
Yes, sir. I will, sir.” Liz hung up and began making calls to get the Rheal Lucky moved.
* * *
Charlie gave up trying to sleep and paced for hours, circling his father’s dining room table while his Valory scanned the internet for information on Hawaii. His father had hired a jet, but it wouldn’t be ready for five more hours and he cursed his aura that wouldn’t let him travel on a regular plane.
Anger tightened his shoulder muscles when he considered he didn’t dare ask for the president’s help. A military jet could get him there in hours but putting himself in their hands was foolish when he wasn’t certain they weren’t behind her disappearance.
His magic pressed him to attack, and he hurriedly turned his attention to the search, flicking through the mountains of data his Valory had gathered.
Most of it was useless junk but he had his Valory compile the information into maps.
A hologram formed and gained detail as his Valory built a 3D map of the islands.
Charlie said, “Run every name in the Hawaiian tax registry through Locate program. Mark every building in red that could be associated with Liniar Corp, Sinder Business Conglomerate, Tro Industries or anyt
hing owned by Tomas Mitchel or any of his known associates.”
“Complying,” his Valory said as red began to speckle the map.
“Mark buildings in purple that are owned personally by Tro, Liniar, Sinder or Mitchel. Remove all buildings that can’t match photograph 1.”
His father and brother joined him as he was examining the map. Red and purple speckled it. He needed more information to weed out the false positives.
He tapped to connect to Stasia and got an away message. He was tempted to hit the emergency override but if she was screening calls from him, she was busy.
He left a message instead. “Check his room again and search for hidden. We need more pictures.”
Rick said, “She just sent me more.”
Rick gave Charlie the pictures Stasia had just sent. Charlie’s pulse pounded when he read the memo about repeating the procedure.
“Regeneration must be slow if they can wait two more months before they need to redo it.”
Charlie barely heard him. He traced the curve of Sara’s brow with a fingertip. “Thank god they have each other.”
His father looked dismayed. Rick relieved.
“I have a gun and money, take both.” John rose to get it.
“I won’t need a gun,” Charlie whispered. Unable to hold it back, he screamed his attack cry. Rick echoed him.
Rick’s magic twined around Charlie, then disappeared, leaving thin wisps of his magic. He’d never felt it so agitated. It was as confused as he was, and its conflicting desires dizzied him. Charlie sat at the table with his head in his hands, not knowing what to think or do.
His father returned with the money. “I can get more and put it in your account.”
“I have enough money.” Charlie jumped to his feet. “Let’s go wait at the airport until our damned jet is ready. Maybe we can steal one!”
