by Jon F. Merz
I looked at her. “Isn’t true love worth the risk? You did it before.”
“We were a lot younger before,” said Belladonna. “I’m old now. Running for my life doesn’t sound all that appealing. Even if it’s with the only man I’ve ever truly loved.”
7
The phone call came in after we were done eating. Belladonna answered it and I hovered nearby listening for anything I could glean from the call.
The voice was gruff. “You want to see her alive again?”
“Of course,” said Belladonna. “Just tell me what I have to do.”
“We want the relic.”
Belladonna frowned. “What relic?”
The voice didn’t hesitate. “If you play around, we will start sending pieces of her back to you in small boxes. Do you understand? Don’t fuck with us.”
“All right,” said Belladonna quietly.
I grabbed the phone away from her and put my hand over the mouthpiece. “Tell them you want proof of life before you give them anything.”
She looked uncertain but I nodded and handed her back the phone again. “I want proof that she’s still alive.”
“You’re not in any position to make demands,” said the voice.
“If you want what I have then you’ll give me what I want. I want her back alive. How do I know you haven’t already killed her?”
“You don’t know,” said the voice. “And that’s how we’re going to keep things.”
“Then I guess you’re not interested in getting your hands on the relic,” said Belladonna. “I’m not talking to you any further until I see that Maxine is still alive.” Then she hung up the phone and looked at me. “Was that okay?”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Well, I don’t know that I would have hung up on them, but yeah, I guess you sent a message. Now the only question is whether they’ll respect that or not. If they don’t, then Maxine might be in real trouble.”
“Oh dear,” said Belladonna. “Did I just sentence her to death?”
“I’m not going to lie to you and say no,” I said. “But it’s more likely that they’ll send something to prove she’s still alive. They seem to want this…relic pretty badly. What is it?”
Belladonna hesitated and I could tell she was weighing whether she could tell me what it was. No doubt some sort of classified thing that the lycanthropes had that they didn’t want anyone knowing about. I got it. I was certain the Council had secret magical relics hidden across the world that were technically classified, even for a Fixer like me.
“It would help if I knew what I was dealing with,” I said.
“We have, in the community, a number of relics that have certain powers. Throughout our history, they have been useful at various time in helping preserve our people. There is a great deal of power within them that we can call upon to aid us. Usually in conjunction with ceremonies performed within the lunar cycle. It’s complex stuff, but someone with the right knowledge could technically gain great personal power if they chose to.”
“So, like the Lunaspe?”
Belladonna nodded. “Indeed. But that was lost when you battled Shiva.”
Yeah, well, technically, it wasn’t. After I’d recovered the relic, I’d stowed it in my house in a vault in the basement. I had no idea what I was doing with it, but it was one of those things that seemed better with me than with anyone else. So I floated the idea that I’d destroyed it. Better that than have a lot of people gunning for it.
“Yes,” I said. “Better that way, I think.”
“Perhaps,” said Belladonna. “In any event, the Lunaspe is far from the only relic we have that has magical qualities to it.”
“How many are there?”
“Perhaps a dozen.”
“Twelve?” I shook my head. “That’s an awful lot of magical stuff floating around out there.”
“Well, it’s not technically floating around. The relics are all housed at the armory where they can be guarded and only accessed by those with the right to study them. Otherwise, it would be too dangerous for people to toy with, let alone know they even exist in the first place.”
“You have access to the armory?”
Belladonna nodded. “Of course. I’m an Elder. I’m perhaps one of the few granted permission to study them.”
“And they want one of them?”
“It would appear so. I’m assuming the Corantu.”
“Which is?”
“An amulet reportedly able to grant the wielder immense power and invulnerability to silver nitrate.”
Silver nitrate was to lycanthropes what wood was to my kind. Get a drop of that stuff anywhere near a shapeshifter and they would croak real fast. If the Corantu was able to give them immunity to that then it was no wonder why someone would want to possess it.
“All right, so where’s the armory?”
“Here,” said Belladonna.
“Here? In your house? Right here?”
Belladonna smiled. “No, silly. On the island. Bar Harbor.”
“Okay, so they want you to go to the armory and take the Corantu out of the safe holding area in order to give it to them, is that right?”
“Seems to be.”
“And if you do that, then you’ll be sanctioned for giving the enemy what they want and endangering your people.”
Belladonna sighed. “I would assume that is what would happen.”
I frowned. “How many people would know that it was you who took it?”
She eyed me. “The entire armory is secured with extensive surveillance equipment. Cameras, motion detectors, pressure sensors. Just opening the cases that contain the relics requires at least two people operating the locks at the same time.”
I sighed. Breaking into a lycanthrope stronghold wasn’t exactly the best way to pass my time in Bar Harbor. But it sure looked like that was what I was going to be doing in the near future. I just wondered exactly how the hell I was going to walk in and walk out without being taken captive. If the lycanthropes found out a vampire had gone into one of their secure facilities, it might be considered an act of war. The Council would shit itself twice and die.
Right after they killed me.
The phone rang again and Belladonna picked it up. I kept my ear close so I could hear as well. The same voice spoke on the other end of the call.
“You want proof of life? You’ll get it.”
8
Belladonna set the landline down as her iPhone buzzed. She looked at me. “You think that’s them?”
I shrugged. “Could be. You want me to look first?”
“No,” she said. “I’ve been around long enough and I’m a big girl. Hand it to me, though, would you?”
I reached for it on the counter and handed it over without looking. Belladonna took it and opened it up to her text message screen. “Video,” she said simply.
I watched as a room came into view with a woman seated on a chair in the middle of it. What looked like duct tape was over her mouth and she was bound to the chair as well. But her eyes showed that she most definitely alive and she struggled against her bonds as a shadow loomed in the foreground. I saw the knife, a huge kukri like the type Nepali Gurkhas use, and frowned. The shadow moved into camera view but a mask over his face obscured his identity. He moved behind Maxine and placed the kukri against her throat. It would take very little pressure to slice into her flesh. The shadow looked directly at the camera.
“You have seventy-two hours to deliver the Corantu to us. We will contact you in forty-eight hours with delivery instructions. If you fail to comply with this demand, we will send you more videos of us dismembering and feasting on your apprentice. Do not go to the authorities for help. Do not try to find us.”
The video ended. I took the iPhone from Belladonna. “Who sent this?”
She looked at the screen. “I don’t recognize the number.”
I sighed. If I’d been working for the Council, I could have sent this to our tech forensics team and possibly
gotten them to trace the number back. But I was out on my own on this one. If I went to Niles with it, he’d be ripshit. If Benny the Phreak was still around, I could have gone to him. But he was gone.
And I needed someone with serious computer skills to figure this out while Belladonna and I tried to work another angle. I eyed the lycanthrope Elder. “Know any good hackers?”
She frowned. “Perhaps. Why? Do you think you can find them?”
“I don’t know. But if you’ve got someone who can run it down while we figure out our plan of attack, then it might give us another option.”
“There is someone,” she said then. “I’ve heard they are quite skilled. But I’ve never worked with them and I don’t know if my position within our community is even something they would respect.”
“We don’t have much choice. You think this is something he can handle?”
“We won’t know unless we ask them. Come on.”
“Now?”
She tossed me the car keys. “Unless you think it’s better to waste time and wait until tomorrow.”
“Good point.” I grabbed my coat and followed her out of the house. Climbing in the car, I gunned the engine and turned to her. “Where to?”
I nearly cried out when I saw that Belladonna had shifted into Monk from earlier. “Cripes, can you warn me before you do that?”
“Sorry,” said Belladonna. “I’m thinking it might help if they think I’m younger and more attractive. They seem to like girls who look like Monk did. Is this okay?”
“Yeah, I think it’s good.” I steered out of the driveway and we headed back off the island toward Bangor. Twenty minutes later, Belladonna directed me down a side road that ran for several miles, eventually leaving the asphalt behind for bumpy gravel. Our tires crunched the stones underneath as I slowed down. The road curved frequently making it impossible to stay at a decent speed. As we drove, it occurred to me that the location of the hacker’s house might well have been deliberately set up. The gravel crunching under tires was a decent alarm system and the curvature of the road meant that cars couldn’t speed in, in the event of a raid.
When we finally drew up to a small house on a small hill overlooking open expanse all around, I nodded. Whoever this was, he was careful. I was willing to bet that we’d passed cameras and other security devices along the road. They wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone but the person who’d put them there.
“This it?”
Belladonna nodded. “As I said, this isn’t someone I’ve worked with before.”
“But he’s one of yours?”
“Yes. I’m not sure what capacity they are employed as, but I’ve heard they’re a wonder when it comes to computers and technology.”
“The house is small.”
“I don’t believe for a moment that all there is is what we can see. I’m told they are a very careful individual.”
I switched the engine off. “Well, let’s go see if he can do this or not.”
I stepped out, feeling like I was already being watched from somewhere in the house. Belladonna, as Monk, stepped out of the car and we moved toward the steps. As we crested the stairs leading up to the porch, a light came on and a speaker jumped to life.
“What do you want?”
Belladonna leaned toward the speaker. “We need your help with something.”
“I don’t know you,” came the reply. “Or him.”
“We want to hire you for a job,” I said. “One that no one else can know about. It requires certain skills that only you possess. Computer skills.”
“What’s it pay?”
I glanced at Belladonna. She shrugged. “However much it takes to get it done.
There was a pause. Finally, the reply came back. “All right, I’ll speak with you. Move back off the porch for a moment.”
We backed up to the top of the steps and as we did, I noticed that the floorboards were a different shade that the rest of the porch. In the darkness, it would have been nearly impossible to see the difference. And as we waited, I heard the click from somewhere underneath the porch.
“Pressure plate,” I said.
“What?” asked Belladonna.
“The porch. We were standing on some sort of pressure plate. If this guy didn’t like what we had to say, he could have blown us up.”
“Wonderful,” said Belladonna.
Then the door opened.
“Well, I guess we should go introduce ourselves.”
9
We walked inside, me on Belladonna’s right hand side, itching to pull my pistol and make sure we weren’t about to get ambushed. But Belladonna stayed my hand, insisting that we were going to be okay.
“Don’t give them any reason to be suspicious of you, Lawson.”
Why did she keep referring to this guy as ‘them?’ I shrugged it off as the blinding white light hit us, making me blink furiously, trying to get a clear picture of the interior.
“Shut the lights off, dear,” said Belladonna. “You don’t need to blind us.”
The amount of illumination dropped then to a more comfortable glow. Now I could see the room itself, with a sectional taking up most of the space. Behind it was an entire wall of television screens, most of them tuned to world news broadcasts, stock ticker tapes scrolled by on the bottom of one, and a video game was being played on two others.
“What do you want?”
The voice sounded masculine, but when I saw the face attached to it, I had a feeling I knew why Belladonna referred to this guy as ‘them.’
“You’re Phillip?”
“I prefer Megan these days.”
Belladonna smiled. “Of course. Well, we’re interested in hiring you to trace a text message we received on my phone. It’s very important and we’re also looking to avoid any publicity about it.”
Megan looked over at me. I flashed him a smile. He frowned.
“Who are you?”
“Me?” I put a hand on my chest. “Lawson.”
“And you?”
Belladonna smiled as sweetly as possible. But she was currently in Monk’s form, so it came out a bit more sardonic than that. “I’m Monk. Apprentice to Belladonna. Do you know that name?”
Megan shrugged. “Might have heard it once or twice.”
“Then you should know that she commands a lot of respect.”
Megan shrugged again. “Only if she wants publicity, and since you said this was a quiet job, I really don’t care who she is or who you are or even if you’re one and the same person. I’ll do the job for you, but I don’t really want to know anything about it. Agreed?”
“What’s your price?” Belladonna asked.
“Ten thousand,” said Megan. “That’s to find the origin of the test as well as any other tidbits I can dig up on them. I don’t examine the data and make recommendations, I just simply turn it over to you and whatever you do with it then is your business, not mine.”
“That’s a fair deal,” said Belladonna. She handed over her iPhone to Megan. “The text came in about an hour ago. That’s not too late, is it?”
“Nah, texts are stored forever on the sim card. It’s just a matter of accessing it.” Megan took the iPhone and plugged it into some sort of reader. I watched one of the monitors spring to life followed by a scrolling list of numbers and letters. Another screen came up with a map of the world. They must have been joined because the scrolling numbers and letters slid across the map and the map started zooming in on certain locations.
“Looks like they used multiple VPNs, so they’re bouncing it all over the place,” said Megan.
“Is that a bad thing?”
Megan shrugged. “Only if you don’t have the right equipment. I do. This sort of stuff is available to everyone, but to trace it back, you need better gear - stuff like they use in the intelligence community. It takes a lot of work to trace it back to an original location, but it can be done. Just give me some time.”
“How long?” I asked.
&n
bsp; “You got a date?” asked Megan looking up at me.
I smiled. “Not yet.”
“Then chill out and let me work.” He went back to machine-gunning the keys on one of the laptops. I’d never seen fingers move that quickly across a keyboard. Me? I was lucky I could still text with two hands.
“Where’d you learn how to do this stuff?”
Megan looked back up at me. “Self-taught. Further educated by the United States government when they recruited me out of Stanford. I spent a number of years with the NSA.”
“Impressive.”
Megan snorted. “Try the best, chum. NSA runs a special ops cyber group called Tailored Access Operations. We were the commandos of cyber warfare. Give us a directive, then sit back and watch us create masterpieces. We did it all. Hacking email accounts was child’s play. We set up shit inside the infrastructure of at least a dozen countries we thought might some day be hostile toward us. Real Trojan Horse shit they’d never find until it was too late. Sometimes, we’d go in clumsy, deliberately to let them catch what they thought was the culprit, only to have missed the real trickery we’d left behind. They were convinced they’d beaten us, but in reality, we only let them think that. We still had our stuff in their system and they never even knew it.”
“Why let the know at all?”
Megan eyed me. “You read strategy?”
“Some.”
“Then you know that one of the best ways to get someone to let their guard down is to let them think they’ve won. Give them the victory that their feeble mind so desperately needs. They’re getting the victory parade, the rally-around from losers who support them, and all the while, you’re lubing up for a back door entry that goes in so easy they never notice it. But man, when we trigger that shit, they won’t ever walk again because they just got fucked like a little bitch on his first night in prison.”
I glanced at Belladonna. “Colorful.”
Megan laughed. “It’s what I did for five years.”
