by Sandra Elsa
She sniffled. "I took the bus."
"Go down to my car. It's the ugly green Celica. Can't miss it. I have to call another client and tell him I'm going to have to postpone."
She shored up the dam, stopping the tears, eyes shimmering green, hopeful. She did as I asked. The moment she was out the door I picked up my cell and punched in my home phone number. It rang until the machine picked up, then I hung up and called it again. When the machine answered again I said, "This is Frankie. Pick up the phone. I gave it thirty seconds before calling back.
The phone stopped ringing on the third ring and I listened to complete silence. Finally I said, "I have to go to the hospital in District Three. Meeting in my district--not a good idea. There was a whole roach convention in my office this morning and I've had an invitation to meet with a runaway's father at four o'clock. If you could meet me at District Seventeen at Romanelli's pizza shop, it might be best."
"He contacted you?" His deep voice, exuded sexiness. It did things to me it shouldn't have been able to.
"Ahhh…you are there. He was at watch HQ this morning. They contacted Sergeant Wallin. I happened to be in the car. It went downhill from there. Long and short, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to meet anywhere near my office or my home."
"Romanelli's in district seventeen. At?"
"Twelve?"
His voice tightened. The confidence of the bass rumble faded. "I'll be there."
"You OK?"
"You wouldn't set me up, would you?"
"Hell no. You came to me. If I was setting you up, I would have just told them you'd be at Giorgio's and left you to them. I’ll be there and no one else of any consequence will. I have no great love for a mage of any sort, but I tend to put my best foot forward if someone's being mistreated, and so far, your father's wish to keep you locked up doesn't sound like he has your best interest at heart."
"You do know I'm a mage, right?" He sounded dismayed at my attitude. Yeah, he'd never been on his own in the real world.
I laughed. "Pretty hard to miss that little fact. Would you rather I lie to you?"
"Well…no…Guess I'm used to being surrounded by my father's yes men. What does it mean to me that you don't like mages?"
"You're going to have to work a lot harder to convince me you're on the up and up, and that I should have anything to do with you."
A moment of silence, then, a sharp huff of laughter. "So, I, who don't trust anybody right now, have to convince you, to trust me. Not sure I can do that." I needed to end this conversation. The warm honey-smooth bass was back in his voice and it made me want to go to him.
Something was definitely not right with this picture. I couldn't feel any magic in use. I forced down the primal urges he encouraged and said, "Then it will be a short conversation and you can be on your way." My scanner beeped, Janice was who she said she was. "All right. I gotta go deal with an actual client now."
I paused in the lobby and smiled at the suit. “Still waiting?”
“He just called, said he’s about to pull in the lot.” He opened the door and followed me out. A black sedan was pulling around the lot. It was a sleek little car with a massive magic drive train. It stopped in front of the suit and he got in just as I tweaked the magic drive.
Janice was waiting by the car with her cred chip in her hand. I scanned it and she punched in her code to authorize the transfer. I checked my car for bugs and explosives, then got in and turned the key.
As I backed out I found my way blocked by the suit. Once I stopped he strolled up to my window. “There seems to be a problem with my friend’s car. Don’t suppose I could get a lift?”
I shook my head. “Sorry. I don’t have insurance to carry around the president’s men. You have a good day now. Hope it’s not a big problem with the car.”
I approached District Three with dread. Pleading for permission to get through the gate isn't the best way to impress a client. My fears were groundless. The picket nearly saluted as he waved me through. So maybe a little attention wasn't always a bad thing. I wondered how fast it would turn around when the president realized once and for all, I wasn't about to help him catch his son. I drove to the hospital and asked for the John Does brought in the day before.
"You have to be a little more specific, sweetheart" said the seventy year old volunteer at the emergency room desk. "We get more than one John Doe on most days.”
"These two looked like death warmed over. Would have been brought in fairly close together from the same location. One wore a brown pinstripe suit."
"Oh yes. John Doe, pinstripe and John Doe shorts and tennis shoes."
"Is pinstripe still alive?"
Her tongue protruded between her teeth as she scrolled through screens. When she found what she was looking for she pressed her lips together and read. White eyebrows crinkled into a vee. "He's alive. Not really well enough for visitors."
"We're not certain, but I believe this young lady is his fiancée. If she is, you'll at least have a name for him, wouldn't that be worth letting her back to see him?"
"I suppose." She looked uncertain. "If she's his fiancée, where's her ring?"
Janice, bless her, pulled a big diamond out from under her shirt. Apparently she hadn't felt like wearing something she planned to give back. "He disappeared two weeks ago, so I thought he got cold feet and I took the ring off, but I kept it."
The old woman pressed her hands over Janice's. "Let me get a nurse to take you back there my dear. He's in horrible condition. I just want you prepared. According to the notes here they've begun rehydrating him, but he's so weak it's a slow process or they risk killing him with shock."
A nurse approached the desk, brown hair done up in a perfect, tight, bun, white shoes with non-skid soles, immaculate white uniform. The volunteer explained who we were. The nurse turned, lips formed a thin line, eyes narrowed. "You do know there's a very good chance he won't survive."
"We know. We just want to be sure this is him."
Janice nodded, a knot in her throat so big I could see it. I put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed, spinning her to follow the nurse. The door we eventually walked through opened onto a spotless white room, the only interruptions to the white were the chrome machines, their beeping, green, LCD displays and a shock of dark hair sticking up from a face so pale it blended into the white sheets.
Janice edged closer to the figure on the bed. She stretched a finger out to trace the jaw. He looked better this morning than he had last night, but not by much. Janice shook her head and shrugged her shoulders in frustration. "Can I--Is it all right to pull the sheets down?" Her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink and she amended. "Just to see his chest."
The nurse stepped around her and folded the sheet back over the man's shoulders. Janice's fingers went to a freckle that was revealed. She stretched her fingers about three inches apart, the second one settling under the sheets. The nurse tugged the sheets down further and Janice lifted her finger to reveal another dark freckle. She started nodding. Two more inches of sheet revealed three more freckles, stark against the pale skin. "It's him." Her voice a whisper, she said, "His name's Terrance Brannigan."
"Very good. We'll note it in his records. Does he have next of kin we should notify?"
"I'll call his mother. Can I sit with him?"
The nurse looked between the two of us. "One person is probably more than enough."
"I'll stay while you go call his mother, then I need to go. I have another appointment." Janice and the nurse stepped out the door. I closed my eyes and searched Terrance for residual magic. A rusty brown band on his throat restrained him. I reached out and nixed it. His eyes opened wide, hands flew to his throat as he gasped air into lungs that had been too long restricted. Nurses flew through the door followed by a cart with all manner of equipment. They shunted me to the back of the room, then stopped and stared at Terrance in surprise. His eyes followed me.
Chapter 8
Nurse Perfect-Bun star
ed at me. "What did you do?"
Eyes wide in innocence, I said, "Held his hand."
She pursed her lips, looked from me to her patient, then back again before asking, "When his fiancée returns, I don't suppose you'd care to go hold the hand of the young man brought in from the same location?"
I gave a shallow nod. "I can do that."
Janice came back through the door. Her eyes widened at the sight of Terrance, eyes open, glued to my every move. I pointed at her and he shifted his attention. "Janice," the word was little more than a whisper. If I didn't know her name I wouldn't have understood it.
"All right. You kids be good to each other, I have other people to go see. Hope life does well by you."
Janice threw her arms around me as I tried to edge past. "Betsy told me you were good at what you do. Words seem a pitiful way to thank you."
"You already paid. Words are all that're necessary, and you're welcome." Nurse-Perfect-Bun held the door open and shooed the extra people out. I was the last. I pried Janice off of me and spun her toward the bed, then slid out behind the nurse. Five rooms away, she opened the door on another young man. He didn't look as bad as Terrance had, but he was just as pale and just as still. I sat in a chair beside him and took his hand under the watchful eye of the nurse. I closed my eyes and found a matching rusty band.
"Wait!" The nurse stopped me. "Before you do anything, let me turn these alarms off. She flipped several switches then stood back up and nodded, "Go ahead."
I nixed the band of energy and the young man awoke with the same reaction Terrance had.
The nurse felt his pulse and forced him to lie back as she checked all the machines. "That's one hell of a handholding you do. I daresay both these young men owe you their lives. Nobody could figure out why they didn't improve."
"The power of positive thinking." I grinned at her.
"Please. Tell me what you did? At most I’ll let the doctors know what they’re dealing with. No newsvids. No pursuit by curious gawkers." She waited a moment as I debated finally she said, “No mages.”
That was the one I needed to hear. I nodded slowly. “Absolutely no mages. And no security vid of me coming in or out of this hospital.”
She nodded again.
"The siphon that attacked them placed a restraint so they could barely breathe. I just removed the garrote." If I wanted to own my future it was time to shut my mouth. She was already looking at me in a way I wished to avoid.
"I understand your reticence. I guess I’ll just say thank you for these young men and let you go."
I turned to go, but the young man had hold of my hand. Red eyes explored the room he was in and settled on me. "Thank you." His voice was as rough as Terrance's.
The eyes made me wish I hadn't done anything for him. Not after Wally had grudgingly admitted they were a family trait, in a family I now knew to be connected to the president. "Do me a favor. If any of your family find you, this never happened."
He raised my hand to his lips. When he lowered it, he said, "Only one of my family I'm interested in seeing."
I patted his hand between mine. "We're good then. I have to get out of here. Busy day ahead."
"Thank you, Miss..."
"You're welcome." I turned and walked out the door as he struggled to sit up in his bed while Nurse Perfect-Bun held him down.
I hurried to the car and having learned a good dose of paranoia in the last forty-eight hours, checked for bombs. Wondered how long it would take until I stopped doing that. The car was clean. As an afterthought, I checked for magic. Under the floor mat of the back seat on the passenger side was a tiny blip that looked like a rain cloud. Had I missed it before? It looked like Harrison, and I had told him where I was going to be. I poked at it and examined it closely. Unable to determine its function, I squashed it. Satisfied I wasn't tagged, bugged, or about to blow-up, I started the car.
The passenger door opened and a man slid in the front seat. I had my nine-mil in his ribs before I realized it was Harrison. "Good way to get yourself killed."
Chapter 9
Harrison held his hands away from his sides. As if empty and unarmed meant anything coming from a mage. "I'm sorry. I wasn't comfortable showing up at a prearranged meeting. Figured I'd follow you around until you stopped for a snack or something, then casually bump into you. But since you destroyed my tag, it would have been nearly impossible to follow you."
"So that was a tracking beacon?"
"Kind of. But only for me. It's a small part of my magic. I remain aware of it wherever it goes. What did you do to it?"
"Why, you want it back?"
He shook his head. "It's gone. Or altered so much I could never reabsorb it. I just want to know who or what I'm dealing with."
"Frankly Harrison, I don't give a good, god-damn what you want." I handed him a business card. "Name's on there. Francesca Leone, Private Investigator. That's who and what I am. You came to me, so you can trust me, and show up when and where I told you to, or you can get the hell out of my car and never darken any of my doorways again." That would be a shame. He was certainly more picturesque than any client I’d had in a long time. Or maybe ever. And it's not like my problems would end if the scenery changed.
"And what if I refuse?" His expression was mulish.
I couldn't believe the charity case I let stay in my home was challenging me. "It's my understanding that a taser drastically screws up a mage's energy. I have nothing against a little field research."
He glanced dismissively at the pistol. "That's not a taser in your hand."
"Yeah...well...I reckon bleeding from a hole in your gut would mess up your energy too. But I'd probably only use the taser in my purse. Doubt your father would give me a reward for a cold dead body." Without dropping the muzzle or looking away, I snaked the taser out of my purse with my left hand.
"Can't we just talk now?" At least he had the decency to sound nervous.
"No. By the way, are you also missing a brother, cousin, nephew--fill in the blank with the appropriate male relation?"
"Cousin. He's the reason I left in the first place. Have you seen him?"
I pursed my lips and considered the mess I was snarled in. God I wanted to taser him just for being stupid enough to get tangled up with a siphon. Might not help anything, but it'd make me feel a whole lot better. "Coincidence is piling on a little thick. Your lovely playmate nearly drained a male with red eyes. He's in there." I hiked my thumb at the hospital.
"Not really coincidence. She came to me. Said Jerry needed my help. We stopped at a hotel in District Six and suddenly I forgot all about Jerry. How could I have been so stupid? All I could think about was the next time I could see her."
"So you didn't intentionally run away." OK. Maybe I was blaming the wrong red-eyed bastard.
"No. But when I came out of my daze in that room full of bodies, I barely escaped with my life--"
"Who took you there?"
"I got a note from Ivy saying to meet her at Minale's in District Eleven. When I got there, a man I never met before was waiting outside. Said Ivy was out in back of the restaurant. He entranced me before I knew what he was doing and put some kind of garrote on my throat. What was out back was some kind of creature I've never seen before."
"Look like it was made of shadows?"
"That's it. You know what it is?"
"Met it. Shot it. Watched it get up and run away."
His jaw hung open. After a moment he closed it and continued. "It dragged me into that alley. The man strolled along talking, like it was all, business as usual. Told me he was Ivy's husband. Bragged about how he had me tracked down. Guess that was you."
I nodded, biting my lower lip. "That's why he wanted me to follow her the second week. Asked me to call him when she was with you."
He hung his head. "The shadow creature dragged me into a room filled with bodies. That's when I panicked. Adrenalin hit me like an annual tempest. Gave me the strength to beat the restraint in spite of
the fact that apparently I slept with a siphon." Harrison's hand ran through his blond hair, pushing it back out of his eyes. He lifted his head, but wouldn't look at me. "That at least explains how he restrained me at all. The shadow thing was guarding the door. I went for the window. Barely convinced it to explode before I hit it. I'm afraid the concussion may have killed Ivy's husband, but I can argue self-defense."
I hadn't come here to hear his story, we had an appointment for that. Right now I didn't particularly care to listen to it. He was already more trouble than I needed. "Do you want to see your cousin?"
"Yes...No...I need a crowd to hide. I killed a man. I don't want to be caught."
"You're the son of the most influential and powerful man in the world. Self-defense probably wouldn't even appear in a courtroom. He wants you back, why don't you just go home."
"It's not that he wants me back, so much as he doesn't want me out here, where he can't control me. And in spite of everything that's happened to me, I like being free. I don't plan to sabotage his political career."
In the rearview mirror, a Hummer pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. "You might want to get on the floor unless you want me to be the heroine who safely returns you to your loving daddy."
His head spun to look at the Hummer, but even as he searched, he slid down like a melting iceberg. I stared at the liquid pool on the floor. With conscious effort I snapped my jaw shut and started to drive. After we passed the District Three Hummer, I said. "Now that's one I've never even heard stories about. Are you all right? You're not going to soak into my carpet or anything are you?"
He flowed upwards in a reverse process of the trick he'd just performed. "That's all you have to say? That trick amazes and delights."
"Children maybe."
He looked disappointed. "Is there anything I can do to impress you?"
"Why would you want to bother? And no, magic doesn't impress me. So far the most impressed I am is that somebody who's been described to me as, unworldly as a ten year old, managed to save himself from a siphon."
