by SA Magnusson
“What items of power?”
“I wasn’t able to work that out. Yet. With a little more time, I suspect I can get those details, but for now, all that matters is they think attacking here, pinning you in a place important to her might draw her out.”
So all of this was about Kate? I found it difficult to believe. But then, at the same time, why would it be so difficult to take on board? I had seen worse things happen, and John Adams had shown ruthlessness when it came to power. As far as I knew, Kate had incredible power, more than he possessed.
“I don’t know where she is. I don’t know when she’ll come back.”
“I think he’s counting on the fact she will learn of what’s been taking place and will return to protect you.”
I started laughing. It was a panicked, terrified type of laughter. “Kate’s not going to come back to because of an attack on me. Hell, she probably doesn’t even know what’s been going on.”
Worse, if she didn’t respond—which I doubted she would—then it was going to be up to me to try to ensure this ended. It had to end. If it didn’t, if I failed, the hospital would be destroyed. They had proven their willingness to take such dramatic steps. The idea they would do that—to willingly attack—left me trembling.
“We need to figure out all of the places they have attacked,” I said.
“This isn’t something you can resolve,” Matt said.
“No. I’m going to take care of this. This is my hospital.”
“They are better trained than you,” Matt said.
“I don’t care. They might be better trained, but I’m better motivated. I’ll figure out what they’re up to, and find a way of stopping them.” I frowned. “There has to be a reason they started with power.”
“Why?”
“They decided to take out the power in the hospital first. There has to be a reason behind that.”
“I don’t know if it was simply to cause chaos or if there was any more reason,” Matt said.
It had certainly caused chaos, but it struck me there was more to it than just that. If that were the case, maybe I could reverse it. “Do you know where the generators are in the hospital?”
“Dr. Stone?”
“Now isn’t the time for ‘Dr. Stone.’ Now is the time to tell me if you know where to find the generators.”
“I do.”
“Then take me there.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then I’m wrong, but if I’m right, then maybe we can counteract whatever they intended.”
“Even if you counteract it, it’s not going to be over—"
“Until we capture John Adams.”
Matt shook his head, laughing softly. “You and I aren’t going to catch him.”
“Not with that attitude.” I waved for him to get moving. “Show me to the generators.”
Matt shrugged, and he started off, heading up the stairs. I thought he might step off and head back out into the main level, but he continued up and up, until we reached the sixth floor. Roof access. He pressed his hand against the door, sending a surge of power through it, and the lock snapped open, letting us step out onto the roof. It was still hot, but it seemed as if the heat front was breaking and starting to ease.
Massive square boxes lined the roof. The generators. They had to be.
“Why up here?”
“It’s an easy place to keep them. They have a gas line running here, and in case they’re needed, they should fire right up, switching over and letting the hospital maintain power, but…”
I circled around the generators, looking at them as I did, searching for anything to suggest what had happened here. There had to have been an attack, the same way there had been an attack everywhere else, but what would I find? Would there be anything to explain the nature of the attack? I didn’t see anything.
“There aren’t any spells out here,” Matt said.
“We need to keep looking. I know there’s something here.”
“And if there’s not?”
“There has to be.”
Matt stared at me for a moment before shrugging. We continued to circle the generators. Rather than going blindly, I used a pull of power, drawing through the necklace, once more borrowing from Barden as I sent it through that to the bracelet. Hopefully, Barden didn’t need a lot of power today. If he did, I would be taking far more from him than I should. It was the advantage of the spells the operatives used. None required drawing upon someone directly. They might borrow their power, but it was no different from that person casting a spell themselves. All it took was for the bearer to trigger the spell, to release the power within it, and once they did, that was it. The end of the borrowed power. It was nothing like what Barden allowed me to use.
A strange tingle of power worked against me. I didn’t see anything on the ground, and as I circled around the generators, I didn’t anything on the side…
“Matt!”
He popped his head around.
“Give me a boost.”
He frowned. “What kind of boost?”
“Hold your hands out,” I said, linking my hands together, and miming how I wanted him to do it. He approached slowly and frowned. As he did, he looked up at the top of the generator.
“That’s not a good idea.”
“I’m sure it’s not, but I wasn’t asking for your permission.”
“Jen—”
“Listen. If you’re going to argue with me every time we try to do this, we aren’t going to get far. Besides, if you don’t give me a boost, I’m just going to try to climb up the side of the generator.” It was smooth, and I doubted I was even tall enough. The damn thing was over my head, and I suspected I wouldn’t be able to reach it if I tried.
Matt shook his head, and he latched his fingers together. I motioned for him to turn around. He put his back up against the nearest generator, and I stepped into his palms.
“On the count of three?”
“If you say so.”
“One. Two. Three…”
He gave me a boost, and I went soaring up, a little faster than I was expecting him to be able to lift me. Once up there, I looked around, crawling onto the metal surface. As I suspected, a circular object at the center of the first generator looked to be a coin.
“How do you take them off?” I shouted down to him.
“Slide over,” Matt said.
“You’re not going to—"
He pulled himself up and onto the generator far more easily than I expected. He looked something like a gymnast as he did, scrambling up, and he plopped down next to me, studying the generator. As he did, he shook his head. “Damn. When you said you thought they had placed a spell, I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”
“Why? What is this?”
“This isn’t a destructive spell.”
“It seems to have destroyed the generator.”
“Right. Except it’s taken away the power you were expecting rather than destroy it. It’s redirecting it.”
“Why?”
Matt shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“Can you counter it?”
“Maybe, but it’s not going to be an easy thing. What we need is a way to destroy the spell, but not anything else about it.”
I thought about the shape Barden had shown me. I traced the shape on top of the generator. Two triangles with points touching. I did so around the coin, with points on either side of the coin.
“Will that work?” I asked.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure. Barden told me to use it on him if the spell we were experimenting with went wrong.”
“Why did he think the spell might go wrong?”
“Because he was making spell coins.”
Matt’s brow furrowed. “He learned how to do that?”
“I learned how to do it. And I showed him what I learned.”
“Jen—"
“Will it work?”
“Maybe. I do
n’t know. Like I said, I’m not an expert with patterns. My knowledge is more on the use of spells. That’s what we train with.”
“And if I can use this to trigger the spell?”
“It might work,” he said.
I had to hope it would. There was nothing to do but to try it. My gift was in triggering spells, and if I could do that now, if I could trigger the pattern I had formed, and turn it into a spell, then maybe it would be enough. Maybe it would work. And if it didn’t, then… maybe it wouldn’t matter.
I sent power through me, flooding the spell. I could feel the way the spell was firing. I could feel how it was beginning to trigger. There was resistance, like there was often resistance when I was using power, and I continued to send power through it, more and more flowing out from me. As I did, I continued to wait, holding onto that power, letting it flow outward, knowing all I needed to do was find a way of triggering the spell.
I continued to force more and more power into the pattern. It drew upon Barden’s power, upon my power, and upon everything I was able to reach.
I could feel it surging, and then the spell exploded. It happened with a pop, and the lines within the spell shifted, disappearing altogether. When it was done, the coin and the pattern on it, had changed.
“Well, shit,” Matt said.
“You didn’t think it would work?”
“Not really.” He looked along the line of the generators. “Now we just have to do the others.”
14
We made relatively quick work of the various spells, with Matt helping to place the pattern—it was fairly straightforward—and me making my way along it, pushing power through it so we could disrupt the spells. The key was simply triggering the shape the triangles represented, but also sending a certain energy through it, focusing on the type of spell it was and the power within it. As I did, as we continued using that power, I found it easier and easier.
By the time we reached the end of the generators, I was tired, but not so tired I didn’t think I could go on any longer. Other spells needed to be removed, and the longer I had been working on it, the clearer I was that this was just the start. Somehow, we would have to find where all the other spells were. I was certain there were others. Those could hold the key to uncovering what was going on here. I wasn’t sure what it was, other than the fact that Matt thought they were trying to divert power away, though I didn’t know what purpose there would be in doing so.
When we were done, I sat on the last of the generators, my legs dangling off the edge, and hung there for a moment. “That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”
“I think that isn’t all of it,” Matt said.
“The spells here were just a part of it,” I said, “and if the rest of it has to do with something coming from the main power company, then we’ll have to figure out how to disrupt that, too.”
First, I wanted to know whether destroying these spells had made a difference in the hospital. I hopped down and started down the stairs. I paused, popping my head out on the fifth floor. This was a surgical floor, and there would be a surgical ICU at one end of it. It was still dark, but lights in the distance caught my attention. Not completely dark, then. And if it wasn’t completely dark, then it meant removing the spells from the generator had made a difference.
I had done it. And yet, I still hadn’t done anything. Now I knew the attack and everything about it was magical, and now I knew there was a way to counter it, I still didn’t know how to remove the rest of the threat. And there was no question in my mind it was still a threat.
Stopping on each floor, I was reassured when I glanced in and saw the medical ICU, lights on, ventilators humming, cardiac monitors beeping. Systems were restored, and though it wasn’t over, I felt we were making progress.
“You’re silent,” I said to Matt.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I guess I thought you would be happier we had managed to disrupt their plans.”
“We’ve disrupted the start of their plans, Jen, but we haven’t disrupted anything when it comes to their full plans. They will keep at this.”
“Mr. Optimistic,” I said, a little irritated. But I understood. Matt was right. Even so, I resisted the urge to say sorry. It was just that we needed to have faith in ourselves and to press on if we were going to achieve anything. Giving up never got anyone anywhere, not in medicine and not in magic.
I paused in the stairwell and started back up.
“Where are you going?”
“We need to do something to protect the generators from having another spell placed on them.”
I didn’t wait for Matt and went loping up the stairs. When I reached the rooftop, I immediately felt something was wrong. Reaching into my pouch, I rifled through various spells. I went for the Paralytic, but at the same time, reached for a Sleeper, too. It might not be enough, but I was determined to be prepared for whatever we might face on the other side of the door.
When I threw it open, I was attacked immediately. I held out a barrier, pushing against the attack, and as I did, I could feel the nature of the spell as it burned along my wrist, the bracelet going cold. I wondered how long I would be able to withstand the attack, though I doubted it would be for long. I continued to resist, holding onto a barrier, and shifted the focus of what I was doing.
I needed to trigger their magic. If I could unleash whatever they were trying to do before they managed to fire it at me, it should deflect their efforts.
Gripping the necklace Barden had given me, I drew upon his power, using my own, and sent the trigger. It exploded outward, flowing toward them. There was the sense of the disruption, and then nothing.
I breathed out, feeling a moment of relaxation. It was brief, and I knew it wouldn’t last. As I waited, listening and focusing on the possibility another attack might occur, there came nothing.
I stepped out onto the roof, Matt behind me. He darted forward, rolling off to the side, and an attack streaked toward him. The ground exploded where he had been.
Matt jumped. I had seen him fight before, but this was something else. I didn’t know how he managed to flip up into the air, soaring nearly ten feet and twisting as he did, but he landed with his hand outstretched, a flurry of spells flickering out from him. And he wasn’t skilled enough to be recruited into the Shara? I found that incredible.
I focused on triggering the Paralytic, directing it onto the operative standing opposite Matt. The man kept his attention solely focused on Matt, ignoring my presence. That was for the best. The more he ignored me, the easier it was for me to do whatever I needed to disrupt their spells.
The Paralytic struck, and I pushed. I did so with more speed and urgency this time, and when it hit, he wasn’t prepared, and he fell over, collapsing under the power of the Paralytic.
Matt jumped, landing on top of the generators, and I went racing over to the fallen man. As I had with the other two, I went searching through his pockets and claimed all of his spells, slipping them into my pocket. There’d be time to sort through them later, to try to understand what they might used for, but for now, it was better to disarm him. I had no idea if I had triggered all of them when I had sent my spell across the rooftop, but doubted I had.
“Do you see anything?” Matt asked.
“You’re the one with the height advantage,” I said.
“Right. But I wondered if you might see something from where you are. Like a spell or something along those lines.”
I made my way around the rooftop and didn’t find anything.
“Why would they have only sent one person?”
“They wouldn’t,” Matt said.
“Where are the others?”
“Good question,” he said.
He turned slowly, and as he did, I was aware of the buildup of power and cried out.
Matt was prepared. At some point while he was up there, turning in place, he had placed a barrier, and in doing so, the building spell bounced harml
essly off of him.
Where had it come from? It had seemed to originate from the far side of the rooftop, but there was nothing over there.
Unless there was… Could I trigger another spell? I needed to disrupt whatever they were doing and see if I could come up with a way of uncovering them. As I pushed, I found resistance.
As with every time since encountering these operatives, I had begun to understand what it took to overpower the nature of their spells. In this case, I blasted him, pushing out with power. I didn’t worry about using mine or Barden’s. All I focused on was finding a way of drawing enough power, and it didn’t matter whose it was. Barden was warned I needed him, and in this case, considering that it might involve an injury to Kate, I had to believe he’d be willing to lend whatever power was necessary to help her.
The spell masking him exploded, and the operative became visible. I’d seen him before. He was the same one as had been in the parking garage.
Matt attacked. When he did, it came as a series of rapid movements, a surge of power which hammered at the operative one after another, the same way Matt had once hammered at Jean-Pierre, trying to overpower the elder vampire. In this case, it was operative against operative, and I thought Matt had the upper hand—until I saw the other operative begin to fight.
Matt was fast. He was faster. It was all Matt could do to resist, to put up a barricade, to try to resist, and as he did, sending attack after attack outward, I looked for an opening.
Where had he gotten resupplied? Maybe that had to be the better question. Had he taken them off of one of the other operatives?
I focused on the Paralytic. If I could use that, then it would incapacitate him, but what if it wasn’t enough? I hadn’t tried pushing two at the same time, but I found the Stinger and gripped it and the Paralytic at the same time. I pushed power through both, focusing on the operative. He was moving quickly, but I was able to follow him, and the spell didn’t need me to be able to track him. It needed me to focus on my intent, on where he would be.
When it struck, it crashed into him, and he collapsed. He spasmed for a moment, but even that ceased, and he writhed in place until falling still. Matt jumped down, and slammed his hand on the man’s chest, leaving a coin there.
