by Voss Foster
"They're the last resort containment procedures we can use in the field in the Hidden Kingdoms," said Gutt. "They're more than capable of handling any Class-B who isn't specifically knowledgeable in how to counteract the magic used, and in the past, they've been used to temporarily subdue Class-A preternaturals. Long enough to get them into a more permanent containment situation, at any rate."
King snorted and cross her arms. "Jesus H. Christ, you two. He didn't ask for a damn history lesson." She angled herself toward me. "Remember the magic we tried to use against the shapeshifters to keep them from kicking the shit out of us?"
I did. A theoretical—and largely ineffective—reproduction of some form of shielding used to restrain the shapeshifters when they were originally imprisoned. "It turns the magic back against them."
King nodded, then turned away again. "Except that was only if they tried to use their magic. Recursive restraints wouldn't do much, if anything, to someone like Gutt. They turn ambient magical energies back on whoever they're targeting. So a Class-C like most preets? Not too dangerous."
Oh. "But a Class-B or Class-A would definitely feel it."
Nobody confirmed or denied it, which was all the answer I needed. Shit. Double shit. I didn’t know a ton about magic, obviously. I was just some stupid human. But I'd been with the OPA long enough that I'd seen more than one case of magical overload sickness. Anytime a preet got exposed to too much magic, they could succumb to it. Mild cases severely drained the victim's energy. More severe cases could leave even a troll Gutt's size unconscious. And in the worst scenarios, they could lose all their magic. Permanently.
Or die. But to most preets, that probably seemed preferable to a life without magic.
Finally, Gutt spoke up again. "There's a reason we don't use them unless they're necessary. We don't keep even a single one in the Mundane because they're so volatile and so dangerous. Which means they were able to get one illegally, either off the black market or by stealing it."
"We can't discount the possibility that they were able to make them themselves." Bancroft was wiping his glasses on his shirt as he said it. "We don't know enough about these three to know what they'd be able to do."
My mind buzzed through everything I'd just seen and learned and experienced. An elf, completely indistinguishable from the contents of a vacuum bag. A lifelong prisoner locking herself back away in a cell of her own design. Magical restraints so dangerous the OPA wasn't even allowed to keep them on hand, and so powerful they wouldn't work on anyone who couldn't potentially destroy at least one city block.
That's when something clicked. "We know at least one thing. That elf must have been above a Class-C. He handled the recursive restraint like it was poison."
"That's true." Gutt scratched the folds of his chin, staring off into the distance. "He certainly seemed apprehensive over using it."
This. This, I could focus on. My body flung itself at the problem of the recursive restraint and identifying the bounty hunters or kidnappers or whatever the hell they actually were. Every bit of me focused on that like it was water and I was dying of thirst.
Anything. Anything that meant I didn't have to think about Lenva and interdimensional politics and all this other magical, Hidden Kingdoms shit I knew full well I'd never be able to fix.
I'd be able to do my job and not be so deeply entrenched in all that mess. Because tracking down law-breaking motherfuckers? That was my job, and not to brag, but I'd gotten pretty good at it.
With Ixel around for us to question, it would hopefully be a lot easier.
Chapter Eleven
After a short meeting, Gutt and Swift took the remainder of the night shift watching over Lenva, though basically everyone agreed she didn't need anyone. Frankly, she didn't want anyone else there either, but protocol was protocol.
Bancroft had headed home to do some research and pull on the threads he could, and there was still the constant, looming arrival of Vellius somewhere on the horizon. Swift hadn't been thrilled that she'd contacted Gutt instead of him, but at least she was coming when she could. For the moment, however, Ixel sat restrained in the interview room, and King and I waited around outside, slowly sipping coffee while she stewed.
I swallowed the scalded brew, then refilled my cup because, shitty or not, I needed as much as I could get. "So you're playing good cop, right?"
She snorted. "Why should either of us be the good cop? I'll be angry cop, you'll be pissed-off cop."
If it would have done any good—and if I wasn't completely on board with the idea—I might have argued against her. Instead, I just topped up my coffee and hers, then we both headed inside. I sat while King closed the door. And she didn't sit.
Before either of us could get a word out, Ixel broke the silence. "Let me save you a little bit of time, sugar. I'm not here to rat out anyone. I'm not going to blab. I'm not going to help you, unless you want me to help you with Lenva. I'm more than happy to take her away."
"Oh, so you still think that's going to work." I rolled my eyes. I wasn't even playing with her on that one. It was worthy of an eye roll. "Do I need to deliver a bag of powdered elf boy to you? Will that jog your memory on how that went last time?"
"Vois screwed up. This was the first job he's been on with us. Not a shock that he's useless." She leaned back as far as the restraints would allow and sighed. "Don't judge me or Broff based on him."
"Troll named Broff." King tapped that into her phone, then finally sat down. "And here I thought you wouldn't be helpful to us. I'll pass along his name to the proper people."
"Oh, right, like you couldn't have turned up Broff's name just by finding me. I'm not an idiot, and this isn't my first time through wringer. But I always come out on top." She smiled, and her eyes gleamed like icicles in the midday sun. "And that's against the likes of the Kingdoms. You? A bunch of humans and Mundane-bound preets? It's amazing you've lasted the decade you have."
"That's right, we're amazing." I sipped my coffee. The shit taste was enough to fuel my rage just a little bit extra. "We're amazing enough we're going to track this all down in the end. And we're amazing enough we have access to someone who can read your mind if you're uncooperative."
"And yet they aren't here, are they sugar?" She actually smiled at me, and for just a moment, I swore I felt a breath of cold against my cheek. Had she somehow slipped free of the restraining magic? Elementals were always trickier to keep under control, simply by virtue of their magic. I didn't fully understand it, and Bancroft's explanation of it had mostly slid off me, but enough stuck to know that, even restrained, we needed to take a little caution.
Then Ixel slumped back in the chair and her eyes narrowed. "You've got me pretty well under lock and key, don't you? Didn't peg you for being into that kinky shit."
"Why, just because I'm a basic white boy?" She had tried to break through what we had on her…and unfortunately, she'd succeeded. Only a little, but she only needed to exploit a single crack. They'd shown that much by breaking Gutt's original barriers around the cell. It was one little weakness between two sigils or runes or whatever the hell, and that was that. I wasn't about to let my guard down around Ixel.
Or leave my Glock anywhere but with me.
King drained out the rest of her coffee in one gulp, then tossed the Styrofoam into the trash bin in the corner. "You try any magic shit again, you might be able to get the kid. But I can take you down and I'm not afraid to do it. I've been here a hell of a long time."
"So I should just ice you out first?"
King actually smiled, leaning forward so there were just a few inches between her and Ixel. "I'm already a cold-hearted bitch. Life beat you to it. What do you want with the Class-A?"
"Business."
"What kind of business?"
"Our business."
"How did you find out about her?"
"Methods."
"Where did you get a recursive restraint module?"
"Oh you know, it was lying around."
>
"You okay with Vois getting disintegrated because you weren't brave enough to use the thing yourself? Got a little bit of him in your lungs I bet."
Shit. My spine certainly straightened when King launched that line. In part because…yeah, we probably all had breathed in a little powdered elf. Suddenly that coffee wasn't settling so well.
Ixel's eyes narrowed and her jaw tensed, but no other physical sign that had gotten to her at all. Then she shrugged. "What's the Mundane phrase? Tastes like chicken."
Okay, she was good. It wasn't easy to go tit for tat with King. While I was definitely tempted to let it continue and have King go full on bull-out-of-the-chute, I thought a change in tactics was in order.
I sat up as straight as I could. "What do you want, Ixel? Besides your freedom."
"Besides freedom? The Class-A."
"Let's start a little more reasonable."
"Sorry. I'm a woman with simple desires. That pretty much ends the list."
King snorted. "She's not going to get us anywhere. Let's let her sit for a while longer."
"Giving up so soon? And I thought we were having such a nice conversation." She forced her lips into an exaggerated pout. "Are you leaving me water, or is this that kind of prison?"
"Dr. Daniels'll bring you whatever's appropriate while he checks your vitals. I know what kind of hell fighting against those restraints can do to a preet." King sneered back at her, then opened the door. "Can't be too careful."
Then we left. As soon as the door was closed, King shook her head. "Thought she'd be a little easier to crack. Normally if they play it up like that, you just need to apply a little pressure."
"Well, she's tough." I shrugged and grabbed another refill of awful coffee. Or I almost did, until I remembered the powdered elf. I'd wait for something a little gentler on the stomach. Maybe some of Gutt's precious Earl grey. "You've got to give her credit for that, at least."
"Oh, I do." A tiny smile pulled at King's lips, but was gone almost as soon as I found it. "I was working a case in Seattle, before the OPA was even a thing. Had one like her. He was tall and handsome and made of nothing but charm and flirtation. If he hadn't been robbing King County blind and trying to pin it on his underlings, he would have been…well, I'll just say I saw how he managed to fleece so many people."
"She's definitely got charisma out the ass."
"Yeah she does."
"But she's also a remorseless kidnapper who nearly killed me. So I think I'm good without her in my life."
King chuckled, then shrugged and started us off down the hall, heading back for the main offices. "Still, I guess I can get you an ice elemental stripper for your birthday. Seems to get your motor running."
Like hell I was going to let her get the upper hand. So I kept pace with her. "Less the ice elemental, more the buzzcut."
"Oh, short hair? Guess I should keep my guard up around you." We rounded the corner and were back in front of the glass doors to the main OPA offices. "You go get Casey, I'm going to talk to Kimmy about tracking down some extra leverage."
Which really just meant she wanted a short conversation before she could get back into her office. Of all the things King was great at, dealing with people wasn't even close to the top of the list. Not that I minded. I didn't have to let Kimiko swear at me and I got to talk to Casey. Win-win.
I went down a short hallway, then turned left, and was soon enough at the OPA medical office. My back twinged as I remembered the last time I was in there, a new rush of pain, but it subsided back to the dull ache and throb I'd been dealing with since then. "Casey?"
After a few seconds, he poked his head out from the bathroom. "Oh, hey sweetie." He was looking very non-doctoral at the moment. He had on a T-shirt and jeans, and his hair looked like he'd just rolled out of bed. Judging by the broad-mouthed yawn he offered, that wasn't entirely unlikely.
"You pass out on the bathroom floor?"
"Not since college." He raised a hand to stop me. "Not that I just admitted I was drinking in college. I mean, I was so young…that would have been illegal."
"Pretty sure you're safe. Seven-year-old drug and alcohol charges aren't exactly under my purview."
He chuckled and combed his fingers through his blonde locks. It didn't do much to make them better, but now they were in a differently configured mess. "So what, did our ice elemental curse you and you need it removed?"
"Nope. For once I'm not visiting you to fix up my stupid ass. We need you to check on Ixel. She's managing to get some magic out."
"Oh, yeah. That can be nasty if she keeps trying. Might cause her some serious damage."
"Yeah, that's what King said. She wanted your medical opinion on what Ixel could drink, too."
Casey nodded and grabbed his white jacket off the coatrack. "If she's getting her magic past the restraints, then we need to be careful with what we bring her. I'm assuming she asked for water?"
"Yep. King and I aren't much on providing her with a deadly weapon, though."
Casey nodded. "She's still pretty bottled up from the sound of things. Hot water should do the trick. And I'll make sure I watch her drink it." He rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a prepared syringe filled with clear fluid. "Just in case she's really too strong. This'll suppress her right back up."
I nodded. "Be careful. She's stewing in interrogation, and she's not happy about it for some reason."
"No luck getting anything out of her, then?"
I shook my head. "She's…cold."
Casey chuckled. "Tends to happen, I guess. When you're a violent criminal, not when you're an ice elemental." He rolled his shoulders a couple times, then attempted to fix his hair in the mirror. It worked a little better, but he still looked nothing like a proper FBI medic. "What are you doing after this?"
"That depends on Kimmy." I held open the door for him. "And on Vellius."
"You finally got in touch with the Kingdoms?"
"Yeah. No idea when she's going to show her face, though. I guess they've been having some kind of security issue with all their communication channels, and they're just now getting things fixed up."
"Hell of a time for that to go down, huh?"
Yeah it was. It had stayed in the back of my mind that maybe it was connected. I had no reason to think it was more than inconvenience…but it had been a major inconvenience, and at a majorly inopportune moment. "I'm going to ask her about it. If she ever gets her scaly ass over here."
Casey nodded as we parted ways. And I was off and alone again. For approximately one second. Then King grabbed me and dragged me through the glass doors. "You'll want to hear all about this."
We marched our way into her office, and for the first time I could remember, she didn't shut the door. "What's going on?"
"Kimmy found some shit. She's digging up more as we speak." She pulled one of the chairs around next to her office chair and gestured for me to sit. "Vois? Not a single record. So he was either damn good at his job, or this was his first time on the wrong side of the law, not just his first time working with their team. And Ixel's a ghost." She flicked to a blurry image of her, paired with her name—Ixel of Nedelwald—and a signal that she was wanted. "They know she exists, but apparently they're not able to really pin anything on her." She scrolled lower, and a few minor charges were listed out. Theft, vandalism, crossing into the Mundane while on probation. The biggest thing she had on her record was interference in surveillance systems belonging to an art gallery in Nedelwald. Presumably to help carry out her thefts.
"She's either excellent, or this job's a big step up for her." I scanned over the information again, hoping to catch something new. But nothing. "If there's something worth dragging me in here, then Broff must have been a hell of a lead."
"Damn right he was. And no way in hell we'd have gotten his name out of her file." She clicked her way to a new screen. There was the troll I'd grown far too familiar with, Broff of Nedelwald, and his list of offenses stretched a lot longer than Ixel'
s.
"Dragon's dew sales, robbing from the royal house of Tarwald…trafficking greater dragons? One troll doesn't pull that off on his own."
King smiled again. "One troll and a very well-connected ice elemental, on the other hand? Very doable."
A new screen flicked up, showing his known associates. There were three. A plant elemental from Tarwald, who was already imprisoned, a lesser dragon from Al-Sekar…and Ixel. No mention of Vois, but confirmation that she worked with him often enough. I squinted at the sparse information they'd provided for us on her there. "Whereabouts unknown, flight risk, Class-B." I scrolled to the very bottom. "Contact the Royal House of Nedelwald with any information."
"Broff has the same instructions. Nedelwald wants to know if either of them makes an appearance."
"So they're big shit."
"Looks that way. And if we can assume she's heavily involved with Broff like she seems to be, then trafficking is hardly a new experience for her."
"Even trafficking Class-As?"
King shook her head. "Don't think much of anyone has experience with that. But I'm sure the basics are the same."
"Just with a lot more risk of being disintegrated." I took a moment to process everything as best I could. "We need to tell Swift."
"Already called him. You didn't think I had to share with you first, did you?"
"Still can't admit you like me?" I was going to lean on humor until it broke. I was still in pain, we had professional smugglers, both wanted by Nedelwald, and the Kingdoms still seemed to be mostly ignoring our requests for some kind of aid. Anything would have helped, really.
Someone rapped on the door jamb. I was expecting Swift. And that's who I got, but with Kimmy in tow. She looked unkempt. Still in black, but clearly they were comfy clothes, not FBI computer analyst clothes.
Swift lowered leaned against the wall. "Complications on top of complications, it seems."
"It's better than where we were." King nodded and leaned back in her seat. "At least we got a name and a criminal record for our troll."
"Our fucking dead troll." Kimmy tossed her phone down in the middle of the desk, and staring back up at us was a gray, massive body wearing black hide gear, festooned in runes and sigils. "The corpse of a troll matching his description was taken in just outside of Las Vegas. Except for the head, which is absent."
