by Dan Willis
She nodded, her eyes a bit wild.
“But how will this help find Leroy?”
“Because,” Alex said with reassuring smile. “When you leave here, whoever is watching is going to follow you. They’re going to want to know where you’re going.”
Hannah shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.
“Don’t worry about that,” Alex said. “He won’t bother you until he knows where you’re going. I’m going to go out the back and get a cab. Once I see that you’re safely on the crawler, I’ll go back to my office. I’ll find a good place to wait and watch for you. When you get there, I’ll be able to see who’s tailing you.”
Hannah thought about this and nodded. It looked like she was trying to convince herself rather than simply agreeing.
Alex dug a folded vault rune and his lump of chalk out of his pocket. He quickly drew a door on the wall of Hannah’s apartment and opened his vault. He still hadn’t made a backup rune book but there wasn’t time for that now. He needed his 1911 and his knuckle duster.
Once he had slipped the brass knuckles into his jacket pocket and put on his shoulder holster, Alex closed the vault. Next he used Hannah’s phone to call Iggy. He explained about the strange rune and asked the doctor to meet Hannah at his office, and to bring his silver pocketwatch. His preparations complete, Alex hung up the phone and turned back to Hannah.
“All right then,” Alex said with a nod. “I want you to wait five minutes after I leave, then go straight to the crawler station. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching.”
“What are you going to do once you find the man watching me?”
Alex shrugged.
“Once I get the drop on him, I was thinking of tying him to a chair and beating your husband’s location out of him. Unless you have a problem with that sort of thing,” he added.
Hannah looked around at her ransacked apartment and then at the burn mark on her arm.
“No,” she said. “No problem at all.”
Twenty minutes later, Alex stood just inside the window display at a five and dime near his office. It was positioned perfectly in the block between the crawler station and his office on the opposite side of the street.
For the fifth time, Alex brushed his hand against the slight bulge under his left arm, feeling the 1911’s reassuring bulk. He didn’t have to remind himself that the man following Hannah was in league with whoever tried to kill him yesterday. There was a real chance he might try to kill Hannah before she could get to Alex’s office.
He took a puff on his cigarette and tried to calm his nerves. He knew it was an indulgence, but he’d bought a pack of smokes from the five and dime to help with the waiting.
As refreshing as it was to have cigarettes again, it really wasn’t helping calm his nerves.
At least Jessica’s potion is working, he thought, looking at his steady fingers.
He swore.
Jessica.
He was supposed to go back and see her yesterday and he’d completely forgotten.
Getting shot will do that.
Smoking his cigarette down to the nub, Alex resolved to see Jessica tonight, if he had time. The idea wasn’t unpleasant, of course, but he had to find Leroy first.
As if on cue, Hannah came hurrying by on the far side of the street. She walked purposefully, but to her credit, she wasn’t running.
Alex moved to the door and looked out through the glass. A moment later a man in a gray suit walked by with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t seem to be following, but his steps were quick, much faster than his nonchalant demeanor would suggest. Of course, he had to walk fast if he didn’t want to lose Hannah.
Slipping out of the five and dime, Alex turned up the street and began walking parallel to the man in the gray suit. Once Hannah ducked into the lobby of Alex’s building, gray suit crossed the street, heading for an alley between two buildings just a little ways up.
With Hannah safely in his office, Alex turned the corner of the street and broke into a run. He circled the block, reaching the other end of the alley where Hannah’s tail had vanished and peeked around the corner.
At the far end of the alley, the man in the gray suit was smoking a cigarette and watching Alex’s building.
Taking care to be quiet, Alex moved carefully along the alley. The man in the gray suit never took his eyes off the building across the street. He clearly wasn’t expecting trouble.
Alex reached inside his coat and tugged his 1911 free.
“Hold it,” he said when he was only a few feet away.
The man jumped but froze when he saw the gun. He almost jumped again when his eyes darted up to Alex’s face.
“Bet you weren’t expecting to see me?” Alex said with a grin. “Was it you who shot me in the back yesterday?”
The man’s face hardened into a mask, but Alex didn’t care; his reaction had told the story.
Alex looked the man over carefully. There was a tell-tale bulge in the right pocket of his jacket. He looked young, in his twenties, with tanned skin and dark hair. His face was blocky and angular with a prominent nose.
Indian heritage, Alex thought.
“You want to tell me where the girl’s husband is now, or does this have to get ugly?”
“Don’t look at me,” the man said with a shrug. He had a sullen, Jersey accent that tended to slur his words. “I just get paid to follow the girl. I don’t know nothin’ about any missing husband.”
“A liar and a back-shooter,” Alex said. “Your mother must be so proud.”
The man’s face curled into a sneer for an instant, then he relaxed.
“You shouldn’t meddle in things that aren’t your business,” he said with an easy air.
“Like what, for instance?”
He just smiled and shook his head.
“It’s your funeral,” Alex said, nodding toward the street. “Let’s go. I’m sure Hannah will want to talk to you.”
“You should worry about yourself,” he said, turning to face Alex squarely.
The move was odd, but Alex didn’t think anything of it, he had a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol pointed straight at the man, after all.
Gray suit opened his right hand and let the cigarette he was holding fall to the ground. Alex’s eyes followed it for half a second and he didn’t see the symbol burned into the man’s palm.
He felt the rune activate before he saw it, then a wave of force hit him and knocked him off his feet. Alex rolled into a ball to avoid hitting his head on the ground but ended up flat on his back nonetheless. Pain exploded through his side when he tried to rise.
Broken rib.
At the end of the alley, gray suit was clutching his arm. He hadn’t been braced when the force rune or whatever had been on his hand went off. The way he was holding it, the backlash had broken his wrist. He scrambled with his left hand to get the gun in his right pocket, finally jerking it free, then he rushed down the alley toward Alex.
Alex didn’t hesitate. He raised the 1911 and fired twice. The first bullet hit gray suit in the shoulder but didn’t slow his charge one bit. The second hit him square in the center of the chest and he faltered. Taking a stumbling step, he collapsed next to Alex, his gun skittering away on the concrete.
Rolling onto his knees, despite the screaming pain in his side, Alex pointed the pistol at gray suit’s prone form, but the man didn’t move. He put the barrel of the 1911 against the side of the man’s head, then checked for a pulse with his other hand, ignoring the protestations of his ribs.
Dead.
Looking around, Alex tucked his 1911 back into its shoulder holster. Two gunshots were bound to bring the police to the scene and Alex did not want to be nearby when they arrived. He was already on Detweiler’s short list and he didn’t want to give the man any more leverage.
Working quickly, Alex turned out Gray Suit’s pockets. In the inside jacket pocket he found his own red rune book, and a black baked book filled with strange picture runes in i
t. Pocketing both, he kept looking. The dead man’s pants pockets yielded a ring of keys and a brass compass whose needle pointed right at Alex’s building.
Something tickled against Alex’s senses. He’d felt the same thing right before the force rune had cracked his rib and put him on his back. Standing up as quickly as he could, Alex backed away from the body. Magic erupted from the dead man and a sudden flash of fire burned a hole in his shirt front from the inside. Fire spread from the hole, enveloping the body in seconds.
Alex was forced to move back as waves of intense heat assaulted him. Shielding his face, he nearly tripped over the burning man’s revolver.
Alex bent down and picked up the gun, shoving it in his own jacket pocket. His side burned where the force rune had hit him, but his attention was focused on the immolating body.
In less than a minute, the flames died down and burned out, leaving nothing behind but a pile of ash, a scorch mark on the ground, and the rank odor of burnt flesh.
13
The Breakdown
Police sirens were wailing in the distance when Alex knocked on the locked door of his office.
“It’s me,” he said.
A moment later, Iggy opened the door and let him in.
“Are those sirens for you?” he asked.
“Not anymore,” Alex said.
Hannah sat on one of the beat-up couches along the wall with Leslie holding her hand. Both looked up as he came in.
“Did you find him?” Hannah said, her voice urgent.
Alex hated to dash the hope in her eyes. He wanted to say something soothing, but nothing came to mind. In fact, he had a splitting headache and he couldn’t move his left arm without searing pain.
“Yes,” he said.
“We heard gunshots,” Iggy said, looking out into the hall to make sure no one was with Alex. “And what was that flash in the alley?”
Alex moved to Leslie’s desk and put the dead man’s book, gun, keys, and compass on it.
“I got the drop on him real slick,” Alex said. “But he had some kind of force rune on his hand. Knocked me down.”
“He got away?” Hannah squeaked.
Leslie had her arm wrapped tightly around the girl’s shoulders and Alex wondered if that was the only thing keeping her up.
“No,” Alex said, his headache suddenly flaring up to a thumping inside his skull. “He...he rushed me, and I put two bullets in him.”
Leslie gave him the once-over, clearly looking for wounds.
“What’s wrong with your arm?” Iggy asked, noticing that Alex was holding his left arm across his body.
“Force rune hit like a truck,” he said.
“What happened to the other fellow?” Iggy said, moving to probe Alex’s side.
“Ow!” Alex winced as Iggy pressed one of his ribs.
“I’ll say it hit hard,” the doctor said. “This rib is broken.” He pulled his chalk from his pocket. “Don’t move while I get a sling and some bone restorative.”
“But, what happened to the man who was following me?” Hannah insisted.
“He’s dead,” Alex replied. “Second shot took him right in the heart.”
“Did you stash the body in your vault?” Iggy asked, drawing a door for his own on the back wall of the office.
Alex shook his head.
“He had some kind of magic on him,” he said, struggling to remember what he felt when it activated. “It burned his body to ash in about a minute.”
Iggy paused at that.
“Was it a rune or a device?”
Alex picked up the black rune book. “He might have had one of these,” he said, tossing it to Iggy. “The symbols in there look like the one he had on his hand and the one on Mrs. Cunningham.”
Hannah touched her wrist unconsciously as Iggy paged through the book.
“Ever see anything like that?” Alex asked.
“No,” Iggy admitted, closing the book and passing it back to Alex.
“What are we going to do then?” Hannah gasped. Her voice was strained, and she looked back and forth from man to man in a near panic.
Alex didn’t know what to tell her. Without the dead man, he was back to square one with finding her husband. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that, but for some reason he couldn’t think of a better lie.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ve got the stuff from his pockets.”
Alex picked up the keys from Leslie’s desk.
“These go to something,” he said. “We can use them to...to track down...your husband.
Alex shook his head. For some reason he couldn’t remember the girl’s husband’s name. He picked up the compass. It was pointing right at Hannah.
“Where’s your pocketwatch?” he asked Iggy. “The silver one. I did ask you to bring that, didn’t I?”
“Of course you did,” Iggy said. He reached into the pocket of his waistcoat and passed the watch over before entering his now open vault.
Alex turned the watch over and pressed the crown, flipping the silver cover open. Inside, the guts of the watch had been removed and replaced with five stacked disks of glass. Each disk was covered with intricate runes, their geometric shapes filling the center with delicate runic script ringing the edges. As soon as Alex opened the lid, the runes began to glow, and his ears felt pressure, as if he were underwater.
Setting the watch aside, Alex checked the compass. Now that the masking rune in the watch had been activated, the compass needle pointed north. Its connection to Hannah had been broken as the masking field expanded from the watch. Fully extended, the runes in the watch would keep location magic from working in a radius of about twenty feet.
“Alex?” Hannah said.
He looked up to see her staring at her wrist. The burned symbol had faded, leaving only a pink mark where her skin had been singed.
“I’ll get you some ointment for that in a minute,” Iggy said, returning from his vault. “Pull up your shirt,” he said to Alex.
Alex moved to comply, but his side erupted in pain when he tried to raise his arm.
“You’d better do it,” he said with a groan.
“Help me with this,” Iggy said to Leslie.
Alex sat down on Leslie’s desk as she tugged his shirt-front loose and pulled it up so Iggy could slather something cold on Alex’s chest. He grunted as his muscles contracted involuntarily.
“Easy,” he said.
“Be quiet and drink this,” Iggy said, shoving a shot glass into his hand.
Alex downed the shot and nearly choked. It was alcohol of some kind but mixed with something noxious.
“Steady, lad,” Iggy said. He pressed a sheet of flash paper against the ointment on Alex’s chest, then lit it with his lighter.
Alex’s rib twanged like a guitar string as the magic infused the break.
“Damn it,” Alex grunted, his teeth clamped together. Finally the sensation eased to a dull ache. “Thanks Iggy,” he said.
Leslie rolled her eyes at him. She’d never approved of Alex calling Dr. Bell ‘Iggy.’
“What do we do now?” Hannah asked. She seemed calmer, but her voice was still strained and she sat ramrod straight, every muscle in her body seeming to strain against stillness.
“Now,” Alex said, getting up from Leslie’s desk. “I’ll use a...a rune to find...your husband.”
He pulled out his red book and began paging through it. It didn’t look like the dead man had removed any of the pages, but he couldn’t be sure.
“What am I looking for?” he asked. The book was his, but the runes inside didn’t seem right.
“Sit down,” Iggy said, suddenly appearing beside him.
“I’m all right,” Alex said.
Iggy gave him a shove and Alex fell back onto Leslie’s desk. If the doctor hadn’t reached out and grabbed him, Alex would have gone all the way over.
“Look at me,” Iggy said, his voice seeming to echo. “Focus!”
Alex forced his eyes to o
bey him and pointed them at Iggy. The old man held up a finger and moved it back and forth in front of him. It seemed to flicker and jump, moving like it wasn’t fully attached to Iggy’s hand.
Iggy turned and said something to Leslie and the other girl, but Alex couldn’t make out the words. Then Iggy sank toward the floor and Alex found himself looking at the ceiling.
Alex startled awake, gasping for air like a drowning man. He tried to sit up, but the second the muscles in his neck contracted, his head exploded with pain. Groaning, he lowered his head back down.
“Yes,” an unfamiliar voice said. “Let’s not do that again.”
Alex opened his eyes and found himself staring at the ceiling of his office. The back of his waiting room couch rose up on his right, so he slowly turned his head left.
The window behind Leslie’s desk showed the pale light of evening beyond, and his secretary was nowhere to be seen. Her desk had been cleared off and a wooden case sat open, pivoting on a hinge down its center so its contents could be easily accessed. An alcohol burner sat in front of the case, under a metal stand that supported a glass beaker with a triangular base and a narrow neck. A viscous, sludgy liquid the color of mud churned and bubbled within the glass.
As he lay, watching the muddy liquid, a woman entered his field of view. She wore a knee-length blue skirt with a white blouse and a jacket that matched the skirt. She looked to be in her late sixties with white hair bound up in a bun behind her head. Her face was lined and a bit severe, but she had blue eyes that sparkled with an element of mischief.
“W-who are you?” Alex asked. His mouth felt dry and his words were a bit slurred.
The woman walked over to him and held a monocle up to her eye.
“So you’re back among the living finally,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “It’s about time.”
“Didn’t answer…” Alex swallowed hard, but his mouth still felt like it was full of cotton. “My question,” he finished.
“My name is Dr. Andrea Kellin,” she said, squinting through the monocle. Alex remembered the name, she was the alchemist he was looking for when he met Jessica.
