Lincoln, Fox and the Bad Dog

by D Roland Hess

  I guessed that I was about to.

  The address led us to a long driveway that ended in a huge place that I’d have to call a mansion. This wasn’t one of those tightly packed neighborhoods either. In fact, you couldn’t really say that there were even neighbors. By the time we were halfway up the driveway, you’d almost think you were on an estate in the country. Steps led up to a broad stone terrace, nicely appointed with shrubs and seating, then onto a huge main entrance.

  Brigit was doing okay.

  Except for the cars. Her black sportster and Dan’s lime green muscle car sat in a parking area off the governor’s driveway, and both looked like a T-rex had sat on them. Completely crushed, fluids pooling underneath. Glass was everywhere.

  Wow.

  I sent a quick message to Dan.

  where are you?

  “Uh, Lincoln,” said Gwen. “This place is dripping with magic.”

  I looked around but didn’t see it.

  “I’m not getting that,” I said.

  “No, it’s not overt. Everything’s just throbbing with it, at a really low level. I can feel it.”

  “Noted,” I said.

  “What should we do?”

  “Well, we shouldn’t just charge-”

  And there was a detonation from behind the house, accompanied by a flash of purple light.

  “Shit,” I said. I quickly backed the car around to face down the driveway. We’d leave it running in case we had to get out in a hurry.

  I jumped out of the car and left the door open.

  “You guys want to stay in the car?” I said.

  “Yep,” said Gwen as she got out. Babd got out behind her.

  I could feel the adrenaline cutting through me, making my arms twitch, and my pulse race. Why was I doing this? We could just leave. Whatever was about to happen here would happen, and it didn’t need to involve me. But maybe if this was about Stoneface, they’d be coming for me next. And maybe I felt like I owed Dan. I don’t know what the last year of my life would have looked like if it hadn’t been for him.

  I wouldn’t say that I owed him my life, like I’d jump in front of a bullet for him. But I owed him something. At least a peek around the back of the house.

  I ran around the left side of the building, Gwen behind me and Babd at my side. It was a surprisingly large house, and I was sucking wind by the time we got there. I really, really needed to start working out again. We hugged the wall before hitting the back, and I poked my head around the corner.

  It was gorgeously landscaped, with a pool built to look like a multi-level grotto complete with boulders and waterfalls. Yeah, Brigit was doing really well for herself.

  But not at the moment. She was on her knees in the grass, and Dan stood several yards away. I could see that they were both bound by shells of magical force, and it was crushing them. Tendrils of magic writhed in the air between them and the skinny woman who had been at the club in the Strip. She stood next to an integrated hot tub by the pool.

  Except half the hot tub had been blown away, and water was spraying from its jets into the air. The ground smoked around her. Half of her hair was gone, and half her scalp and face were dark red. She looked like a nightmare and was intensely concentrating on Dan and Brigit.

  Brigit’s lips were tinged with blue, and her face was even paler than usual. She couldn’t breathe. Dan was sweating, and I thought I could see some kind of counter magic of his own in between the woman’s crushing force and his body.

  I drew Fox. There were several rounds I could dial up using the new thumb control, and I only debated for an instant which one to use. A fifty-yard safety round, something of my own devising. It was a bullet propelled by magic force, so it made no sound when shot and lost all momentum at fifty yards. But from muzzle to fifty, it had all the force of a hollow-pointed magnum round. I’d also given it a little illumination, so you could follow it.

  She was clearly killing them, and there was no time to be nice with a less-than-lethal solution.

  Also, no warnings. Why give her time to react?

  I didn’t think about what I was doing in the larger scale of things because I might have not done it. The easiest way to approach something awful that you need to do is to not think too much about it. Break it down into components you can handle, then start checking off the list. I put my feet in the right stance like I had hundreds of times on the range, braced the weapon in front of me, got my sight picture and exhaled.

  Squeeze the trigger.

  A streak of light passed by her left shoulder. I’d missed. Damn it. But it was silent, and she was otherwise occupied, so she didn’t even notice.

  Again. I fired, and immediately the magical forces binding Brigit and Dan collapsed. Brigit went over backwards and didn’t move. Dan dropped to all fours, gasping.

  The woman gave an animal shout and clutched her hand. She was hit, and it had been enough to break her concentration.

  My weekend tactical training told me that once you’ve tagged your opponent and they’re reeling, you advance and strike. I hadn’t had a chance to try it out before, but I figured they knew what they were talking about. So I did it.

  I ran into the yard, and I could hear Gwen behind me. Babd took off ahead. The woman turned to us. I saw her brace herself for an instant, then open her mouth and make a fist with her right hand. Magic, incoming. She held up her left hand too, but it was a mess.

  She made a punching motion toward us, and I could see the magic flash our way. A wave of force slammed into us.

  I heard it hit Gwen behind me, followed by a thud. Babd somehow ducked under it. I felt it hit me in the chest. There was some resistance like momentarily running into a strong wind, but that was it. My apron and jacket had dispelled its effects. I may have looked like an idiot in the gear, but it was apparently pretty badass against magical attacks.

  Babd kept going, and I glanced over my shoulder even as I advanced. Gwen was face down but already pushing herself back to her feet. I stopped, half turned. Babd was almost to the woman. She made another motion toward us, and I saw the magic come again. She must have been distracted because her aim seemed to be off. It was just going to hit the ground.

  It did.

  And dug up several hundred pounds of dirt and rock right in front of me and blew it into my midsection.

  I went down hard and couldn’t breathe.

  Things were happening.

  I heard some of them.

  Shouts, a dog’s growl.

  All I could think about was trying to suck in some air.

  I rolled onto my side and got a crooked view of Babd pulling on the woman’s ruined hand. If I’d only had the wind knocked out of me, I’d be fine in a few seconds. If something else had gone wrong, like a rib or rock puncturing a lung, I wouldn’t be so fine. It didn’t matter now though.

  I saw Gwen charge her. She swung the bat but seemed to back it off at the last second. The way it hit the woman in the thigh looked like it didn’t feel great, but it didn’t seem to really hurt all that much either.

  I tried to bring Fox around on her again from my position on the ground, but I was fighting the breathless panic, and it was hard to concentrate. I was telling myself that I’d either get air soon or I wouldn’t, but I needed to do this anyway.

  The woman broke loose from Babd and delivered a vicious kick to the small dog with surprising force. She must have had some kind of magical strength enhancement going on. Babd went flying a good ten feet through the air, slid across some stonework and went into the pool.

  Gwen swung the bat again, and the woman grabbed the end of it like it had been gently handed to her. Instead of trying to get it back from her, Gwen immediately let go and backed away quickly. Smart.

  From the ground, I put my sights on the woman’s center mass and tried to stop my hand from shaking.

  “Carol Dee, you malignant bitch!” came a hoarse shout. It was Dan. He was back on his feet.

  He gestured and power flashed betw
een the two of them, an enormous amount of it like I’d never seen. It swarmed around her head, pulsing and horrible. She flailed her hands in front of her face as though trying to clear away smoke, but it had no effect. Then, she gasped involuntarily, and the magic entered through her eyes, nose and mouth.

  Dan stood at the other side of the yard.

  He yelled something incomprehensible, then stuck his arm out before him. His hand looked like it was gripping some large, invisible ball. He was squeezing.

  The woman, Carol I guess, went rigid.

  Dan slowly walked toward her, twisting his hand back and forth. Carol started to whimper.

  Then, her arm broke. In half. It was like she had a third joint, and it bent at a crazy angle.

  And her legs. They snapped and started to twist. A bone poked through her pant leg.

  She screamed.

  Dan brought his other hand up and made a gesture. Sounds stopped coming out of her mouth, but the look of agony on her face became worse. Tears fell from her eyes.

  Another bone broke. It sounded like a gunshot.

  I closed my eyes. The sounds kept coming. Dan was screaming, or laughing.

  I think I covered my ears with my hands, but it didn’t make much of a difference.

  Crack.

  Crack.

  I could feel my own bones resonate with each one.

  Crack.

  Like someone putting a bunch of sticks into a garbage truck.

  It went on and on.

  In my head, I could see her body twisting itself into horrible knots. After a while, the sound settled into something more like a grinding than individual pops, and then it stopped.

  I’d never been more glad for silence in my life.

  Footsteps on grass.

  Spraying water.

  “What good are you?” I heard Dan say, and I opened my eyes, careful not to look in their direction. But Dan had moved on. He stood over Brigit.

  “WHAT GOOD ARE YOU!” he shouted. She was unconscious.

  “ANSWER ME!”

  He made a gesture, and her body sat up like a marionette.

  I managed to get to my feet. I shuffled toward him and gripped Fox.

  “Dan,” I said, trying to make it loud, but there was a lot of wheezing.

  He turned from Brigit, and she fell back to the ground.

  I could see something that used to be person-like, Carol’s body, out of the corner of my eye. I shuddered.

  Dan and I stood there for a moment just looking at each other. His face was wild, covered with flecks of blood and little bits of whiteness. Magic swirled around his hands, and I was certain that I would kill him if he so much as twitched.

  Another sound broke into my concentration. More water splashing, and a scratching sound coming from the pool.

  “Dan, it’s done,” I said.

  He had a crazed look in his eyes.

  “It’s. Done. We’re safe.”

  He didn’t move.

  “I think my dog is in the pool,” I said. “I’d like to get him out.”

  “Your dog?” said Dan slowly, a growl.

  “My dog. Is that okay with you?”

  His eyes flashed for an instant, then he looked down and around in a momentary panic. His mouth fell open.

  “Holy shit,” he managed to say before he collapsed. The magic was gone from around his hands. I sprinted to the pool, and there was Babd scrambling to get out. I holstered Fox, knelt down and scooped her out. She shook the water off.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “You okay?” I said.

  “I’m fine.”

  I could see the woman’s body in my peripheral vision. I made sure not to turn that way. I didn’t think my stomach could handle it.

  Speaking of stomach, it felt like it had been kicked by a kangaroo with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. My leather apron had prevented any rocks from actually cutting into me, and I seemed to be able to breathe now. At least I hadn’t broken any ribs or punctured a lung.

  Too many things to think about.

  Gwen stood with her back to the whole scene, about ten yards off. I could see dark blood on her chin and mouth, like someone had smashed her in the nose.

  She looked at me, then nodded and turned around.

  “Oh my God,” she said when she looked in the woman’s direction.

  She threw up. Babd ran over to her and put her head against Gwen’s leg.

  “Babd,” I said. “Take a quick look around. Find a tarp or a blanket or something.”

  She ran off.

  “Dan.” I walked to stand over him, trying to sound more authoritative and uninjured than I felt. “I need an explanation. Now.”

  “Sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Brigit was up, and she came over to him. She knelt beside him and placed her hands on his back.

  “Take it easy,” she said.

  “Sorry.”

  “If you’re not used to really letting the power fly,” she said looking up at me, “it can kind of get out ahead of you. You can end up doing things you normally wouldn’t. I think it temporarily short circuits your frontal lobes.”

  Dan’s face was white, and his teeth chattered.

  “Spent. Too much time. Downtown.” He sort of laughed.

  “Brigit, check him out,” I said.

  She nodded. I went over to Gwen.

  “You okay?” I said.

  “No. Lincoln, what the hell just happened?”

  “Things got… bad.” My brain was like a wobbling top. I was usually great at looking five steps ahead in every direction and figuring out exactly what to do next to push things in the way that I wanted. But the top was weighted strangely, and it kept flopping around. I couldn’t control it, and it wasn’t delivering the answers for me that I’d come to rely on.

  There were things we should be doing–things I should be doing–but they weren’t presenting themselves. The adrenaline, the fight, the horror of what was soaking into the grass just yards away. It was like it broke my brain. I shook my head to try to clear it.

  If my intuition wasn’t helping me, maybe I could jump start it.

  “We can’t just sit here all day,” I said, a little louder. “We have to do something.”

  “The explosion,” said Gwen. “If anyone heard it, they probably called the police or the fire company.”

  “Right,” I said, “so we have to get moving.”

  Babd came tearing back from behind the pool house.

  “There’s a tarp over a pile of firewood back there,” she said.

  “Great. Dan, can you move?” I needed to get him mobile and coherent.

  “Yeah,” he said. He looked like a zombie.

  “Go get the tarp and cover that body.”

  I wasn’t going to ask anyone else to do it. It was Dan’s problem. He shakily got to his feet, and he and Brigit worked their way behind the pool house.

  “What do you think?” I said to Gwen.

  “What do you mean?” she said.

  “If we’re going to bolt, now’s the time.”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I have no idea. This isn’t what I expected. I… can’t think.”

  “Duh.”

  She laughed weakly. But it was still a laugh.

  “Are you hurt?” I said.

  She shook her head. “A little off,” she said, “but I think I’m okay. I was seeing stars for a few minutes.”

  Talking to someone else was helping to clear my head. But I still couldn’t formulate a plan.

  “Tell me what you want to do,” I said. “I don’t care how stupid it is. First thing off your head.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Please.”

  “I think we should leave everything exactly like it is, get everyone in the car and all just go home.”

  “Awesome,” I said. If I couldn’t come up with anything on my own, I was sure that my instincts would always be good enough to rip someone else’s plan to shreds.

&
nbsp; “Problems with that,” I said. “Dan and Brigit’s cars are still here, and we can’t leave them. So we have to clean up. Everyone going home assumes that this is over. I haven’t told you about what went down over the last couple of days, but to think this lady is the last one that’s going to come after Dan or I is pretty naive. We have to stick together until we’re sure that there’s no longer a threat.”

  Boom.

  “I’m glad my stupidity could help you,” she said.

  Fizzle.

  But she was kind of smiling. Okay.

  Brigit and Dan emerged from behind the pool house, dragging a large blue tarp. They put it over the body. I waited until they were done to approach.

  “We need to get those cars out of here,” I said, “and do something with this body in case the police or someone shows up. Let’s get the water pump shut off.”

  “I’ll get that,” said Gwen. She shuffled off toward the pool house.

  “If that body weren’t so… mangled, we could call the police and report a home invasion.”

  Dan laughed derisively.

  “I’m sure that would turn out great,” he said. He was obviously feeling better.

  “Look, I think we’re out of our league here. At some point, the police are going to get involved whether we like it or not, and I think that things are going to go better for us in the long run if we’re the ones who bring them in.”

  “You think so?” he said. “So, how are you going to explain all this?”

  I thought a moment.

  “Gas explosion?” I said. Natural gas was plentiful in Western Pennsylvania, and almost everyone used it for heating and cooking. You couldn’t go a whole year without at least one home-based disaster from it.

  A weird bit flipped in my brain. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but I knew I’d have to come back to it later.

  “If this is a gas explosion,” said Brigit, “we’re going to have to start a fire. And I’m not burning down my house.”

  The water stopped spraying from the wrecked hot tub. Gwen must have found the pump controls.

  “As far as cleanup goes,” said Brigit, “this isn’t the first time I’ve been in this situation.”

  “Um,” I said.

  “Not like this. But… aftermaths. Because of my skill set. I have some people who owe me big time. They can get this all taken care of.”