by TR Cameron
Ruby’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh. Yeah. I guess not.” The dwarf was as close as Margrave had to a nemesis. They’d found themselves in competition for jobs over the years and had very different opinions about what was appropriate and what wasn’t. Frequently, when the wizard refused a job, the dwarf was more than willing to take it on. “I didn’t realize he was still around.”
Margrave nodded. “He works for Aces Security, one of the big contractors.”
Ruby was well-acquainted with Ely’s security companies since they were an essential part of all the casinos’ operations. They competed with one another for the best gigs and were vicious in attempting to run their competitors out of business whenever an opportunity presented itself. That thought led to another. “Do you think the robbery was to cause the Sunshis to lose faith in their security people? Is it a business move?” The notion that something so petty might have cost innocent lives made her jaw hurt from the force of her clenched teeth.
“Big business, if it’s simply business, but no way to tell.”
She tapped a fingernail against her teeth while thinking. “Actually, there might be a way to tell. Stop by their offices. Have a look around.”
He shook his head. “They’re not likely to let you in there. Even if you play the casino owner’s daughter card, you’ll only get into a meeting room.”
“Well then, I won’t ask. What can you give me to help?” She’d come mainly to talk to him about whether he knew of freelance gigs she could take on, for him or his clients, but now she had a much more important task. A purpose, even.
“Are you sure of this? Seems like it’s risky as hell. Those guys have guns.”
She grinned and reached over to slap him on the arm. “Yeah, but I have you. Now, what gadgets do you have around here to turn me into James Bond for the evening?”
She’d convinced him because Margrave clapped, spun up off his stool, and headed for the cabinets behind him. “I have just the stuff. Grentham and his friends won’t know what hit them.”
Chapter Seventeen
Ruby retraced her path back to the house she shared with her roommates and exchanged greetings with the others. Demetrius caught her on the second-floor landing, near the stairs to the attic. He looked around, as if to be sure no one was listening, and leaned in to whisper, “There have been sounds coming from your room.”
She put on what she hoped was a suitably apologetic expression. “I must have left the television on. That was stupid.”
He moved his head back to a normal conversational distance. “Yeah, it didn’t sound like television. More like walking around.”
Oh, hell. Idryll, you dumbass. “Okay. I guess I have to confess. I, uh, took in a stray.”
He grinned. “Well, well, well. My roommate is wilder than I thought.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Not that kind of stray. Although she is quite attractive.”
Demetrius fanned himself with one hand. “She. My, you are a liberated woman, aren’t you?”
She slapped him lightly on the arm. “Oh-em-gee. Come upstairs, before you start spilling gossip all over the place.”
He put a palm on his chest. “Are you suggesting I could be part of…a thruple?”
Ruby frowned. “What the hell are you talking about, Demetrius?”
“Ah, there’s the innocent Ruby we all adore.” He followed her up the stairs toward the attic. “A thruple. Three people as a ‘couple.’ You know, polyamory stuff.”
“Sure, okay, whatever. No, I’m not inviting you to be a couple, thruple, quadruple, any kind of uple.” She stomped a little to ensure Idryll heard her approach, although she couldn’t imagine a situation where the tiger-woman wouldn’t be aware of it. Exactly what I’ll find when I open the door is open to question, depending on how annoying she wants to be. No point taking on problems that haven’t happened yet. That’s what Keshalla always says. Of course, her mentor never had to deal with a sassy shapeshifter, as far as Ruby knew.
She opened the door, and her new life-partner was there in Bengal form, sitting primly and staring at them as they entered. Demetrius knelt to pet her, and Idryll accepted it with an attitude of “I deserve this.” That’s the cat side of her coming out. Ruby snorted inwardly. “So, there you go. The mystery.”
Demetrius observed, “She’s very well kept, for a stray.” The look in Idryll’s eyes as she tracked Ruby’s walk to sit on the bed promised trouble later.
“Sometimes you get lucky.” Other times, you get Idryll. “We more or less bonded immediately, so now we’re stuck with each other.”
He stood. “Well, that does explain the noises, although I have to say, it sounded more like walking than a cat. She must have been jumping around or something.”
“Could be. I think she likes to chase dust motes, and there are always some of those in an attic.” His phone rang, and he pulled it out of a pocket and looked down at it, then answered it and headed down the stairs with a wave. Idryll banged into the door to close it and was immediately in her most human-like form again.
“He’s cute. Will you be dating him?”
Ruby fell back on the bed with a groan. “It’s a little early for that, although I agree, all the boys are pretty easy on the eyes.”
Idryll sat beside her, then flopped down so her head was near Ruby’s. “I look forward to seeing these boys. Also, if I hear ‘stray’ too often, you’re going to find your favorite things shredded beyond recognition.” She delivered the threat as a simple statement of fact. “I saw Wolverine on the television. Imagine if he got hold of your stuff, but with sharper claws.”
It wasn’t worth trying to explain the idea of fictional characters. Ruby was exhausted, and she had things to do that would require her to be awake during the early hours of the day. “I need to nap. I have to break into a security company tonight.”
Before she drifted off, she heard the soft comment, “We have to break into a security company tonight.”
Given that Ruby didn’t generally engage in the sort of activities that involved creeping around in the darkness trying to remain unseen, it took a lot of digging through her clothes to find the right ones. Her black paratrooper jump boots laced up to the bottom of her calf, and the matching tactical pants that she’d worn during a brief stint dating a hiker tucked nicely into them. She went with a simple black t-shirt with vertical ribbing that was otherwise unadorned and put on a hoodie in the same shade overtop it. She gathered her hair into a warrior’s knot and clipped it in place.
While she did so, Idryll poked through her belongings and found an outfit. She’d chosen the same color scheme, which was good, but the way the tennis shoes, jeans, and men’s dress shirt Ruby had stolen from a boyfriend hung on her was almost comical. However, with one of her spare hoodies, this one in charcoal rather than full black, and a little magic to hide her fur, Idryll looked entirely human. Until she moved at least since her feline grace came through despite the outward trappings.
Ruby had considered arguing with her partner about the wisdom of joining her attempt on the security company, but none of the justifications made sense. She’d played them out in her mind, and pretty much every complaint could be answered with, “Well then, why are you doing it?” Without a good answer to that question, there wasn’t a point in getting into it.
Ruby said, “Okay, we’ll portal from here to the casino. Then we’ll have to walk a couple of miles. I don’t want to call a car, and I’m not familiar enough with the area to get there by magic.”
Idryll grinned. “I enjoy long walks in the moonlight. Perhaps I could be part of your thruple after all.”
She sighed. “No more television for you. I can’t even deal.” A quick check confirmed that she’d locked the door, so no one should wander in and find them mysteriously vanished. She slid a black backpack over her sweatshirt, pulled up the hood to mostly hide her face, and opened the path to Spirit. “Move it, kitty cat.”
Idryll hissed and showed her fangs, but hopp
ed through without any additional fuss. This is fine. This is definitely fine. With a sense of foreboding, Ruby followed.
It took most of two hours for them to reach their destination. The moon was up, but clouds diffused its light enough that it wouldn’t be a concern. The modern office park was located to the southwest of the Strip and housed a wide variety of companies that served the casinos and their customers. Warehouses galore, distribution centers for food and beverages, accountants and lawyers, and dotted throughout, security company compounds.
Each of the businesses had defenses, from a simple chain across the vehicle entrance to the legal firms’ building to high fences and barbed wire protecting the warehouses. The domain of Aces Security looked ordinary from a distance, but Ruby was sure that they would have an enhanced set of anti-intruder measures in place, if only so they could point them out to potential clients. Dralen, for instance, would be quite impressed by such things, as they doubtless fit his view of what a security company ought to be.
She and Idryll had circled the rear of the buildings, staying in the shadows the entire time. Ruby had altered her illusion. She was still a human, but with a borrowed face. It was modeled upon an NPC from a video game she’d played, that seeming to be the safest way to avoid someone getting accused falsely if her image was somehow recorded. She’d also darkened her skin to Jennifer’s tan coloring since it was reasonably fresh in her mind. Whatever she was at the moment, it certainly wasn’t a ghost. If anyone saw her hair, it wouldn’t give her away either since it was now a plain mousy brown.
Of course, all of that was at risk if she used other magic, which was why she’d brought an assortment of gadgets along for the evening’s activities. She dug into her bag and pulled out a healing flask and an energy flask that she’d retrieved from the house on Oriceran earlier, and slipped them into one of her thigh pockets. A compact toolkit went into the one on the other leg. Next up, a leather bandolier with typical throwing darts that Margrave had modified with small vials in various colors. Finally, a small drone and a control device. She drew out the controller’s antenna, which he’d said worked through line of sight when it could so it would be less likely to be detected.
Idryll asked, “What’s that?” She had the sense to keep her voice down, which again probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Cats of all kinds were predators and knew how to sneak up on prey.
“It’s a way for us to get a high-angle view on their defenses, both mundane and magical.” The drone itself was about as large as her cupped hands, a rectangle with four propellers and a sensing block that included a camera and who knew what else. She set it on the ground, then used the remote to fly it high. It rippled and vanished as a magical veil spread over it. “Huh. He didn’t say it would do that. Damn, he’s good.”
Aside from two joysticks for elevation and direction, the controller only had two buttons on it. She pressed the first, and some areas on the screen glowed. “Looks like they have motion sensors all around the fence and on the building itself. The fence itself is probably alarmed or electrified. They’re playing it smart, too. The roof has the sensors as well.” There goes the plan to get to the roof and sneak in that way. “On the plus side, I don’t see any cameras, and this thing didn’t indicate any. Probably they don’t want anyone being able to tap into the lines or the signal or whatever.” She hit the other button, but nothing lit up. “Well, if this is working like it’s supposed to, there are no external magical security precautions. That likely means we’ll find some inside.” She worked the sticks to bring the drone back down. “Margrave was sure that Grentham wouldn’t leave the place undefended.”
“Are we going to portal to the door?”
Ruby winced. Yeah, that’s a logical question, and all I have for it is an embarrassing answer. “Here’s the thing. I can only portal to someplace I’ve been. Like, someplace I’ve physically stood. I’m not sure why, and no one has ever been able to explain why some of my magic works differently than for other people. It’s one of the reasons I studied what I did in school, although I didn’t find any good answers there either. Anyway, long story short, I can’t portal from here to there.”
The tiger-woman’s expression suggested she was holding back laughter. “So if I asked you to portal to a spot five feet from there, you couldn’t do it?”
“No. I couldn’t. I can do lots of other things though, including kicking your smug ass with a wide array of weapons and talents. Leave it, and let’s get a move on.”
Idryll shook her head. “What other things can’t you do? Light candles? Make ice when it’s hot outside?” She’d stuffed her hands into the pockets of her sweatshirt, as though conserving energy for what was to come, remaining almost still in the cool air. Warming herself with the heavy application of mockery, apparently. She asked, “So, we go in fast and hard, and kill any who oppose us?”
“No, we’re still not opting for your plan.” The shapeshifter had tried to sell her on that approach several times already. “There’s no guarantee they’re guilty, and if they’re not, we’d be as much in the wrong as whoever killed those folks at the Mist.”
“Are all of your people as impractical as you are?”
Ruby packed the drone into the bottom of the backpack so she’d have quicker access to a couple of other specialty items inside it and put it on her back again. “What you call impractical, the rest of the world calls ‘logical,’ or ‘reasonable,’ or, and I like this one best, ‘not murderously insane.’ Perhaps you could join us on the rational side of things for a while. See how it goes.”
Idryll snorted. “Risking yourself for the benefit of others isn’t rational.”
“Shut it, and let’s go.” She headed in a crouched run for the nearest corner of the fence, one of Margrave’s darts held in each hand.
Chapter Eighteen
She felt the drain on her illusion as she neared the corner, what could only be an anti-magic emitter, and a strong one at that, and dropped to a knee. “Damn it. They are thoroughly prepared. Well, maybe it means there won’t be any inside.” She’d considered using a force blast to fly over the fence and into the compound but was thankful she hadn’t. Having her ability to cushion her fall taken away would have been a pretty solid disaster.
She pulled the hood closer around her face as a shiver of anxiety flowed through her. The shadows were still significant, and the area didn’t have spotlights, thankfully. No, subtlety seems to be the rule so far. The emitters took care of her original plan, which had been to use the darts and the spells they contained to knock out the motion sensors. She’d planned to use them on the cameras she’d expected to see, as well. I hope they’re not simply really well hidden. Now, she needed a different idea. She whispered, “If we move slowly enough, we should be able to defeat the motion detectors. It won’t be fun, but it’ll be doable. I didn’t bring bolt cutters though. I figured I’d use magic to deal with any barrier.”
Idryll grinned and held up her hand. Claws extended from beneath four fingers, a slight shine the only thing that showed the black weapons in the darkness. “I can take care of that.”
Ruby nodded. “Okay, we’ll do it then. If we meet with trouble, we split up, hide, and meet at the house. It’ll be bad if they catch me, but I can always fall back on my family. Them catching you would be much worse, especially if they realize what you are. Plus, a cat wandering around in the building once we get inside would probably be pretty damn suspicious.”
“As if they could catch me.”
“They have magic and weapons at their disposal and could always get lucky. It’s not impossible.”
The shapeshifter snorted in derision and crawled toward the fence, her body barely off the ground. Ruby followed, with notably less agility. Eventually, they reached the barrier, and Ruby hissed for the tiger-woman to stop. Placing her hand near the metal revealed no trace of the tingle that would come with proximity to electricity. Ruby had to admit to being surprised it wasn’t electrified, but maybe o
ut here with wildlife, workers coming and going at the other businesses, and who knew what else, that wasn’t a practical choice. She pulled out a handful of cables with alligator clips and carefully connected the metal on either end of the spot where they’d make their entrance, ensuring that any circuit that existed from one side to the other still would when they cut the fence. She lifted the lines with a nod, and Idryll sliced through the chain-link with a single stroke of her claw.
It required a full hour of careful movement for them to cross the wide expanse of grass that separated the outer perimeter from the building. Ruby recognized a shooting range as they crawled through it, and also an obstacle course like the ones she’d seen in army movies. Guess they use their backyard for training. Makes sense, really. No one to see what’s going on, thanks to the fences, and as long as they warned their neighbors to expect the gunfire, no cause for alarm.
She tapped Idryll’s foot and pointed toward a small door set in the back of the building beside three huge windowless garage doors composed of the same metal skin as the rest of the place. Google Maps had shown the part of the facility visible over the fence as dark blue, and it seemed to be uniform over the whole structure.
They made it to the entrance without an issue. The anti-magic field generated by the emitters fell off about six feet away from the building. “There’s going to be an alarm system attached to this door. I have a gadget that should confuse the signals enough that it looks like a malfunction that corrects itself rather than a break-in, but no guarantee that someone won’t come to investigate. Remember, no killing.”
“You’re no fun at all.”
Ruby softly snorted. “So I’ve been told.” She dug in the pack for the small silver disc. It was thinner than a credit card and carried both force and electrical magic. There would be a three-second pause when she activated the device, long enough for her to get it wedged into the doorway, then discharge. The electricity would temporarily confuse most security systems, and if positioned properly, the force would push the door and frame apart enough that she could get it open. The physical deadbolt, which wasn’t part of the alarm network, she’d deal with essentially telekinetically. In reality, it was very fine-controlled force magic, but if it looked like telekinesis and acted like telekinesis, she would go ahead and think of it as telekinesis. “Ready?”
