by Martha Carr
“Right.” Cheyenne opened the door behind the driver’s seat, then paused. “Hey, it wasn’t you who put Payton in a hospital bed. You know that, right?”
The goblin sighed. “Course I know that. It doesn’t change us being a team. The whole damn unit. I tell you what, though. Next time you come with us in the field, I don’t give a shit about what my orders are. I’m listening to you first.”
“That’s…probably not a good idea. For you.”
“Hey, if we’d listened to you and Jamal hadn’t opened the goddamn crate, he wouldn’t be lyin’ in a bed, either. Or Payton. You knew what was gonna happen.” Yurik leaned toward her and cocked his head. “How’d you know?”
Cheyenne shrugged. “It’s a drow thing, I guess.”
“Drow thing. Yeah.” He opened the driver’s side door and paused again. “Yeah, that’s why I’m listening to you from here on out.”
They climbed inside and shut the doors behind them. Yurik started the car, everyone buckled up, and then they pulled slowly out of the parking lot. Tate let out a massive belch in the back seat. “Whoa. That would’ve been grog if Bhandi was behind the wheel.”
“Hey.” Bhandi slumped against the passenger door and dropped her head against the window. “The night’s not over yet.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Hey, Yurik.” Cheyenne grabbed the back of the driver’s seat and leaned forward. “Can you drop me off at the strip mall from this morning?”
“The one under construction?”
“Yeah. That’s where my car is.”
“Come on, Cheyenne.” Bhandi waved a drunken hand. “We get back to base, and I’m pullin’ out the cards. Got a winning streak against Kinzuro, and I plan to take everything the little shit has.”
Tate snorted. “What’d the guy do to you, huh?”
“Nothin’. He just keeps losing and comin’ back for more. Hey, Cheyenne. You any good at poker?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? Goth drow blows up an ogre’s hand, but she doesn’t play poker?” Bhandi didn’t lift her head from against the window, but her voice got louder. “You sure you were born Earthside?”
“Not everyone on this side plays poker.” The halfling sat back in her seat and stared out the window.
“Well, for someone who’s never played, you’ve got one hell of a poker face.” Tate chuckled.
“So, you in or what?” Bhandi asked.
“No. Thanks, but I’m gonna call it a night.”
“Before eight-thirty?”
Yurik slapped Bhandi’s arm with the back of a hand. “Give it a rest, huh?”
“What, you gonna get back on base and go hug your pillow too?”
“Maybe. Sounds better than sitting around watching you sober up.”
“Not gonna happen, Yurik. I drank enough grog to last me all night.”
Tate snorted. “You drank enough to last you all week.”
Bhandi sighed but didn’t say anything else, and the car fell back into silence.
Ten minutes later, Yurik pulled the Range Rover into the parking lot of the strip mall under renovation and parked several spaces from Cheyenne’s Ford Focus.
“That’s your car?” Bhandi asked.
“Yep.” The halfling unbuckled her seatbelt.
The troll woman laughed. “Anyone notice that people tend to look like their cars?”
“That’s dogs, grog-brain.” Tate shook his head.
Cheyenne snorted and grabbed the handle of the back passenger door. “How do I look like my car?”
“Rough around the edges, Goth drow.” With a grunt, Bhandi peeled herself away from the passenger window and twisted around with effort to grin at the halfling. “But you get the damn job done, don’t you?”
“Guess so. You’re not gonna try to hug me, are you?”
The agents laughed, and Bhandi slumped in her seat again. “So hard not to like you.”
“Thanks for the ride.” Cheyenne thumped the back of Yurik’s seat. “And the fellwine. I needed that.”
“Ha. Yeah, that’s on me anytime.”
“Oh, sure, she gets a free pass.”
“Bhandi, if you had free drinks for life, I don’t know what would happen first—you drinking every single ounce of the stuff on this side of the Border, or you dropping dead from trying.”
“Hey, why pick one? If I achieved a goal like that, I’d die happy.”
Shaking her head and hiding a small smile, Cheyenne pushed the door open and stepped out of the Range Rover. “Have a good night, guys.”
“Drive safe, Cheyenne.” Tate lifted his hand in farewell. “See ya.”
“Yep.” She closed the door and headed for her car as the black FRoE vehicle pulled away across the parking lot. When she slipped into the driver’s seat and stuck her keys in the ignition, she dropped her head back against the headrest. “Crazy.”
Then she shook it off and headed back to her apartment. A quick glance at the clock on the dash made her sigh. Only eight-thirty. Plenty of time to get some real work done.
* * *
The pizza box from Mellow Mushroom in her hand made her mouth water, and her stomach growled in response as she walked down the hall toward her apartment. Her keys jingled in her hand before she unlocked the front door, then she stepped inside and froze. “Not again.”
The puzzle box had worked its way out of her backpack one more time and floated mid-air in front of her. Cheyenne kicked the door shut behind her and dropped her keys and the pizza on the counter beside the basket of troll-crafted underwear. Her shoes thumped against the door as she kicked them off, then she opened the pizza and pulled out the first huge, greasy slice. “Now, this is how to end a day like—ow!”
The pizza dropped from her hand, and she spun to face the glowing, floating puzzle box. It vibrated in the air, the low hum growing louder and louder. She squinted at it, then bent her arm behind her back to rub the fading sting there. Probably just leftovers from the fight.
She shook her head and started to turn around again, but the drow legacy box shot another dart of golden magic—at her shoulder this time. The halfling jerked away and hissed. “Seriously?”
The box started spinning, all the sections but the one she’d locked into place whirling, shifting in every direction. When it shot two more tiny magical attacks at her, Cheyenne’s body erupted with the heat of her drow magic and she ducked aside. The golden darts left charred holes in the counter.
She backed into the living room, and the hovering box followed. “This is not my idea of a—”
Another golden burst shot toward her, and Cheyenne tossed her hand up. The black shield appeared just before the legacy box’s attack sparked off it with a metallic ping. She cocked her head and smirked. That’s getting easier.
Then a volley of golden sparks sprayed from the whirling, humming copper box. The halfling ducked and ran, circling her tiny living room as the attacks peppered the back wall of the hallway and the bathroom like a machine.
“Cut it out!” She brought up another shield the length of her body in front of her, and the golden attacks ricocheted off the translucent black spell. Charred holes appeared in the matted carpet, walls, and ceiling. The halfling tossed another shield in front of Glen, then growled at the legacy box and raised both hands. “I said, stop!”
The black light of one more shield burst into existence around the box, filling her apartment with bright sparks and muted golden light as it whirred and sprayed magical darts at the shield around it. The attacks bounced back, and the thing gave up. The box hovered inside her shield, motionless. Then the shield disappeared, and one more layer of etched runes slid slowly into place with a series of soft clicks before locking into place beside the first. The two locked levels lit up from within, then the puzzle box dropped to the floor with a thud.
Cheyenne eyed the thing and stepped slowly across the carpet. “You done?”
The box replied by sitting there on the floor like…a
box.
Waving down her shield and the one she’d cast to keep Glen safe, the halfling picked it up. The metal was cool and dull in her hands. She flipped it over and grinned. Looks like I’m getting the hang of these stupid drow trials after all.
She took the box with her to the counter and set it inside the basket of brightly colored troll gifts before snatching up her pizza again. The first bite made her close her eyes and sigh as she chewed. Fellwine, fistfights, and fast food. I think I just found the trifecta.
Standing at the kitchen’s half-wall counter, Cheyenne wolfed down the first slice, picked up the second, and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and her last clean plate before heading toward her office chair. She powered Glen up and turned the monitor on, chugging half the water while she waited.
Once she logged into the dark web and navigated into the Borderlands forum, she felt almost as good as if she’d eaten another barf-worthy energy bar. The halfling scooted her chair toward the desk and sucked in a sharp breath. “Ow.”
She rubbed the ache in her lower back, which was much more painful than the bruised ribs she probably had. All that magic, and it’s being crushed by an orc and punched by a troll that hurt the worst. Her hand moved toward the bottom drawer of her desk, but she paused and shook her head. Mattie’s healing recipes can wait.
When she looked up again at the Borderlands forum and the top five posts showing on her monitor, her eyes widened. Woah. The Borderlands just exploded.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The first topic at the top was actually a pinned announcement created a little over an hour ago: ‘Posted Names, Class, Age, and Time.’ There were already about sixty comments on this one, but what really caught the halfling’s attention were the other most recently created topics below.
I’m Looking for My Son.
My 16-Year-Old Daughter Hasn’t Come Home.
Trying to Get hold of Kalyss.
Troll Brothers Missing ages 8 and 11.
The first slice of pizza curdled in Cheyenne’s stomach, and she grimaced at the second on her desk before sliding the plate away from her keyboard. Then she scrolled through the newest topics and found at least two dozen others having to do with missing kids. All of them were made after 5:00 p.m. Sir and Rhynehart wanted their proof. Here it is.
She went back up to the pinned announcement and clicked on it.
Topic #215,637 by OP holdmyGrog911; pinned by gu@rdi@n104: Opened 8:16 p.m. EST
holdmyGrog911: I tried to make a running list, guys, but the new threads are coming in so quickly, I can’t keep up. If you’re trying to post information about a kid missing from the Richmond or greater Richmond area, please put it here in a comment so we can have all the info in one place. I’ve got someone helping me put together a better list so we can run it for pattern recognition. If we can find anything else these kids have in common besides the obvious, it might help us figure out what the hell happened.
We’re working on it, and we all want to help. As far as any of us knows, this is a first for this kind of thing Earthside. New territory here, but we’re all in this together. That’s why we came, right? O’gúleesh blood is thicker than the Border and stronger than anything we left behind. Don’t forget it.
Also, if anyone has any information they think might help and is not posting about a missing kid, send me a DM. I’m trying to follow every lead I get, but it’s not helping anyone to throw a bunch of conjecture out there just to stir the pot. This isn’t the time for that kind of shit.
Amendment at 8:21 p.m. EST by gu@rdi@n104: Anyone who tries stirring up shit on this thread or any of the previous Missing Kids topics before we find these kids WILL be banned from the forum for life. First and only warning. No excuses.
Cheyenne pushed herself back into the office chair, wincing at the ache in her back, and sighed. At least Corian hasn’t given up moderating.
She couldn’t help but scroll through the pinned announcement to skim through the comments. Two-thirds of them had the name, race, and age of one missing kid after another. Most of them had extra commentary on what the parents or guardians had already tried, but some of them were just left up there with the necessary details and nothing else.
The halfling hissed another breath as her eyes and nose stung. The comments blurred together, and she shook her head. Good thing I’m not a helpless bystander.
She took screenshot after screenshot, scrolling to capture every name and age and race and exactly how many kids had up and disappeared, according to the adults caring for them, within the last four hours. Then she slapped at the outer pockets of her jacket and pulled out the burner phone. Oh, come on. They really need to upgrade this thing.
Pulling up a text to Rhynehart’s number, she shook her head and got to work.
Got proof. Send me an email address and you’ll have it.
Cheyenne dropped the phone onto the desk and slouched in her office chair, staring at the useless piece of technology. It felt like she sat there for an hour waiting for a reply, then she pushed herself away from her desk and stood. I’m not waiting all night for this.
The phone buzzed. She snatched it up and almost ripped it in half when she flipped open the top.
Just text it to me.
“What?” Growling, Cheyenne loosened her grip on the phone and forced herself to take a deep breath.
You gave me a piece of crap phone without email, camera, or storage. No basics. Give me an email address, or I’ll go take care of this myself.
Rhynehart’s reply was instantaneous this time.
[email protected]
Cheyenne dropped back into her chair and pulled up her VCU email account to send it from there. Not giving the FRoE any personal info they don’t already have.
She pulled up a new email, attached ten screenshots of the Borderlands forum’s missing-kids announcement, and filled in the address and typed, Proof in the subject line. Then she sent the email and slapped a hand on her desk.
Groaning, the halfling spun in her chair and ran her hands down the sides of her face. “I should be out there right now finding them, not playing secret messenger.”
More rage and drow magic burst through her, and she launched out of the chair to stalk back and forth across the small strip of living room between the kitchen and Glen. From the apartment beside her, she heard whoever lived there tapping out a jerky, lazy rhythm on the table. The sound made her eye twitch as she paced.
Pull yourself together. Just wait.
The burner phone buzzed on her desk again, then kept buzzing as she raced around Glen to snatch it back up. She jerked it open and slapped it against her ear. “We have to go right now.”
“Woah, rookie. That’s not—”
“You said you needed proof. I just gave you a whole load of it. Now it’s time for you to follow through.”
“I don’t even know what you sent me.”
“Are you blind?” she shouted and picked up the pacing again, yelling into the phone. “There are dozens of kids reported missing. All since five o’clock, and nobody knows where they are.”
“That’s not enough to go on, Cheyenne.”
She ignored his use of her name. “Why not?”
“First of all, if the guys selling black magic did round up a bunch of kids, it happened before eight o’clock this morning. There’s a nineteen-hour gap here.”
“Are you kidding me? These kids are all school-aged, Rhynehart, and it’s a Tuesday. And what damn time do most people get off work to come home to their kids, even if they’re magicals?”
“Huh.” There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Yeah, genius. I’m telling you, these are the same kids.”
“Okay, maybe. Maybe. But what you sent me doesn’t have anything in it about where they went or who took them.”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes and spun to keep pacing. “That’s why we have to go find them. Now.”
“Hey, do I really need to spell this out for
you? Where the hell are you gonna start looking, huh? I’ve been in Richmond for seven years, rookie, and lemme tell ya, I’m still finding places I didn’t know existed. Unless that drow nose of yours can turn you into a bloodhound, we have no starting point.”
The halfling forced a long sigh between her teeth, her chest heaving. Cool it. Come on. “Well, then have you found anything about where they are?”
“No. We’re still looking.”
“Oh, yeah? Where do you start?”
“Look, kid. We’ve got informants and friends keeping eyes on different areas of town. I’ll make some calls and get more eyes on this thing, but I can’t send out a team if I don’t know where we’re going or what we’re up against. And…shit. And you know I have to run this through the chain of command first anyway, okay?”
“Well, you better make it convincing.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Rhynehart sighed over the phone. “Just sit tight and don’t go rushing into this without backup, yeah? Which I’m pretty sure is gonna come from my end.”
“Whatever.”
“Hey, where’d you find this stuff, anyway? Might be a good resource for us in the future.”
Cheyenne swallowed and settled her gaze on Glen. “You wouldn’t know what to do with it if I told you.”
“Okay. Whatever it means, good work. We’ll find them, Cheyenne. That’s what we do.”
Except the FRoE couldn’t find me until I literally ran into them. “Call me when you have something.”
She slapped the flip phone shut and almost chucked it across the room, but she shoved it into her jacket pocket instead and kept pacing. Her next-door neighbor had started humming a little tune with the drumming rhythm on the table, way out of key. Cheyenne’s back ached and it didn’t go away, even when the flaring heat of her drow blood rose up her spine. She shoved it back down and stormed toward the kitchen to snatch up her keys. I gotta get outta here.
Smashing her feet into her black Vans, she jerked open the front door and stopped. The halfling gritted her teeth and leaped back to grab the copper legacy box and tuck it under her arm.
