by Martha Carr
"Don't let me down now!"
There was a spell on the ankle bracelet to keep him from pulling it off but Louie only saw that as an inconvenience and a challenge. "Not the first time someone has tried to nail me down. Once... literally." He shook his head, remembering the pub on the edge of the Dark Forest near the ocean. "Shot nails out of his mouth like bullets..." He worked the tip of the pick into the lock on the bracelet, working it around till he felt a click. That's just the start. "The trick is to relax and let the pick do the work." He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, focusing his energy on the pick. It moved his hand, guiding it to turn a smidge to the right and bear down, turning back to the left. "I knew it!" He pulled the pick out gently, raising his arms in victory as the ankle bracelet fell away, rolling onto the carpet.
He pulled out his wand and opened a portal to Oriceran, turning back for a moment to grab his sword before quickly climbing through to the other side. "Time's a wastin'. Got to get that guy off my back." He felt his muscles relax as he smelled the familiar scents of the flowers in the forest and looked up at the two moons starting to show in the sky. He moved quickly along the ground, listening for the sound of any magical creatures that walked on two feet.
It wasn't long before he found his way to his small cabin and made his way inside. There was a note stuck to the table with a knife.
'Gnomes are still pissed off at you. Don't go scavenging near the base of the mountains just yet. Might take another week or two. Minding the store for you and taking my usual cut. Ronnie'
Louie let out a snort. "Miss that little dude. Usual cut." He snorted again and shrugged. "Better than losing my spot." He went into the only other room in the cabin and dug through an old wooden chest, pulling out bits and pieces of broken artifacts and a dirty tunic, an old pair of boots that had a hole in the bottom of one of them. There in the bottom was his only other real treasure besides the sword on his back. It was a piece of Oriceran ore the size of his fist and worth more than he could spend in a year, maybe two. He was saving it for his retirement.
He picked it up, holding the heavy ball in his hands, feeling the rough edges against his skin. "Hell, in my profession, what's the likelihood I'll get to retirement. Long way off anyway. I could find two more treasures by then, maybe more." He grabbed an old shirt and smelled it, his head whipping back from the stench. He threw it into a far corner and dug for another, carefully taking a sniff. "Much better." He wrapped up the ore and put it into his satchel, throwing it over his back next to the sword as he headed out of the cabin, shutting the door. He waved his wand to hide the small dwelling from view. "Might be a hovel, but it's my hovel."
He hurried deeper into the forest to find a better place to open a portal and see who might already be looking for him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lacey Trader walked Leira back to the old rail car, number four-four-one, touching each one of the numbers on the side of the rail car again, to see them light up and sparkle.
"Any chance this thing can take me to Austin, Texas instead of D.C.?"
"I told you we'd get you home to your own bed tonight. I like to keep my promises whenever possible." She smiled and put out her hand for Leira to shake as Leira noticed the same tattoo of two Griffins on the inside of her wrist.
Leira climbed up into the car as the engines came on, steam blowing out the back as the gaslights lit on the inside. "That's mostly for show. The children love it," said Lacey.
Lacey waited till it started to pull away, waving and smiling. Leira turned around, peering out the back of the car as a Wizard caught up with Lacey and gave her a message as her smile quickly faded. Leira watched her waste no time and raise her wand in the direction of the car.
She watched in amazement as a shower of sparkling bubbles passed over the entire car, making the inside glow for just a minute.
"Wonder what that was about..."
Lacey and the Wizard were just small specks when the train finally gained full speed, rushing down the track. Leira turned around and settled into the comfortable seat, glad to be headed home. The train took turns, and twists into different tunnels. At one point, Leira was certain it neatly turned 180 degrees on a large turntable and headed down a different tunnel that appeared out of nowhere, traveling in a different direction.
There was nothing for her to do but sit back and relax and enjoy the ride.
Thirty minutes later the rail car slowed as the wheels spun more slowly and steam again pushed out the back. Leira stepped out and looked around at the darkened station, wondering where she was... exactly.
A wooden sign over the closed snack bar read, Tancitaro. "Oh, come on. This can't be right."
"Oh good, you're here! I wasn't sure what to do if you didn't show. That big rail car showed up but I didn't see you anywhere at first." Felix Hagan was standing in the shadows at the bottom of the staircase doing his best not to touch anything.
"Where the hell are we? Feels like I'm Alice in Wonderland and a giant rabbit with a pocket watch is going to hop by any minute now."
"Tell me about it. Turns out my heart can take strenuous exercise down a dozen flights of stairs at a moment's notice. Who knew? They flew me out here and I was met by a couple of guys in dark suits who told me to take the stairs and don't touch anything. Something about humans and this stuff being like a giant bug zapper for us. Whew, I am sweating through my shoes. There is not a dry spot on me!"
"Hagan, you still haven't exactly told me where we are or what we're doing here. Or where we are for that matter. Focus. I take it there's a mission. Must be a big one." Leira leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. Above them was a mural of men and women dancing together, painted in bright colors stretching the length of the car. "These places are amazing!" She looked back at Hagan. "You can tell me while we climb. Start with where we are."
"Okay, but we're going at my pace or I'm shouting ahead to you with as much air as I have left. Be prepared to use your magic to try and pick up my wheezing voice."
Leira gave him a dead fish look and stepped aside. "I'll even let you lead."
"That's gotta be killing you. How many flights before you give up and run ahead, do you think? Let's bet on it. You're a nice person, so I give you five entire flights and then it's see you later, Hagan."
Leira let out a laugh. "I'd stay at least close enough to make sure you were still moving. I don't want to have to report back to Rose that you're missing in action."
Hagan started up the stairs more vigorously than Leira expected. "You have to be kidding me! You're holding out on me. Hagan, you've been working out!"
"Rose makes me. Don't get too excited. We're climbing a skyscraper's worth of stairs. Somewhere near the top I expect to see visions and start making deals with them to get me out of here by any means necessary."
"If I promise to buy you doughnuts for the next month will that help?"
"Won't hurt..." Hagan took in a deep breath and kept climbing, turning at the first platform and pulling off a small tab of blue painter's tape. "Left my version of bread crumbs on the way down to make sure I didn't venture into bogeyman land. It's a maze. I know it looks like stairs but it's really a maze. Stairs go off in different directions and wait till we get further up when they seem to curl back around. I'm telling you, it was blowing my mind. Like being high without any help from outside sources. Okay, okay. We're in Tancitaro, in the western Mexican state of Michoacán. Or as we think of it in Austin, the avocado capital. I'm really hoping they have some killer guacamole somewhere up there."
"Okay, now I have a vague idea of where we are. I crossed a border into another country. Weird."
"Yeah, I'm guessing no one checks passports down here. The general sent us here as fast as possible because he got reliable information that we are close to the site where the animal experiments are taking place. Most of them at least."
Leira grabbed Hagan by the arm, suddenly energized and excited. "No way! How could we get that lucky?"
/> "You can thank the reliable source. Patsy and Lois said it was routed through your friend, Perrom. He's been on the case ever since you saw the sanctuary outside of Austin. Like a dog with a bone. They took a page out of this world's way of doing things and put trackers on all the animals." Hagan and Leira got to another level that split into four different directions. Hagan nodded his head and pulled off another piece of tape, just as a low howl came out of the darkness from one of the other staircases. "If that doesn't make the hair stand up on the back of your neck..."
Leira looked into the darkness wondering what was down here with them. Is it coming this way? "Let's keep moving."
"Good idea. There's enough of a battle already waiting for us. Why get in a small skirmish ahead of time?" Lonely sounding howls erupted from the opposite direction as if they were answering the first call. Hagan stopped in his tracks, listening as Leira pulled in enough magic to send out a stream of energy. "I don't think we're entirely alone down here." The symbols on her arms glowed in the semi-darkness.
"I gathered that much information." Hagan pulled out his handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped his face. "Not all that sweat is from climbing these stairs."
"Yeah, I gathered that much, too. It's okay. You have your gun. I have these guns..." Leira flexed her arms, smiling at her partner. She was taking the stairs easily, keeping her back straight as she climbed, turning to look in both directions, keeping a watchful eye. "Did we get any details?"
"We're being met by the Mexican version of the PDF and they're going to help us raid the place but there's not much time. Apparently they move around a lot and by move, I mean entire countries. They can't trace it back to its source yet but we have our suspicions."
"Axiom Corporation, I presume." Leira shook her head. "Something is not right there and I mean beyond the obvious."
Hagan fell silent as they climbed toward the next landing, as he ripped off another piece and they climbed again, landing after landing, getting closer to the top.
Twinkling lights caught Leira's attention and she glanced to the right. "Look at that! Reminds me of the stop in Washington, DC but they're here, in the middle of the air."
Floating in the air, halfway between the bottom and top were the constellations. Another composite of Oriceran and Earth's heavens twinkling in the darkness beyond the stairs they were on, following the path of another set of stairs.
"Makes me wonder what's in that direction," Leira said, wistfully. "So much to explore down here. Would take years! To think that by morning these staircases will be teeming with magical beings all headed someplace."
"I hear that the homeless of the human variety live under the New York City subway in forgotten tunnels. What's to say that there isn't such a thing as homeless magical beings we've never even heard of roaming down here?"
"I'd say that's a safe bet. Probably why we keep getting warned to stick to our own path. What's the goal of this mission, exactly? Did General Anderson spell it out?"
"Cripple the operation as much as possible and rescue as many animals as possible. The animals are going to one of the Gardener of the Dark Forest's sanctuaries. That's the deal that was made. No wiggle room."
"What would we do with them, anyway? Patsy and Lois showed me pictures of what's been done to them. Someone should pay for that kind of freak show and the animals should be taken care of away from prying eyes or more misery." Hagan stopped a moment to take a breath, shutting his eyes for a moment to try and get rid of the image. "Hard to unsee something like that. Takes a cold heart to think that's a worthwhile experiment."
Leira stopped next to him and patiently waited. She remembered her first reaction in the Dark Forest. She ran her fingers along the bracelet. "We'll get our chance to do something about it but we'd better keep going. There's still a few flights to go and there's a clock on the whole thing."
"Right! What an interesting life, Berens. One minute I'm trying to figure out who shot a guy in his own house with the doors all still locked, thinking that's a pretty good mystery. The next I'm doing my best not to think about what's howling in the bowels of the earth and does it have wings or fangs or breathe fire."
"That's an active imagination there, Hagan. Maybe it's a wild troll."
Hagan's eyes widened and he looked at Leira, startled. "Is that possible? Is there some kind of version that's a were-troll?"
"You're too gullible, Hagan. Okay, you were right. I'm taking off ahead of you and doing some scouting. Not to worry. I'm keeping my eye on you at the same time. Stay alert and yell to me if there's trouble. I'll run back down the stairs."
"One more howl or a loud growl and I'll be right behind you."
Leira took off up the stairs, taking them two at a time, letting a small amount of magic flow through her, enhancing her ability to sense what was around her. She could feel the presence of other magical beings not too far away. She recognized the magical trails left behind by Elves and Gnomes and Witches and Wizards. Some of them were even recent, too recent to be from when the substations were open. There were other trails that she'd never seen before and their energy was stronger, more chaotic. Sparks sputtered off the trails as if they couldn't be contained and blended in and out with some of the others.
Near the top of the stairs Leira felt the air grow warm and clammy. She found a metal door similar to the one she had passed through in Washington and opened it, cautiously peering out to see what was on the other side.
"Senora?" A dark-haired man with a thick moustache, dressed in dark blue fatigues doffed his baseball cap and gave a small bow with his head, putting the hat back in place. "We've been waiting for you. Is your partner still with you?" Where a gun normally would have been holstered the Wizard had a grey wand made from the Ahuehuete tree, the national tree of Mexico.
"He's right behind me. Are you the backup?"
The man smiled, the creases deepening around his eyes as he stepped back. "No ma'am, I am just one of many." He looked to the right and Leira followed his gaze, looking into the distance at a fleet of SUVs parked in a dirt parking lot, their engines quietly idling as they waited patiently for her and Hagan to arrive.
Leira's eyebrows shot up, wrinkling her forehead. "It's an armada. Are those all magical beings?"
"Every last one. Your partner will be the only true human being on this mission. He must be quite a warrior!"
Leira counted the number of beings she could see standing by their vehicles and saw a few more sitting inside the cars. Thirty of them all ready to go. She looked back at the Wizard standing next to her. "You know, he is... He really is."
"I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jorge Estevez, a member of Mexico's Paranormal Division. You must be Leira Berens. You are legendary to us here."
Hagan came up the last stairs and out the door, bending over for a moment, resting his hands on his knees. "That workout will last me for a good month or two. That was intense. Do you know I heard birds near the top? Can that be true?"
Jorge ducked his chin, smiling as he looked away. "Yes sir, there are many birds living in there. There's an entire ecosystem built inside of there that stretches for miles and comes to rest at a kemana on the far side of town. You must be Agent Felix Hagan." Jorge held out his hand, gripping Hagan's and giving it a vigorous shake, a broad smile across his face. "Another legend. A human being investigating magic. You are very brave, sir. Very brave."
Hagan was surprised at the greeting but managed a smile and finally stood straight, his hands on his hips.
Leira gave him a crooked smile. About time others noticed.
"Come on, let's roll," said Hagan. "Time to kick some Dr. Evil ass."
"Yes!" Jorge punched the air with his fist. They followed him to the caravan and got into an SUV in the back seat. Grim-faced agents all quietly piled into their cars as Jorge got in the front seat along with another agent and they started down the dusty road. Their car quickly fell into line in the middle of the pack and Leira watched out the w
indow at the passing landscape, wondering about the battle that surely lay ahead.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"They're in a series of warehouses out by the Lopez avocado fields. That's some of the oldest fields in Tancitaro. We think they've been paying off the family that own the fields to use their old facilities and to look the other way as they come and go with large trailers full of exotic animals. We owe a debt of gratitude to your sources or we wouldn't have put all the pieces together. It's a well-run operation despite all the activity and from the outside the trucks looked like they were shipping avocados in and out and not animals."
"Terrible business," muttered the other agent, shaking his head.
They drove for miles down back roads past vast avocado groves and small houses that abutted the roads here and there. Occasionally someone looked out of one of the houses and saw the passing flotilla of large black vehicles and quickly let go of their curtain, ducking back inside, not wanting to get involved.
They arrived at the edge of a large estate with an arch over the road made of iron in the shape of an avocado tree. On one side the metal was twisted into the words, Since 1935 and on the other side, Lopez Farm. "This is where we get out and go on foot. The facilities are about a mile into the estate. Chances are they may already know something is happening but if we spread out we may still have a better chance of stopping them from leaving or destroying everything."
Leira and Hagan piled out of the car with everyone else and stood at the edge of the groves.
"We will head up the middle of the grove. Ready?" Jorge held out his wand. "Ligero..." A bright, narrow light shone from the end of his wand, lighting the way as they moved quickly through the trees. Everyone kept up as they got closer to their destination. There were low lights off the sides of the windowless buildings but nothing to suggest there was any activity going on in the middle of the night. Lopez checked his radio, turning it off and signaled with his wand, sending out a stream of energy from it that connected to the next wand, and then the next wand, connecting the group.
