by Linda Jordan
“Find out what they want. Send someone there and infiltrate the business.”
“I can do that. I have just the person,” she said. She turned to Damon. “Jeffries. He’d be perfect.”
Damon raised an eyebrow.
“What?” she asked.
“He doesn’t know anything about anything other than art. He’d make a terrible spy,” Damon said.
“Exactly. No one will suspect him. But he will be able to get inside with his skill,” said Morrigu.
Damon cocked his head in acknowledgment.
“Good. We will send him and then begin to plan their downfall.”
Damon nodded.
“Go tell him to begin packing,” said Morrigu.
Damon bowed and left the room.
Evangeline felt a sense of relief. One less person to keep track of. One less body she might need to fight.
Roosevelt said, “So, do we have an agreement? We will stop selling gas and oil. You and I will combine our other ventures, alcohol, drugs, art and jewels into one business. And support each other. No secrets.”
Morrigu sat down in her chair again and stared at him.
“We will need to talk further about all this. I don’t understand your business at all and I’m guessing there’s things about my business you will need to learn.”
“I agree. Shall we take four mornings each week to learn about each other’s business?” he asked.
“I think that would be a good start.”
“Good, let us shake on it,” he said, standing and holding out his hand.
Morrigu stood and took his hand, shaking it.
“I do have a thorny problem I need help with,” said Roosevelt.
“What?”
“Last week a group of locals, at least that’s what they said they were, asked for a meeting to buy alcohol for this side. Then they came two days ago, sneaking in like thieves. My people thought they were. We’re not used to dealing with locals. All but one got away. We have him, he was wounded, so we gave him medical care. It turns out he has the sight. Not short-term sight, but long-range sight. He told me you and I would form a cartel that would cover the world.”
“So what is your problem?” she asked.
“I don’t want to let him go.”
“So don’t.”
Evangeline listened with interest. So that was Roosevelt’s strategy. To use the man as a tool to get Morrigu further invested in his business. A plea for help. To ask her for help, instead of accusing her of spying on him. It was still not clear to Evangeline if the man with the sight was a spy or not. Or if Roosevelt had caught someone else who was the actual spy. He hadn’t confided in her.
“They will keep coming for him.”
“Can you not convince him to work for you?” asked Morrigu.
“Not so far. He wants to go home. His wife or kids or something like that.”
“And he cannot live there and still work for you?”
“It’s not convenient.”
“But surely if his gift of sight is only long-range you would not need him very often. You could send for him,” said Morrigu.
“I don’t know. I don’t trust the locals. I don’t trust that he’d come back.”
“If you kill his friends when they come back for him, he certainly won’t return and help you.”
“What would you do?” asked Roosevelt.
“Well, I could be more helpful if I talked to him. Perhaps I can find some leverage that you can’t. Many of these locals have run in the Zoo, when they were younger. When our dead competitors had business here. When the two of us were at war.”
“That’s a good idea. Shall we go now?” Roosevelt asked.
“Damon will come with us. He recognizes everyone. And Santoni.”
“Of course,” said Roosevelt.
Evangeline took a deep breath. Oh good. A field trip with our enemy.
Morrigu said, “The three of us will take my car. Where should we meet you?”
“Warehouse 27,” said Roosevelt. “I’ll go and alert my guards that you’ll be following us.”
Roosevelt stood, bowed and moved towards the entrance. Evangeline followed, still wary.
They got their coats without incident and went back out into the rain.
Once inside the big black sedan, Roosevelt grinned and said, “That went well.”
Evangeline rolled her eyes at him.
“What? I got her to split the businesses, her lucrative ones and my not so lucrative ones. I got her to dump the gas and oil. And I’ve got my war coming up, with finances for it. I’d say that was a good day’s work.”
“It is, it certainly is,” said Evangeline.
“But?”
“Can you trust her?”
“No, of course not. ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’”
“Well, you certainly got her closer.”
He leaned back against the seat, his grin growing ever wider.
The car moved slowly down the darkening road to the warehouse.
4
Cady
By the time Cady got to the center of the village, most of the others were waiting. Five men, four women. All dressed in black and carrying weapons. Some of them wore body armor on the outside of their clothes. Cady guessed she probably should have, but didn’t have any. She’d left the Zoo when most of the fighting was knives and handguns. Not machine guns.
She knew some of them. Joaquin raised sheep and llamas. His family spun wool and made clothes for the village. Ryan helped people build and repair houses. Gia was the villages’ librarian. She did research and found information for people. Only the rich had access to the internet, provided it still existed. No one in the village was rich. Sharine was a doctor and veterinarian. One of two in the village. Will was a genius with machinery.
The person in charge was Mazzy. She was a tall Asian woman with short hair. A formidable take charge sort of person, who often organized village events. That Cady never went to.
“This is what we’re going to do,” she said. “We’ll enter on the other side of the Zoo. The west side, where the runway is. Last time we went in on the east. No doubt they’ve discovered and closed that hole. We’ll wait until a plane lands and there are bodies running around doing their jobs. That’s our distraction. We’ll pass through the Zoo, over to the warehouses. They’ve still got strips of trees and shrubs there, we’ll travel near those. Then Cady will lead us to where they’re holding Joe. Questions?”
“I have one,” asked Cady. “Why are they holding Joe? What’s so special about him?”
Most people shrugged. Sarah and Beth were there. Cady stared at Sarah. Sarah said nothing, but she looked uncomfortable.
“If we don’t know why, it’s only going to cause us more trouble, perhaps get us killed,” said Mazzy.
Sarah gave a deep sigh, her hand on her belly.
Then she said, “Joe has the sight. Not like what will happen tomorrow. More like what will happen decades from now. If they’ve discovered that, and they might have, they’ll want to keep him. That’s why we don’t talk about it. We’ve told no one here in the village, I’m sorry.”
“Well, I suspect you’re right,” said Cady. “He’d be a useful tool to either Roosevelt or Morrigu.”
“Do you think Morrigu’s involved?” asked Mazzy.
“I don’t know. It’s unclear who has him. I was attacked when I tried to find out. He’s in one of the northern warehouses. I didn’t have time to find the exact one. And I don’t know which warehouses are Roosevelt’s or Morrigu’s any more,” said Cady.
“Okay, we’ll be moving on the fly here,” said Mazzy. “We’ve got earbuds. I expect you to use them and not turn them off once we enter the Zoo.” She handed a pair to Cady, who inserted them in her ear and tested them.
Mazzy continued, “Joaquin is the only one of us who can do an invisibility spell. Stay close to him.”
“I am not very good at it,” Joaquin said. “It wi
ll not be complete and I can’t keep it up for long. It’s the best I have to offer.”
“Better than the rest of us can do,” said Will.
The others hugged their loved ones. Cady had no one to say goodbye to. She never had.
She was the first one in the electric van. They drove out of the village, on the one good road. Many of the roads had buckled during the quake decades past. The main road had been repaired, most of the others hadn’t. The grid that had once been Seattle, no longer functioned. They drove past houses and business that were sunken with year upon year of rain damage. Or had been scavenged, windows gone, doors taken. Wood peeled off. Entire blocks in ruins.
Nature had taken much of it back. First had come bindweed and blackberries. Then trees grew up through and around the ruins. Big leaf maples and Douglas firs over thirty meters tall. The native trees dominated, although there were plenty of smaller trees of all types too.
Every now and then, they drove past a small village or a single dwelling which had been rebuilt and people who had livestock. One never went to close to those loners. It was a good way to end up dead. They generally protected their livestock with dogs and guns.
It took about half an hour to get to the Zoo. The driver, Jeanne, let them off and went to drive over to the northwest corner of the Zoo. There was more cover from the trees for her to park and wait for them to come out. The warehouses were closer to the fence there. They might need to carry Sam out. One of the men, Will who topped 6’6”, carried a collapsible stretcher in his backpack. Mazzy had thought of everything.
It was full dark now, although there was a waning moon tonight. Cady pulled on her leather gloves as she walked towards the fence. She felt on edge, wired. The air smelled fresh, a breeze coming off the Sound. Not much smoke, the days and evenings warming as spring came. They were all squatting down, next to the fence, turning their earbuds on.
Ryan had bolt cutters and was working on the wire fence. Lights lined the short runway, making it easy for the planes to land. Three planes and a helicopter were parked down at this end, tethered to metal loops embedded in the asphalt. The wind here got fierce sometimes. Too many trees had been taken down and winter storms whipped through.
Once Ryan had cut an opening, he put the bolt cutters in his pack. They all slithered through the hole and he pulled it closed again, to disguise it. Then they moved along the fence in the shadows, keeping low. Squatting or crawling. It was slow going.
A plane landed on the runway and its light blasted the fence area. They all lay flat. Cady’s heart pounding louder than the plane’s engines. It taxied down the runway, turning and they were in darkness again. They moved faster.
As the plane stopped, people came running out and unloaded it. Now they were able to move more quickly. The first row of trees and shrubs was up ahead. Just a small patch of open ground to cover. They clumped around Joaquin, covered by his spell, at least temporarily.
They slunk along the shrubs until they got to the warehouses. Now it was Cady’s turn. They hid inside a large clump of trees and rhodies, covered by the evergreen foliage. Invisible from the road inside the Zoo and from the fence. They heard a couple of guards patrolling along the fence. Cady hoped the opening in the fence was disguised enough. Maybe the guards would be drunk or distracted by the new shipment of whatever the plane was carrying.
Cady got everyone’s attention and then sat down on the damp soil. The others circled around her in amongst the wet shrubbery. She closed her eyes and grounded herself, feeling energy coming up from the earth and down from the sky. She mingled those two energies together, mixing the dark and the light. She called a circle of protection around them and felt the boundary firm up with energy from Gia and Will. They concealed her magic.
Which was a good thing. She could sense the same demons she’d met when coming to the Zoo in her journey with the dragon. They swirled around the warehouses, seeking intruders. By some miracle, they hadn’t felt the villagers’ presence yet. Cady pulled more energy from Gia and Will.
Then she called all the guides who’d been with her earlier in the day. Including the dragon. Their spirits ventured out into the road and past all the warehouses. Searching for Joe. The first warehouse was empty of people. Same with the second. The third warehouse had two men in it, neither of them Joe.
The fourth warehouse. That’s where he was. Cady felt one other person in the warehouse. She couldn’t tell if it was a guard, or if they were awake or asleep. But Joe was alive. She scouted around the next two warehouses and found them empty.
Then she returned to her body. Grounded herself and opened her eyes. She spoke softly into the com, relaying the information.
Mazzy spoke into the com. “Okay, we’ll go in through the front. Cluster around Joaquin until we get inside. Ryan will get us in the door if it’s locked. Sharine, Mateo, Will and I will go in first and take out the guard, we have suppressors for our rifles. The rest of you take cover, inside and near the door if possible, until I tell you to move. No sense all of us getting shot up.”
They moved across the road and past the first three warehouses, covered by Joaquin’s spell. Their weapons were all out. Cady’s rifle felt solid in her hand. It had been a long time since she used it. Even longer since she used it on a person.
She could feel her energy amped up. Ready to fight. Aware of everyone around her. The rain misted down through the near darkness. Behind the clouds, the moon shone, but not enough to break through and spread actual light on the earth. There were lights on the warehouses and on the road. The one nearest the fourth warehouse was burnt out. Things hadn’t been so well-lit last time she was in the Zoo. Lights got shot out back in the day.
Ryan was working the lock, then Cady heard the door open and everyone began moving inside. They walked into the darkness and away from the light the door let in. Someone closed the door. Cady moved slowly to stand against the wall. She assumed the others did the same. She could see nothing. The air felt heavy. There was no noise, so nobody ran into anything. The room smelled of wine.
Mazzy lit a dim light and shone it around quickly, before putting it out. They were in a small room, an entryway. There was a partition between this room and the main warehouse. Mazzy, Sharine, Will and Mateo headed towards the door to the main warehouse. The others stood along the wall, like Cady. Trying to stay silent. There was nowhere to hide. It was a nearly empty room. One table covered with paperwork, clipboards. A row of hooks to hang coats on. A door that went off to the left. Will opened that. It led to stairs. He went up alone. Surprisingly silent for such a big man.
The door to the warehouse opened and closed. No light came in, so the warehouse was being kept dark. The smell of wine was stronger there. Bottles always got broken and spilled. The smell lingered. It smelled like a winery. Her neighbor Tank had a small building near his house, it had once been a garage for housing cars. He turned it into a winery and kept barrels of various wines, ciders and mead. It smelled like this one.
Waiting felt eternal. Cady breathed deeply. Keeping alert. She went deep inside herself and let her guides feel around. Joe was in the main warehouse. The guard upstairs.
She spoke softly into the com. “The guard’s upstairs.”
Cady turned a small flashlight on and pointed to the open door and stairs that Will had gone up. Gia and Ryan moved towards the door, opened it and went slowly up.
Cady switched the light off.
There was scuffling above them. Then the sound of a handgun with a silencer. Several shots. Cady couldn’t differentiate between any of the people above.
All they could do was wait longer.
All of a sudden lights came on in the room they were standing in. Then Will, Gia and Ryan came down the stairs, quickly and loudly. They turned and ran towards the main room of the warehouse.
Cady and the other followed. The entire warehouse was fully lit now. The room was filled with pallets of boxes, stacked about two and half meters high. Presumably filled with wi
ne and other alcohol. Cady could see the upper level had glass windows to look down upon the floor.
There was a room off the warehouse and beneath the upper room. The door was open to it, but the room was dark. Probably a break room or an office.
She followed Will and the others to the back corner. There were huge doors that probably opened onto a loading dock. On a chair sat a man, bent over and bloody, barely conscious. Sam. Ryan was on his knees, cutting the zip ties that held Sam still. Sharine was digging in her pack for meds.
As soon as Will got there, he asked, “Stretcher?”
Mazzy said, “Yes.”
Will pulled it out of his pack and began pulling out the rods, turning them so they were solid. By the time Ryan had Sam cut loose, Will had the stretcher together.
Sharine gave Joe a shot of something and said, “That’s the best I can do, until I have time to examine him. His cuts and bruises will take some time to care for and I don’t know what else might be wrong.”
Will, Tank and Joaquin lifted Sam onto the stretcher. After Sam was strapped in, Will and Tank lifted the stretcher.
Mazzy said, “Let’s get out of here.”
They were moving back towards the door where they came in from when they heard voices from that direction.
Mazzy said on the com, “We’ve got company.”
“There’s a room over there,” said Cady, pointing.
They headed that way and made it just in time, closing the door. There was a small window to the warehouse. Cady peered out it.
She saw Roosevelt, a flashily dressed black woman all in gold, and six bodyguards enter and walk towards the back of the warehouse, disappearing behind the pallets of wine.
Mazzy stood next to her, looking out the window.
Mazzy said, “On the count of three, run for the front.”
They were almost ready to make a run for it when Cady felt a surge of power.
“No wait,” Cady said.
Three more guards walked in through the front. Followed by a slight man who walked as if he had all the power in the world. Which he didn’t, Cady sensed. Then came Morrigu. Ah, there was the source of the power surge. Morrigu. Followed by eight more guards. They all walked to the back, where the yelling was coming from. Two of Roosevelt’s guards, running towards the front, met them.
