by R. L. King
“So, now what?” Jason asked as they were once more on the road, heading back to the Forgotten’s current location to drop off their two guests. “Do you go back and try to work out how to build your cage?”
“Exactly,” Stone said. “Hopefully, by the time I finish, Lamar’s feelers will have come back with some solid information about where we need to look for our big baddie.”
“Well, I hope it doesn’t take too long,” Jason grumbled. “I’m getting sick of being cooped up in the house, even though I know it’s not really safe to make too many appearances out in public right now.”
Stone nodded. “I know, and I sympathize. But you’re right—it wouldn’t make sense to go through all this effort to deal with the Evil, only to have you two get picked off by a couple of DMW because you simply had to go to the cinema.”
Once again, they were met by a small party of Forgotten before they even parked the van. Marilee and Benny looked relieved that Lissy and Susanna had made it back safely. “No problems?” Marilee asked as they all went back inside to say their goodnights, and Stone broke off to go have a quick chat with Lamar.
“Nothing,” Jason said. “But Al says we can’t really do anything else until we get more information about where the Head Evil Thing is hanging out.”
Marilee nodded. “I know. We’ve put the word out to every Forgotten group we know, but nothing’s come back yet. Like Lamar said, I think a lot of them are afraid. They don’t think it’s a good idea to poke at the Evil. We’ve spent so long hiding from them that going after them seems…suicidal.” She sighed. “Still, though, I’m sure something will turn up.”
“I hope so,” Jason said.
Stone spent the next three days once again splitting his time between his magic setup in the family room and his bedroom office with the door closed. The only time he came up for air was to disappear for about a half-hour after Verity complained of being bored and running out of new recipes to try. “Here,” he said when he returned, handing her a small stack of leather-bound tomes. “Start reading these. They’ll give you some of the basic theory and concepts behind magic. It’ll give you a leg up when you’re ready to begin your studies.”
She riffled through one, wrinkling her nose. “These look like math books,” she complained.
“Our sort of magic has a lot of math in it,” Stone told her. “Might as well get used to it if you want to be any good.”
She grumbled something noncommittal, but took the books to her bedroom.
On the third night, Stone was a little late for dinner. Jason was about to go hunt him up when he came down the hall and dropped into his chair, plunking a small object down next to his plate.
Jason looked at it curiously. It looked like an open cube a little smaller than a child’s building block, comprising eight crystals of varying hues held together by gold, silver, and copper wire. He was about to ask what it was when he remembered what Stone had been doing all this time. “Wait—that’s the cage?”
“That’s it.”
Verity regarded it with a tilted head. “It doesn’t look very powerful,” she said. “I thought it would be—I don’t know—bigger. How’s it work?”
“Well, it needs to be small so we can take it wherever we need to go without someone noticing it. Since I don’t expect we’ll be able to lure our big Evil out of his hidey-hole, we’ll likely have to go in after him. And if he’s some sort of powerful entity like a police chief or a politician, walking in with a large, strange-looking object hardly seems prudent, does it?”
“How’s it work?” Verity asked again. She extended a tentative hand and, at Stone’s nod, carefully picked it up and examined it.
“It’s attuned to the wavelength of the Evil, at least as much as I could determine it through my brief experiments with our young friend. When activated, it will create a magical field that, if we’re fortunate, will contain any specimen of the Evil that happens to be nearby.”
“Is it powerful enough?” Jason asked. He, like Verity, was dubious—the thing looked like something a moderately talented beginning jewelry maker might cobble together from spare parts.
“Well, the power doesn’t come from the object, but from me,” Stone said. “The object merely focuses it and attunes it to the proper energies.” He took it back from Verity, holding it up in his palm. “It also, I believe, has another serendipitous side effect.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m not positive, since it’s impossible to test it here, but I’m fairly sure that it will resonate when it’s near the Evil.”
Jason’s gaze on the little thing sharpened. “You mean it’ll buzz or glow or something when it’s near somebody who’s possessed?”
“That’s the theory. If it works, it solves another problem that I was concerned about—that wherever our quarry ends up hiding, we’d have to take one or more of the Forgotten with us to help triangulate on its precise location.”
Jason let his breath out slowly. The thought of dragging Lissy and Susanna into a police precinct or office building or some other restricted, public place didn’t sound like a great idea. Something else was bothering him too, though. “Well, yeah, that’s a good thing. But this whole thing seems pretty sketchy. You keep saying things like ‘if I’m right’ and ‘if we’re lucky’ and ‘I can’t be sure, but—’” He shook his head. “It sounds like one big magical house of cards that will crash and burn on us if one of these ‘maybes’ or ‘I hopes’ of yours is wrong.”
If he was hoping for some reassurance from Stone, he was disappointed. “You’re absolutely right,” the mage conceded. “And I’m afraid that’s the best we’re going to get. We can’t spend too much more time planning—every day we take is another day something could go wrong. Especially with Lamar putting out feelers among other Forgotten groups. No offense intended to our friends, but having a whole army of mentally unhinged individuals in on the fact that we’re planning to hunt down and execute our enemy’s leader doesn’t exactly fill me with warm feelings of confidence.”
Either by coincidence or by design, they didn’t have long to wait. When Verity went out to get the paper the next morning, she found a small triangle-and-rays symbol chalked on the front porch next to it. She quickly called Stone and Jason out to look at it, and Stone looked satisfied. “Aha,” he said. “It appears that we have our sign.”
“You think they’ve found something?” Jason asked.
“Let’s go find out.”
The Forgotten were still in the same place; apparently they either felt safe at the mall storeroom, or else were risking remaining there a bit longer than was technically prudent so Stone and the others could easily find them. As usual, the reception committee came out to meet them; this time Lamar himself was among the group. “Good morning,” he said. “I see you got the message.” He looked uncharacteristically grim.
Jason handed over the large box of doughnuts and pastries they’d bought on the way over, and they all trooped back to the storeroom. “Something wrong?”
Lamar nodded. He waited until they were seated to speak. “The DMW are growing more active. They’re trying to find you—or any of us who’ve helped you. Three homeless people were found dead two nights ago not far from here. They’d been tortured. They weren’t Forgotten, but we hear things.”
“The Evil are getting closer,” Marilee said. Fear shadowed her wrinkled face.
Stone bowed his head. “Damn,” he said. He looked like he was wrestling with something, then finally said, “Perhaps you should just stay away from us. Stop looking for the Evil. We’ll find another way.”
Verity nodded. “Yeah. You shouldn’t risk it. If you guys got killed over this—”
Lamar shook his head. “We said we’d help, and we will. But some of the group are starting to have second thoughts. It’s getting harder to convince other groups to talk. But that’s why we contacted you. We think we found something.”
“You found him?” Stone asked.
&n
bsp; “Or her?” Verity added.
“Well—yes and no,” Lamar said. “We’re closer, but we still have more work to do.”
Stone frowned. “What do you mean? You haven’t found him yet?”
“We’ve narrowed it down,” Marilee said. “It took a while because he’s not nearby. We’re pretty sure that he’s in San Francisco. Or she,” she added, with a glance at Verity. “It took a while to get the information back because the Forgotten over there are very frightened. Apparently it’s much more dangerous to be homeless in San Francisco than it is on this end of the bay, even with the DMV on the rise down here. Many of them—not just Forgotten, but homeless in general—have disappeared without a trace. And naturally, the police can’t be bothered to try to figure out why, so the Forgotten learn to keep their heads even further down than usual.”
Jason looked disappointed. It was bad enough that the Evil were getting closer to tracking down the Forgotten, but he’d been sure they were finally going to get the answer that would lead them to their quarry. Now, though, it seemed like they still had a long way to go. “San Francisco’s a big city,” he said. “We can’t exactly drive around with Lissy in the back seat looking for readings. I’m betting there’s tons of Evil up there.”
“Well, it’s a start,” Stone said, clearly trying to make the best of it. “Do you have contact with the Forgotten up there? Can you ask them to help us narrow things down a bit?”
“We’re already doing that,” Lamar said. He sighed. “I’m sorry. I wish we could move faster, but there isn’t really much else we can do. Especially now. We have to be even more careful.”
“It’s okay,” Jason assured him with a sigh, trying to hide his frustration. The thought of having to go back to the rental house and spend an indefinite amount of time puttering aimlessly around in an attempt to kill time was a tiny version of hell for him. He wanted to do something. “You gotta keep yourselves safe. That’s the priority. We know you’re doing your best.”
“We’re going to have to move again,” Lamar said. “We’ve stayed here too long.” He gave Stone a small piece of paper. “Here’s where we’re going next. It’s in Mountain View.”
Marilee started to speak, but then she noticed something and quickly struggled to her feet. “Hey now,” she called, heading off at a quick waddle.
The others turned to see what she was so agitated about, and all of them grinned. The black kitten had somehow gotten herself stuck headfirst in one of the shopping bags hanging off the side of Marilee’s cart, and her tiny legs were pistoning around trying to get purchase, while her stubby little tail waved in agitation. Marilee quickly dug her out and set her on her feet, where she proceeded to look around with proper feline indignation and then began licking her back leg as if to say, “I meant to do that.”
Stone chuckled. “Another intrepid explorer foiled in her plans,” he began. “She—” But then he stopped. “What is it?”
Marilee had turned to come back to where they were sitting, but she only made it a couple of steps before stopping again. For several seconds she just stood there, looking deep in thought. Her expression glazed over as if she were seeing something far away, and then without a word of explanation she turned her back on them and moved back over next to the cart.
“What’s she—?” Jason started, but Lamar put a finger to his lips, watching her intently.
Her back still to them, Marilee stood regarding the cart for several more seconds. Then she reached out and plunged her hand into one of the several shopping bags she had attached to various points around its perimeter. She rooted around a bit, after a moment coming up with a piece of glossy paper in black and white with garish red highlights. Then she turned as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, returned to the group, and plopped back down next to Lamar.
“What have you got there?” Stone asked her, curious.
She handed it over without a word. The glazed look was still in her eyes, but it was fading.
Stone took it and smoothed it out. His eyes darted back and forth as he took it all in, then put the paper down so everyone could see it.
Even at first glance it was obvious that it was a flyer for some sort of nightclub. They were all quiet for several moments as they read over the copy:
EXCLUSIVE BAY AREA ENGAGEMENT
-NIHIL-
-VERZWEIFLUNG-
-RAZORBABIES-
ONE NIGHT ONLY
Fetish Wear Strongly Encouraged
WILL TO POWER
Free Your Urges!
The flyer was covered with stylized symbols of anarchy and rebellion, along with an image of a square-jawed young man and woman in leather and sunglasses, staring off into the distance at a sky filled with missiles. The date for the show was the following night.
“Look at the address,” Stone said. There was an odd note in his voice.
Jason’s eyes widened. “It’s in San Francisco.”
Verity was staring at Marilee. “You—find things in your cart,” she said, like she couldn’t quite believe it. “I’ve seen you do it before. Could this be—?”
Marilee’s expression had returned to normal by now. She looked at the flyer almost as if she’d never seen it before. “It—could be,” she admitted. “Sometimes I just—find things. Things I need. Even though I don’t ever remember putting them in there.”
Jason was looking at Stone. “Why would she have a flyer for a show at a club in San Francisco?” he asked. “Do they advertise down here?”
“They might, if it’s a big enough show,” Stone said. “But this does seem to be quite a coincidence.” He looked at the flyer again. “I’ve heard of this place. Some of my students talk about it occasionally.”
“What kind of club is it?” Jason asked. “‘Fetish Wear Strongly Encouraged?’ Is it some kind of S&M dungeon?”
Stone nodded. “Yes, among other things. The upper part—the main part, actually—is a nightclub that features bands that play dark music. Gothic, industrial, that sort of thing. Lots of bands imported from Germany and Scandinavia. Occult Studies tends to attract people who enjoy that lifestyle. Some of them are Wiccans, some are goths—some of them just like anything that’s spooky or mystical or ‘evil.’” He put finger quotes around the last word. “And some of them just like dressing up in studded leather, black trench coats, and too much makeup.”
“But what about the rest?” Jason asked, trying not to notice that Verity was looking far more interested than he thought she should in this whole topic.
“The rest is a bit foggier,” Stone said. “From what I understand, the lower level of the club is invitation only, and caters to what a couple of my students call ‘the scene.’ ”
“The scene?” Jason was perplexed. The kind of clubs he frequented were more properly called ‘bars,’ and the music played there was generally of the garage-band hard-rock variety.
“It’s a BDSM sex club,” Stone said, “For people who are into leather and whips and tying each other up and playing slave and master. That sort of thing.”
Jason was silent for several seconds. “And he’s in there?”
“It sort of makes sense, doesn’t it?” Verity said, speaking up for the first time. “They like pain and misery and strong emotion. What would be a better place to get a steady source of that than a place where people go to hurt each other and get hurt on purpose?”
“That’s a damned good point,” Stone agreed, nodding. He looked at Marilee. “You’ve done this before, then?”
“Yes,” she said. “Lots of times. I usually find things that our group needs—coupons, sometimes old tools or a hat or socks or that kind of thing. Occasionally a little bit of money. It’s never anything very valuable, or new—just stuff I might pick on the street. Except that I never remember picking it up after I find it in there.”
“Interesting…” Stone said. “So—if this ability of yours helps you find the things you need, then—we need to locate this person, and you find a fly
er for a club in the very city where he’s supposed to be.” He looked at Jason. “I’m inclined to take a chance on this,” he said. “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen some of their abilities firsthand. But this just seems like too much of a coincidence not to follow up.”
“So—we’re going to an S&M club,” Jason said. He didn’t sound at all enthusiastic. “Are you sure about this, Al?” He glanced at Verity, unable to hide his big-brotherly concern. “It’s probably 21 and over. I bet V can’t even get in.”
Verity rolled her eyes. “Come on, Jason. I spent the last five years in the nuthouse and even I know about fake IDs. We’ll just have to get me one.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Jason grumbled. “And where are we gonna find ‘fetish wear’? I don’t even know what that is. I’m not going anywhere in skintight spandex pants and a leather harness, and there’s no argument about that. The Evil can take over the world before that’s gonna happen.”
Stone chuckled. “I don’t think it will come to that,” he said. “I’m not exactly enthusiastic about the idea myself—I’m a bit old for this sort of thing—but we’ll do what we have to. As I said, I have some students who are familiar with the place—or at least the club. I’ll give one of them a call for advice. They can probably also give us the basic layout so we don’t have to go in blind.”
Lamar and Marilee had been watching them, saying nothing. Now, though, Lamar spoke up. “You—don’t want any of us to go with you to this place, do you?”
Stone shook his head. “No,” he said gently. “You’ve all done enough already, and we can’t begin to thank you for it. There wouldn’t be any point in putting you in further danger. In fact, I’d say it would be best if we didn’t contact each other anymore until after we’ve checked this place out. Of course, if you need help, you have only to call.”
