by Jan Stryvant
"Evening, Officers," he said, giving them a quick glance before returning to looking at something on his smartphone.
Peg turned to Cali., "Sheldon, what room are they in again?"
Cali just shrugged.
"Great, run out to the car and grab the folder," Peg said with a heavy sigh.
"Rooms two-eleven and two-thirteen," the young man behind the desk answered without even looking up. "Stairs are at the end of the hallway."
"Thanks," Peg said with a wave and led them down the hallway to the stairs.
"That was easier than I thought it would be," Estrella admitted in a low voice as they went up the stairs.
"Are there any cameras here?" Cali asked.
"Yes, but they're not seeing us," Peg told her.
Looking down the hallway, they didn't see anyone keeping watch.
"How much longer will this illusion last?"
"About two minutes. Or until you touch anything grounded."
"Thanks. Now wait here," Cali said, putting a hand on Peg's shoulder.
Peg nodded and gulped. Robbing people was one thing; killing them, well, as much as she felt this guy had to go, she didn't want to be there when he went.
Cali led off down the hallway, with Estrella close behind. For all that they looked like a couple of uniformed officers, they still moved as silently as they ever did, the items on their utility belts not making any noise.
When Cali reached room two eleven, she stopped a moment and listened, while Estrella sniffed the air. She could hear several men and women inside talking. Looking at Estrella, she shook her head. Estrella nodded and held up her hands with six fingers up. Cali thought about that; six wouldn't be too much trouble if worse came to worse.
Moving to the next door, she stopped and listened. Even with her sensitive ears, it took a moment to hear the soft snoring inside. She looked at Estrella, who nodded and held up one finger.
Turning back to the door, Cali pulled out a piece of very intelligent plastic. It looked like a credit card, but this wonderful little magical device slid around the door jamb as she worked it in. Then with a squeeze at the right spot, it flowed around and under the latch as it became almost liquid at the end.
Once she'd worked it into the right spot, she stopped squeezing it, and the plastic returned to its flat shape with the single bend, forcing the striker back into the door as it did so.
Pulling out a second card, she worked this one around the door just above the deadbolt. Squeezing that one turned the bottom edge into an incredibly sharp magical knife, and with a little bit of muscle, she sliced through the deadbolt without any difficulty, pushing the door open slowly.
Scanning the room, they both saw their target, Justin, was asleep in the bed. But the door to the adjoining room was open. Thankfully someone, probably Justin, had turned the radio on and tuned it to static. The low noise was quite good at covering the muffled conversations of the officers in the next room.
Recovering her cards, Cali put them away, then carefully turned the deadbolt so it went back into the door. She added a couple of drops of a 'magical' epoxy she'd bought at the hardware store on the cut end after she pried the other piece out of the slot, and put it back together. Once it hardened, unless you looked at it, you'd never know it was cut.
They both stepped inside the room carefully then, Estrella slowly closing the door almost all the way. The metal door jamb must have been grounded, because Cali noticed her illusion was gone, though Estrella's persisted. Dropping down to her hands and knees, she took out a small mirror to peer around the open door to see what she was dealing with.
There was an officer sitting there with a smartphone, reading something on it and looking up occasionally. From his vantage point he could see most of the bed, but definitely not all of it.
She held up a hand to wave Estrella back. The moment he looked up again, she prepared herself, and when he looked down, she quietly moved across the open doorway. Staying low, she crawled around the bed to the far side, out of sight of the watchman. Looking back at Estrella again, she motioned for her to wait as she got out a rolled-up piece of cloth. Unrolling it carefully, Cali looked at the six long needles, each of which was in a special, well-protected pocket. They were each coated with a poison. Three were instant, the other three were not, and one of those had some very nasty side effects before it killed you, slowly.
If she killed him instantly, he'd stop snoring, and someone would come in to investigate. So one of the slow ones it was. But making this look as natural as possible was in order here. Besides, he hadn't quite done anything that required him to suffer, just to die.
Pulling out one of the two, she made her choice, then slid her hands under the bed covers, gently touching his arm, looking for a spot that wasn't protected by clothing. Once she found that, she brought the needle close, withdrawing her other hand to keep from accidentally stabbing herself, and gave him a small prick with the needle.
He snorted and jumped a moment, and Cali quickly withdrew and laid flat on the floor as she put the needle in an empty slot in the fabric, rolled it back up, and then stuck it back in her pocket.
Thankfully he didn't wake up, so she carefully made her way back to the door, then back to Estrella when the guard looked back at his phone again.
Slipping out, they carefully closed the door behind them, and joined Peg on the stairs.
"Is he dead?" Peg asked.
"Not yet, but he will be soon. We must leave without being seen."
"Follow me, I know another way out."
By the time they got to the car, Cali was surprised there hadn't been any excitement.
"You sure he's dead?" Estrella asked.
Cali nodded. "The poison I used is lethal."
"What's it do?"
"It causes all your muscles to seize instantly. It lasts for about an hour, or until the muscle dies. The heart, however, is not working during that time, so when it does wear off, the victim is long dead."
"So they don't crap themselves immediately," Estrella said with a nod. "No one will smell it."
"But he will jerk in bed once as his muscles all go stiff, and he then stops snoring. I do not think they will miss that."
"Well, either they missed it, it didn't work, or they're keeping things quiet," Peg said as she pulled out onto the street and headed back to the ranch. "In either case, I'm sure we'll hear all about it in the morning."
A Change of Attitude
"What is so damn important that you needed me to come down here right away this morning!" Sean growled as he stomped into the mayor's office. "A gateway opened just thirty minutes ago, and we've got fighting going on!" He was wearing shorts, a holster, and not much else. He was in his hybrid form as well, and from the number of looks he'd gotten as he'd bulled his way past everyone and up here, no one quite knew what to make of him. The only reason they'd recognized him, he suspected, was because Daelyn, Cali, Peg, and Estrella where with him.
They'd had to drive in, since all the helicopters were in use right now as his troops set up a holding action to let the 70th Armor Regiment get their tanks into action. From the last report he'd gotten, they should be hitting the djevels at the gateway any minute now. Apparently those tanks could go pretty damn fast when they wanted to.
"What are you doing looking like that?" the mayor gasped.
Sean looked around the room. The chief of police was there, as well as the chief of the fire department, the entire city council, and all of the other department heads, except Justin apparently. Bill, his father-in-law, was somewhere on the road behind him, and Claudia had already told him she had better things to do today than listen to what she already suspected was coming.
"I was about to put my armor on when you called. I would have come naked, but I figured you wouldn't appreciate that, so I put my shorts back on first."
"I, I meant why aren't you human?"
"Because this is the real me." Sean scanned the room again, only this time he growled. "A
pparently several of you seem to have gotten the impression that the kind-looking young man who sits here every week and puts up with all your shit is the real me."
There were several gasps at that.
"That kind young man died a long time ago, back when my father was murdered, if you want me to be totally honest. You've all mistaken my patience for naiveté. Well, guess what? That ran out yesterday. Now I've got a war to fight and not a lot of time for petty-ass politics. What is so damned important that you had to have me here?"
"Justin is dead," Sid, the Chief of Police, said.
"Justin?" Sean asked looking confused. Oh, he knew who Justin was, and he had a fairly good idea of what had happened to him, but he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.
"The man you argued with yesterday."
"I didn't argue with anybody," Sean said. "I just listened to an incredibly rude, self-centered, and conceited man lecture me about things I knew to be complete bullshit."
"You said you were going to kill him!"
"No, I said once martial law was declared I'd execute him for being a traitor. So he's dead? What does that have to do with me?"
"Sean," the mayor said in a placating voice, "after you left, your wife Peg there had some very, well, nasty, things to say about Justin. She told us he'd be dead by morning, and he is."
"The sun also came up this morning. You blaming them for that as well?" Sean growled.
"Sean! This is serious! Justin was murdered, and one your wives killed him! Peg even told us they would."
"Oh? Was he hacked to death?"
"What? Lord no!"
"Then it wasn't Estrella, cause that's how she kills people. Did he look like a used pincushion? Was he stuck full of knives? No?" Sean asked as the mayor again shook her head.
"Then it wasn't Cali, because that's what she would have done. Me? I'd have ripped off his head or one of his arms. But then I know I didn't do it, because I was spending the night having sex with my wives. Which is how I know they didn't do it either, because they were all there!"
"You can't expect me to believe that, young man!" Sid yelled.
"Oh, shit," Sean heard Bill's voice from the door. Obviously he'd just walked into the room.
Sean had taken a step towards Sid, but he stopped and thought about what he was going to do next. He couldn't beat these people like a bad habit, because frankly he needed them. But, as he'd told the others yesterday, he was taking over.
It was time to lower the boom.
"Okay," Sean said in a soft voice, causing all of them, despite the angry look on his face, to lean in closer so they could hear what he was saying. "This is the way things are going to be from now on. I'm in charge."
"What! No! You can't be serious!" They all started talking at once.
Sean cast a mass silence spell, shutting them up instantly. They looked surprised as their mouths kept moving, but no words came out.
"I am declaring martial law. I am now the military mayor, or governor if you will, of Everything North of Carson City. You can bitch about it all you want, but that's the way it is. Mayor Schiere, you will continue as the acting mayor of Reno until this war is over, because I don't have the time to deal with the day-to-day details. But you will be taking orders from me. All of you will."
Sean noticed someone mouth the words 'I quit', and he smiled, slowly, showing lots of teeth.
"The only way any of you get to quit will be because I killed you. Understand? You all went though a lot of hard work to get your jobs, your positions, and you enjoyed them, as well as the benefits that came with them.
"Well, guess what? Playtime is over, and the party has ended. Now you get to pay for everything you've done, all you've gained. The only way out now is feet first, and if I think any of you are sandbagging me, I'll be the one sending you," Sean lowered his voice into a deep growl then, "understand?"
He noticed a lot of shocked looks around the room.
"If you go outside and listen, right now you'll hear a lot of explosions going off in the distance. That's the 70th Armor Regiment, fighting djevels. Every once in a while you might hear a whole bunch go off at once. That's a tank being destroyed, and three people I ordered to go out there and die for you ungrateful bastards getting killed. I've been asked repeatedly since I left here yesterday to do my best to defend Reno. So I'm going to do it. And all of you," Sean looked around the room again, "are going to do your damnedest to help, or you will die trying.
"I'm not playing around anymore. You all seem to have forgotten just who and what I am, and while I may not be your god, my people are dying out there by the dozens, the hundreds, sometimes even the thousands, to save your worthless asses. I owe it to them to come in here and kick your asses into line, so I'm doing it."
Sean turned back to the mayor. "Start evacuating anyone who's willing to go, especially women and children. At least mothers and their children. The fewer people we have to defend, the easier it will be."
Sean waved his hand and dropped the spell. "There's a war on people, now get to work!"
"But, but what about Justin?" someone asked.
"Promote who ever was under him, obviously," Sean said and, turning on his heel, he stalked out of the room, nodding to Bill as he passed him, with Daelyn, Cali, Estrella, and Peg, who was smiling happily, behind him.
"Well," Bill said with a big smile on his face as he clapped his hands. "That went well!"
"That was well?" the mayor asked, eyes wide.
"Lions have nasty tempers. I thought for sure I was going to find half of you dead by the time I got here."
"You're not joking, are you, Bill?" Sid asked.
Bill shook his head. "Not even a little bit. I guess I'm partially to blame. I should have warned you, but then, I honestly didn't think any of you would be as stupid as that Justin guy was. Well, he's dead now and you all better remember that lesson."
"What lesson?"
"That getting in a lion's face is often fatal."
"So Sean did kill him then?"
Bill snorted. "Sean doesn't have the time to sneak into someone's house and kill them. He would have just walked in here, shot him, and left, while you all watched, unable to do a thing to stop him.
"I don't know who killed Justin, and I don't care. You heard the lion. You have a job to do, and your continued survival, as well as that of a couple hundred thousand other people, depends on it.
"Now, let's get to work."
"How long do you think you have until the governor calls you?" Peg asked as they drove back to the ranch.
"I'm more worried about the president," Sean replied.
"Eh, too many cooks," Daelyn said as she sent them sliding around the on ramp, passing all the cars on it in the process in the blink of an eye.
"I must agree," Estrella said. "A divided command never works."
"Plus I'm a lion, right?" Sean said with a chuckle.
"Well, I may be just a tiny bit biased there," Estrella admitted.
"I am surprised you haven't asked us how we did it," Cali said.
Sean leaned back in his seat. "I said you didn't, so obviously you didn't. He must have just fallen down that elevator shaft and landed on all those bullets."
"Huh?" Estrella said with a confused look on her face.
"Modern culture reference," Peg supplied.
"I'll show it to you later, Stell," Cali said with a smile and patted her leg.
"Guess I know what movie we're watchin' tonight," Daelyn chuckled.
"Hopefully I'll be joining you," Sean said, looking out the window.
"What? You got other plans, Lion-boy?"
"Well, there is a war on, as I recall."
"Yeah, but you sent those tanks to deal with it. Let 'em have their way with it. They ain't gonna learn if you don't let them fight."
"Still, I need to fly out there and check on things."
"You just don't want to be here if the governor calls!" Peg said with a snicker.
"Okay, oka
y, I'll come back and watch the movie with you." Sean sighed, but he was smiling. "But I am getting tired of sitting in that office all the time. We've got one more gateway 'til the main event, and I just don't want to miss anything important."
"With all the people you have working for you now, I don't think you have any worries on that score, Love," Estrella told him.
"Then why was I one of the few who went and set up a bunch of safe houses?"
"Well, I don't think most are really going to need them. They're more for the people caught behind the lines, right?"
Sean nodded.
"And anyone caught behind them is either working for us and we sent them there, or somebody who didn't run when we told them too."
"In which case, not our problem," Daelyn agreed.
Sean thought about that. Refugees were definitely going to become a major problem. He just hoped it wasn't one he'd have to deal with. As they pulled into the driveway, a thought occurred to him.
"Dae?"
"Yeah, Sean?"
"Put together a crew and move all our tag and necklace machines into the dwarven halls, please? I don't think it's safe to leave them here anymore."
"All of 'em?"
"I'll talk to Rox and see if she can get Ted to set something up in Vegas. If so, we'll send a set down there."
"Or we could just send half of them to the dwarven hall outside Vegas, ye know."
Sean looked at Daelyn, who was smiling at him smugly as she stopped the car.
Sean leaned over and kissed her. "Thanks for the reminder. Yes, do that."
Getting out of the car, Sean helped the others out. Three in the back was a little tight in the 'Cuda, but the girls didn't seem to mind, and it was a lot faster than the van.
Giving each of them a kiss, he then headed to Roxy's office.
"What's up?" she asked as he came in.
"You are. Gear up, you and I are going to go check on the battle, then I think we're going to fly south and look for where we're going to move all of this." He waved his arm around.
Standing up, Roxy nodded. "My gear's with yours. When are you thinking of moving everything?"
