by Alex Ziebart
Gabby rolled his eyes. “Don’t mind her. She likes to sound tough. We’re just people. We’re good at what we do, but still just people.”
“What do you do, then? You’re what, Temple’s assassins?”
“I guess you’d call us mercenaries, but I don’t really like the implications.” Gabby shrugged. “Michael calls us security contractors. When Temple has a problem they can’t fix themselves, they call us up. Usually it’s because their other people are all tied up and Jane decided to go and step in something. I love that girl, but damn does she have bad timing.”
Kristen found herself assessing them, like they’d done to her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re what, the reserves? The backup? Last, desperate line of defense?”
Cole leaned forward, forearm flat against the table. “What do you think you are? You think Temple would throw you into all of this if they had anyone else? Jane had us watching you. That puts us above you on the food chain.”
“Hey, hey.” Gabby put his hands up in a gesture of separation. “Why you gotta be so aggressive? There’s no food chain here. Damn, it’s like you want people to hate you.”
Kristen glared. “If that’s what she wants, it works pretty well.”
Cole narrowed hateful eyes. Then, in an instant, the façade collapsed and she slumped back in her chair. A little smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, and she seemed completely relaxed. “Yeah, alright. Look, Jane’s pulled us into some real shit before. Sometimes it helps to keep a newbie spooked.”
Gabby shook his head. “Not when a bullet from two thousand meters won’t put ‘em down. Not when they can set us on fire with their mind. Not when they can cast a death curse from the other side of the planet. It’s never been a good idea to try spooking the newbies. Never.”
Kristen slid back in her chair. It was too damn early to deal with these two. “So you have experience with people who can light you on fire with their mind?”
Cole jabbed a thumb at Gabby. “His sister’s one of them.”
“Seriously?”
Gabby nodded. “Seriously.”
“She’s with Temple, then?”
“Nope. They made the offer, but she didn’t want it. When you sign up, you’re making a pledge to the cause. If Temple finds a fire and ask you to put it out, you do it. It doesn’t matter what else you have going on. She didn’t want that.”
“But you signed up instead?”
“Someone needs to watch out for her. Might as well be me.”
Cole tilted her head toward him. “And he needs someone to pull his ass out of the fire. Might as well be me.”
Kristen nodded. She had to make small talk just long enough for Todd to show up. Maybe then she’d feel less out of place. “It must be nice to have a partner. I’ve been doing this solo, more or less.”
“Nah.” Gabby shook his head. “Not really. I mean, yeah, I guess you’ve been solo most of the time. But from what I hear, you’ve got people watching your back. We had yours at the warehouse. Jane’s watching out for you, too. And from what she’s said, sounds like Todd is more loyal to you than the Templars. You have people.”
“Todd’s loyal to his family. I helped them. That’s all.”
He shrugged. “Good way to make friends. Protect what they love. They’ll protect you. Every friend I have in this business, that’s the way it is.”
Cole nodded once. “He’s got that right. We’re not as deep into this stuff as people like Jane, but we see things. Hell, I think we see the worst of it, given we’re the shit-just-got-real mercenaries. There aren’t many people who become a part of this world by choice. Gabby and I, we’re exceptions. Most people stumble into the shallows, then get pulled into the deep end. Everyone holds on to something precious. Find out what it is, take it seriously, and you have allies for life.”
Kristen wrinkled her forehead. “Make friends by indebting them to you?”
Gabby looked sideways at Cole. “She thinks the worst of us at every turn. I’m blaming you for this.”
Cole rolled her eyes. “Kristen, it’s called empathy. Have some basic empathy for other people stuck in this, and you’ll make friends.”
Jane strode back into the boardroom. “I didn’t hear all of that, but I wouldn’t suggest taking Cole’s advice on making friends.”
Cole looked up with an expression of stone. Hate flickered in her eyes again. Kristen saw Jane flinch and was in awe. This woman made Jane flinch? Jane was afraid of her? She seemed like a try-hard blow-hard, but if Jane was afraid, maybe Cole’s boast had merit. There wasn’t time to dwell on it, though. Todd marched in behind Jane, his own brand of fury apparent. “Why didn’t you tell me about the change of plan? You do know the police are watching my house, right? I had to find a way to sneak out of my own house. How do you think that’ll look when I go back home?”
Kristen was taken aback by his fury. She hadn’t known he was being watched. “I’m sorry. They told me to keep it quiet.”
Jane took a position at the head of the table. “She’s right. If you’re going to be mad at someone, be mad at me. We had to be careful. We’re trying to take down your old boss. She knows who you are, and she can read minds. We couldn’t risk that.”
Todd paced, the heel of his palm set to his forehead. “What was wrong with the original plan? Take her out in her sleep?”
“We have no guarantee she keeps the ring at home. If we went in there, took her out, and didn’t find it, we’d lose the trail.”
“And this is better?” he demanded. “Emergency repairs on a crumbling building on a Sunday? You think she’ll take that bait? Walk out here to knock over an old building that’s falling over just fine on its own?”
Kristen motioned to him. “What he said. It seems a little obvious. We’re after the ring, we toss out bait that’s a mile from headquarters? Besides, this ring is supposed to be a weapon, right? Who would make an earthquake ring that requires you to stand in the earthquake? She might be able to knock this thing over while lying in bed watching cartoons.”
Jane was obviously trying to keep her temper in check. Her features had gone taut, expression strained, words slow. “If she had that capability, I think she would have done something with it by now. Todd, she told you the time wasn’t right to use it, or something to that effect. Nobody in known history has actually used these rings. She can’t know its full capabilities, either. She needs to try it before following through on full-blown destruction of the city. More, it’s clear she has a personal grudge against Temple. It seems that way, doesn’t it? Todd, you’ve said so yourself.”
Todd stopped his pacing for a moment. “I didn’t say that. I don’t think it’s personal.”
“She’s behaving like an abuser,” Kristen added. “Temple is apparently the only major organization trying to help, or at least work with, people who are…different. If Delphi makes people fear Temple, they’ll turn to her. Because she’ll be the only person they have. Textbook isolation tactics.”
“Can I have a turn at the mic?” Cole asked.
Jane sighed. “Go ahead.”
“If I were Delphi, I’d see right through this—but I’d come out and do it anyway.”
Gabby looked at her like she’d grown an extra head. “What? Why? We’ve been together a long time and we’ve never walked into a trap on purpose.”
“Sometimes it’s worth walking into a trap when you have a plan to win anyway. What scares the hell out of someone more than walking into an ambush and curbstomping them? Maybe she knows how to use this thing better than we expect and wants us to see resistance is futile.”
Gabby leaned toward her and whispered. “Did you do that on purpose?”
Cole shot him the evil eye and kept going. “Or maybe she thinks her crew can go head to head with the Templars. Todd, does she have other gifted people on her team?”
Todd eyed her. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”
“We’ll do another round of introductions after we’v
e settled this,” Jane offered.
“Fine. I don’t know if she has others. Sometimes it sounded like she did, but she never said anything specifically. If I met any, I didn’t know it. She has people. A lot of women. That’s all I know.”
Kristen bit the inside of her lip. Nenet had made it sound like Delphi had gathered others, but should she share that? Not telling them about Emma and the changelings seemed incredibly stupid, but if she told them, they might interfere. If she didn’t, she might have a fresh batch of enemies when she ran off to give Nenet the ring. Assuming, of course, they got their hands on the ring at all.
Jane swept an arm in Todd’s direction. “That’s the problem. Yes, this plan might be obvious. Yes, we’re working on assumptions. We don’t know Delphi’s capabilities. We’re flying blind on a timetable. She could destroy everything at any moment and we wouldn’t see it coming because we just don’t know. We need to at least try to draw her out. If she takes the bait, we try to take her down. If she doesn’t, we come back here and try to think of something else.”
I don’t have that luxury.
Kristen choked the thought down. “What if we don’t stop her before she destroys that building?”
“Then we lose the building.”
“People work there.”
“Then let’s stop her before it goes down, yeah?”
“Everyone shut up for a second,” Cole barked. “This thing is breaking down before we've even heard the actual plan. I woke up at three in the morning for this job, and I want to get paid. So listen to me. Got it?”
The room went silent.
“Jane, you opened the jewelry box. The ring wasn't there, but there was a message. Remind me what it said.”
“Too slow.”
“Too slow. Addressed directly to you. Todd, did you know about this?”
Todd shook his head. “I never looked in the box. I passed through it, took the ring with me.”
Cole shrugged. “That doesn't matter. But what this tells me is Delphi knew you'd go after it, Jane. She knew and she wanted to punch you in the nose and send a message that you’d lost and she’d won. She probably even wanted to tempt you into hunting her down. That's what you do. You hunt down these stupid treasures. It's your thing.”
“True,” Jane agreed.
“If she knew you'd hunt her down, she had to know Temple would be behind you. She's confident she could handle it. She must have backup. So I think drawing her out is perfectly reasonable. She wants a chance to take us out. She thinks no matter what we're planning here, she'll come out on top. Here's what bothers me, though: how the hell does she know who you are? It isn't like you're a household name. Shit, I don't even know what your real name is. You have a new last name every goddamn week.”
Todd offered an answer. “Delphi was Temple. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew other people in the organization.”
Jane scratched the side of her chin in thought. “No. If I have my timeline right, she hasn't been a Templar since before I signed on. She shouldn't know me.”
Gabby whistled. “So she might still have someone on the inside?”
“That’s a problem.” Jane said. Kristen took it as an understatement. “But not relevant right now.”
“How is it not relevant?” Todd demanded, flashing fury again.
Jane pointed at herself, then around the room. “Obviously, it isn’t me. Gabby and Cole are contractors, they don’t know anything about what goes on inside. You and Kristen—we only brought you in a few days ago. Yes, it’s a problem, but that doesn’t change what we’re doing today. Only the five of us are in on this.”
Cole’s sharp voice reclaimed center stage. “In short, I’d bet my contract we’ll run into her today. She wants it, and I’m here, so I want it. Jane, share your plan. Everyone else, shut the fuck up until she’s done.”
Jane retrieved a suitcase from below the table and laid it out. She popped the locks and latches, and while she did, Todd took a seat. Kristen noted the seating arrangements. Gabby and Cole sat beside each other on one side of the table. She sat on the opposite side, and Todd had chosen a seat beside her. She couldn’t pinpoint why, but it felt significant. There were other seats. Todd could’ve sat anywhere.
Jane withdrew a satchel from the suitcase and went around the table, setting a piece of brilliant amber in front of each of them. Kristen took hers—it fit perfectly in her palm—and rolled it around in her hand. What appeared to be a compass needle hung suspended in the stone. Kristen looked up. “What’s this?”
“Gifts from the czarownica.” Jane returned to her place at the head of the table. “No, not gifts. Favors from the czarownica. She takes favors seriously, and they don’t come cheap—especially when they’re on short notice like these were. Let’s not screw this up, I don’t want to be indebted to her for nothing. While we don’t have the ring we’re looking for on hand, we have in our possession objects we believe with a high certainty share an origin. These stones are attuned to the magical resonance of such objects, with a range of about a mile. If Delphi comes within a mile with the ring in her possession, the needles in these stones will point us in her direction.”
Kristen held the stone between two fingers and shook it, trying and failing to get the needle to move. “So this thing is our magical MacGuffin? Wanna tell me why we didn’t use these in the first place?”
“We didn’t know what the ring was at the time, did we?” Jane asked. “I had a shot-in-the-dark theory, but that’s all it was. That isn’t enough to call in the czarownica. Also, that isn’t what MacGuffin means.”
Kristen cocked her brow. “That’s that old lady? With the weird house? Is she someone special?”
“Oldest, most badass witch in town.” Cole leaned forward. “The czarownica isn’t someone to fuck with. Even the nasties don’t go near her.”
“Why bother with the stones, then? Can’t we ask her to smite Delphi with a spell or whatever instead? Hell, I’ll do a favor for her if that’s what it takes.”
Gabby shook his head. “We don’t want that. Her favors are one-for-one. We ask her to kill somebody, she’ll ask us to kill somebody. We do not want to know what that old lady considers an enemy. For all we know, she might ask us to go to Hell and kill the devil or something.”
Kristen’s eyes widened. “Is that a thing? The devil? He’s a thing?”
Gabby and Cole shrugged. Kristen looked at Jane, who shrugged and moved on, distributing folding tourist maps of downtown Milwaukee. “We’re splitting the area immediately around Seidel Tower into four five-hundred-meter quadrants. Each of you has your quadrant marked on your map. We don’t know how long it will take Delphi to show up, so you’ll patrol your quadrant for two hours, then everyone will rotate clockwise to the next quadrant. We want to minimize suspicion, and spending a full day loitering within a few city blocks is what I’d call suspicious.”
A full day? I don’t have a full day.
Cole unfolded her map and groaned. “Great. You start me off on 10th and State. Maybe I’ll go sightseeing at the courthouse.”
Kristen unfolded her own map. She barely glanced at her assignment, deciding it hardly mattered. That early on a Sunday, nothing would actually be open. She’d be walking in circles for two hours. However, a credit card taped inside the map caught her attention. She plucked it off and held it up. “What’s this?”
“Each of you have been given a prepaid credit card with a balance of five hundred dollars. Gabby, Cole, yours came out of your payment for this job. Like I said, we don’t want to raise suspicions. I doubt any of you will actually see Delphi before your stone points you toward her. We aren’t patrolling with that expectation. We’re making sure we have someone nearby wherever she crops up. Go shopping. Get breakfast. Get lunch. Act like normal people having a Sunday out on the town.”
Jane fully opened the briefcase and pushed it out into the middle of the table where all could reach. “Take an earpiece. We’ll be in constant communication with on
e another. Feel free to chit chat and act like you’re on Bluetooth.”
Slender white earpieces were set into a large block of foam, and all four took one at once.
“If only one stone becomes active, you'll move toward that position until the other stones become active. Converge on Delphi's position, but don't engage until you can do so as a unit. We'll handle this like we do every other job: hit hard and fast, then clean up and evacuate before anyone can react to our presence. We've made Kristen a public figure, but no one else here is. You cannot be seen. You definitely cannot be detained. Understood?”
“What are you doing?” Kristen asked. “During this, I mean. Four stones, four headsets...”
“I have a headset already. I'm handling extraction. Wherever you four end up, I'll get you out. Any other questions?”
“Yeah,” Gabby said. “Do we have any intel at all about Delphi's crew? Numbers or capabilities?”
Jane shook her head. “I think we’ve been over that. We have next to nothing. We know she recruits young women to her cause—whatever that cause is—but beyond that…”
When Jane trailed off, Kristen jumped in. She’d gleaned a thing or two from Nenet, but knew she couldn’t outright say it—she had to play around it. “We should probably assume she has some gifted people. At least one, right? It would be stupid not to. If she could find Todd, she can find others. And if Cole thinks Delphi wants to take us on…”
Cole nodded. “It means she’s confident she can take us.”
Gabby donned his earpiece. “Cole and I will set up drop points in each quadrant before we get started. Guns and body armor for the two of us. You two superheroes have any requests? We’ll give you the cache locations.”
“Guns,” Todd agreed. “What kind of gear do you two keep around? I’m good with pistols, rifles, shotguns…”
“What kind of rifle?”
“Hunting rifles. Never used a machine gun, and I don’t think this is a good time to try.”
“We’ll handle it.” Gabby looked to Kristen. “You?”
She considered, then shook her head. “I can’t think of anything. Maybe somewhere to stash my wig when it’s go-time.”
