Mortal Imperative: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 24)

by R. L. King

  “That and that crazy stunt of yours, Stone,” Eddie muttered. “Did Verity tell you about the portal?”

  “Never mind the portal.” Stone waved him off. “That’s irrelevant at the moment. I’m trying to remember something, but it’s not coming. Give me a moment.”

  “Maybe this will help,” Verity said, setting a plate with two steaming slices of pepperoni pizza and a sandwich in front of him, along with a pint glass of Guinness.

  Stone hadn’t realized quite how hungry he was until the delicious aromas were wafting up at him. “Oh, brilliant. Thank you, Verity. Please, everyone talk among yourselves for a moment. Or suppose you tell me where Brathwaite is.” He snatched up a slice of pizza and took a bite.

  Jason pointed at the map. “They said he’s in Tennessee, a couple hours north of Atlanta.”

  “Yeah,” Eddie said. “We got a pretty good bead on ’im, and I don’t think anybody noticed. But the location is a bit strange too.”

  “Strange in what way?” Stone had already finished the first pizza slice and was starting on the second, washing it down with Guinness.

  Ward turned the laptop around so he could see the screen. It showed a Google map of the Tennessee area. “It looks to be a few miles outside a medium-sized town. This map isn’t granular enough to display the actual location.”

  “We think it’s a mall,” Jason said. “The satellite view shows a big, spread-out building.” He pulled the laptop over, tapped something in, and pointed it back at Stone. “There’s an old mall called the Springvale Plaza near there. It’s been abandoned for years, it looks like.”

  “Why would they be in an abandoned mall?” Verity asked.

  “Makes sense, actually,” Amber said. “Especially if it’s got good security to keep kids and homeless people out. There’s a lot of space, easily defensible, and nobody’s likely to pay much attention to what’s going on inside.”

  “That’s a good point,” Stone said. “If they are trying to set up some big, complicated ritual, they’ll need a lot of floor space. And if it’s got an underground level, they can easily keep unwanted visitors away.”

  “Or use them for necromancy if they show up,” Verity said grimly. “Homeless people would be ideal for that, since they probably won’t be missed for a long time.”

  “Bloody hell,” Stone murmured. “It makes sense.”

  “Yes,” Ward said. “And that’s why we’re not more concerned about taking a bit of time to prepare. If they’re constructing an elaborate ritual, they can’t do it quickly. And they can’t simply pack up and move somewhere else.”

  “We’re pretty sure nobody noticed us,” Verity said.

  “Can’t be sure, obviously,” Eddie added. “But I didn’t get any impression of it.”

  The nagging memory poked harder at Stone’s brain. Something about noticing something…

  And then it snapped into place. He stabbed up a finger. “Wait!”

  They all turned toward him. “What?” Ian asked.

  “I saw something during the ritual. My brain was a bit scrambled, but it’s come back.” He took another swallow of Guinness. “And I don’t think Padgett’s dead.”

  Eddie frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because I’m fairly sure I saw the scene through her eyes.”

  “What?” Eddie and Ward spoke at the same time. “Stone, that’s not possible.”

  He shrugged. “It’s not supposed to be possible. But it’s also not supposed to be possible to do a tracking ritual with a living tether that survives. We’re breaking new ground here.”

  “But it doesn’t make sense,” Verity said. “You had Brathwaite’s spirit inside you. Not Padgett’s. If anything, you should have seen through his eyes, right?”

  “I don’t know.” Stone spread his hands. “Doesn’t make sense to me, either. Maybe since spirits don’t have eyes per se, I popped over to the nearest available target. But I’m certain I saw a woman’s hands. It was like one of those first-person video games where all you see is your own hands and your gun. Either Brathwaite has taken to wearing nail polish, or it was a woman.” He slumped back into his chair as another memory came back to him. “I think I might have seen Richter, too. And Lane. Richter didn’t look well. Maybe that’s why he’s in so much of a hurry to do this—because he’s ill.”

  “Are you sure they didn’t see you?” Ian asked.

  “I’m sure. They went about their business like nothing was wrong. And if I was seeing through Padgett’s eyes, they probably wouldn’t have noticed me anyway.” He looked around at them. “So…that’s what I know. And since I know you lot, I’m sure you haven’t been sitting around on your thumbs while I was sleeping off my little adventure. Have you already started making plans?”

  “Yeah,” Jason said. “I’ve already got some calls out to get some gear together.”

  “Gear?”

  “Some mundane gear will be useful in this situation,” Amber said. “Some light body armor, radios, guns, that kind of thing. For those of us who can’t sling the mojo.”

  “Wait,” Stone protested. “Who all are planning to go?”

  “We’re going,” Jason said, pointing at himself and Amber. “Don’t try to stop us, Al. Trust me—you’re gonna need some mundane muscle, and you know we’re way better at the tactical stuff than you are. Plus, Amber’s probably the best we have for tracking.”

  “No way am I sitting this out,” Verity said, her eyes blazing. “I told you, I want a big piece of Brathwaite—and Padgett too.”

  “I’m going,” Ian said. “Gabriel’s been teaching me a lot. I’ll pull my weight, and you can use my power.”

  Stone looked at them, and then at Eddie and Ward, who hadn’t spoken up. “And what about you two? Are you insisting on going along too?”

  “Er,” Eddie said.

  “Hmm,” Ward said.

  Eddie leaned over to snag a cold pizza slice from the box. “We’ll go if you need us,” he said. “You know we’re not gonna bail on you. But—you also know we’re rubbish at that sort of thing. We’ll probably slow you down, or get you killed.”

  “Sounds like you’re actually showing some sense,” Stone said, relieved. “I think we’ve got enough magical and mundane firepower here to do the job.”

  Eddie and Ward looked more relieved than Stone did.

  “We’ll stay in communication,” Ward said. “If you like, we can set up a command post somewhere nearby.”

  Stone shook his head. “You go on home. You’ve done more than I could ever have asked. If you turn up anything else that might be useful, let us know. But get some sleep. And…thank you. For everything.”

  “Now, don’t go gettin’ all sentimental on us,” Eddie said. “We’re still gonna ’old you to buyin’ rounds till you’re old and gray for this.”

  “As well you should.”

  “Doc?”

  Stone turned to find Verity regarding him seriously. “What is it?”

  “We’ve got a couple others who want to come along with us.”

  “What?” He looked around the room. Everyone there had already expressed their preference for either going or not going on the expedition. Who else was left? “Who?”

  She held up her phone. “Tani and Maisie. They called earlier, while you were asleep, wanting to know what was going on. When I told them we might be going after the people who took Maisie, they said they wanted in.”

  “Verity—”

  “It makes sense,” she insisted. “They’re tough, fast, they can track by smell, and they can see in the dark. Plus they’re both really good at sneaking and hard to hurt. And they’re motivated. Maisie wants a piece of these assholes as much as I do.”

  Stone must have looked dubious, because Amber spoke up. “It does make sense. Alastair, this isn’t something you can do on your own. They’re going to be dug in well, with a lot of defenses. It’s better to have a wide variety of skills to go after them.”

  Jason nodded. “You know we’re
right, Al. This is going to be dangerous enough without leaving some of your advantages on the table.”

  Stone scanned the room, meeting each of their gazes in turn. Finally, he sighed. “All right. Fine. But let’s get on with it. We might have some time, but we don’t have forever. Remember, they’re setting up this ritual so they can do it. And I don’t think any of us want to see that happen.”

  33

  If the people running the hotel where Stone and his friends had secured the top-floor suite had had any idea what they were doing in it, they’d probably have refused to rent it to them.

  The place was outside Atlanta, and it was late afternoon. Verity, Ian, Jason, Amber, Tani, and Maisie sat around on the suite’s modular sofa, polishing off the last of a spread they’d ordered from room service. Stone, as always, paced. He hadn’t touched any of the food this time.

  Coordinating the trip through the portal had required some effort. Stone had actually inquired about chartering a plane, but the scheduling hadn’t worked out so they’d been forced to use the magic solution. They’d ended up having Stone and Ian accompany Jason and Amber, and Verity had gone with Tani and Maisie. The proprietor of the restaurant where the Atlanta portal was located shot them a puzzled glance—having that many people emerge from a portal that close together was highly unusual—but portal keepers didn’t ask questions. Discretion was a big part of their job.

  Jason had rented the suite, using a fake ID and credit card. To be extra safe, they’d used illusions whenever they had to talk to anyone in person, and had sneaked Tani and Maisie up after they’d secured the place. As far as Stone knew, nobody was aware they were in the area.

  “Okay,” Jason said. He and Amber had taken over the mundane aspects of planning the raid. He opened a laptop on the table and called up a page. “Gina got us a map of the Springvale Mall. It’s not great—she couldn’t get blueprints, so it’s just a map of the mall when it was still in operation. It’s been abandoned for three years, though, so some stuff might have changed.”

  “How many levels?” Stone drifted back over to look at the image. It showed a long, stretched-out space with a dog-leg in the middle, forming a boomerang shape. It had anchor stores at both ends, and another large one in the middle near the dogleg. In the center was a wide-open area.

  “Two, plus a partial one underground.” He pointed at the large store in the middle with the tip of a pen. “This one has a basement area. The space in front of it was the food court—it’s open through to the second floor. Most of the second floor is just around the edges, like most malls.”

  “What about the two other big stores?” Ian asked. “Do they have basement spaces too?”

  “And are there maintenance tunnels?” Tani sat close to Maisie, well away from everyone else. They both looked nervous but also motivated. They’d listened carefully to Jason’s briefings.

  “We don’t know,” Amber said. “Like Jason said, this is the only map we could get our hands on. But I’m guessing all three of the big stores do have basements. As for maintenance tunnels—no idea.”

  “Okay,” Stone said. “So, do you agree with me that the most likely place for them to be is in one of those underground spaces? Magically speaking, it makes the most sense.”

  Amber nodded. “Logistically too. It’s easier to defend a space if you can control the entrances and exits.”

  “Easier to block them in, too, though,” Verity said.

  “Yes, but these people are smart,” Stone said. “They won’t let themselves be boxed in, so we’ve got to assume they’ve got hidden exits. I’d wager they’re using illusions to keep out anyone who might happen by. I doubt they’re expecting magical guests.”

  “Okay,” Verity said. “Should we go in at night, or during the day?”

  “Normally I’d say we should wait for night,” Stone said. “But if this operation is large enough that they could have Ordo mages on watch, it won’t make a difference. We’ll actually show up more clearly at night, because they can see our auras.”

  “Can’t we mask them?” Ian asked.

  “To an extent, yes, but we can’t mask ourselves and the mundanes sufficiently to hide us from scans.”

  Verity chuckled. “So, we’re going to do a commando raid in the daytime? That seems weird, considering all the movies I’ve seen.”

  “Movies aren’t reality,” Jason said. “I think Al’s right. If we can get inside without them seeing us, we’ll be in better shape.”

  “But where do we go?” Maisie asked. “If you think they might be in any one of three spaces, we’ve got to find them. I don’t think we should split up, do you?”

  “We might have to,” Stone said. “Into two groups, at least. We’ve got people who can track by smell, so that might help us. If we send at least one tracker and at least one mage in each group and stay in communication, we should be all right. Once we identify a likely location, we can get back together and hit them as a group.”

  “I don’t love that solution,” Amber said. “But you’re right. If we wander around the place in a big group and we pick the wrong place to start, they’re sure to notice us and report back.”

  “Let’s be clear on something,” Jason said soberly. “There’s no way to plan for everything in a situation like this. We’re not Mission: Impossible. We can do the best we can, but at some point we’ve just got to get in there and deal with what we find.”

  “We’ve got a lot of firepower, both magic and mundane,” Verity said. “And if they’re really not expecting us, we can use that to our advantage.”

  Stone resumed his pacing. “Let’s keep a few things in mind, though. First, we’re trying to rescue our friends alive. That means we can’t simply hit them with everything we’ve got.”

  “Do we even know if they’re there?” Ian asked.

  “We don’t even know they’re alive. But if they need them for a ritual, they’re probably nearby. If we take out Richter and his lot and they’re not there, we can look for them.”

  “Okay,” Verity said. “What else?”

  “We don’t know exactly what we’re likely to be dealing with,” Stone said, “but there are a few things we can be sure of. For one, Elias Richter is bloody powerful, so try to stay away from him.”

  “How powerful are we talking?” Jason got up and walked behind the couch, where he stood kneading Amber’s shoulders. “Harrison-level? Kolinsky?”

  Stone shrugged. “I doubt he’s in their league. But he’s old and he’s a wily bastard, and we still don’t know what he’s up to.” He moved to the window and looked out over the tiny cars zipping by on the nearby freeway. “Also, where Richter goes, Lane goes. We know he’s alive.” He scanned the group. “Verity, Amber, Tani, and Maisie will need to be particularly careful around him.”

  “Why is that?” Tani asked, narrowing her eyes.

  “He’s…I don’t even know what to call the kind of creature he is. But he emits strong pheromones that allow him to seduce women and control them.”

  “Pfft.” Maisie waved him off. “Let him try that on me.”

  “I’m serious,” Stone said. “Verity managed to shrug it off, but I’m still not sure whether that’s because of her orientation or because she was angry. Trust me—he’s dangerous. And I’ve got no idea if he’ll be more effective against you ghouls and Amber because of your heightened senses of smell, or less effective because your physiology is different. Either way, be careful. You can’t miss him: he’s big, blond, fit, and good-looking in a big-man-on-campus sort of way. He’s fast and strong, and a good fighter. Oh, and he’s also immune to magic.”

  “That’s convenient,” Ian said sourly.

  “Sounds like he’s mine,” Jason said.

  “If it works out that way, yes,” Stone said. “You’re probably the best one to go against him—especially if he gets you sufficiently riled up to activate your new abilities.”

  “He gets near Amber, that won’t be a problem,” he growled.

>   “Okay,” Amber said quickly. “So, Richter and Lane. Who—or what—else are we likely to find?”

  “That’s when things get murkier. They could have more undead, which are tough and resistant to magic, so we’ll be counting on you mundanes to take them down. Be careful, though. Don’t get overconfident. They’re still strong and hard to hurt, even for mundanes. Remember, too: they’re not resistant to indirect magic. Just because you can’t take them down with a fireball or a concussion blast doesn’t mean you can’t drop something heavy on them.”

  Off to the side, Verity made a soft, strangled little moan.

  Damn. Stone shot her a sympathetic look—he hadn’t meant to remind her about what had happened to Sharra. But she waved him quickly off. He moved on before anybody else noticed the exchange.

  “What about Brathwaite and Padgett?” Ian asked. “And the other mages?”

  “We don’t know whether there will be any other mages,” Stone said. “This may be some private thing Richter’s cooked up with Brathwaite, and they don’t want to get anybody else involved. But if they do have mages, they’re probably not as good as we are. The Ordo are scholars, not fighters, at least as far as we’ve seen so far. Be on the lookout for illusions and other indirect magic. I doubt they’ll go against us directly.”

  He gave a thin, cold smile. “I expect they probably know better by now than to go against me—and Ian and Verity should be a nasty surprise for them as well.” He moved away from the window and resumed his circuit around the room. “As for Brathwaite and Padgett—I don’t know how much Brathwaite can actually do in spirit form, and how much he’s been training Padgett, so they’re the X-factors here. Obviously they’ve got necromancy on their side, but I don’t know what else—if anything—they can do. And I’m hoping we get lucky.”

  “Lucky how?” Verity asked.

  “Whatever ritual they’re working on is obviously a big one—possibly one that takes hours or even days to set up and perform. I don’t think they’d already started it, except for the preparation, before Richter tried warning me off, which means it’s possible they might be in the middle of it when we get there. That’s our best hope, since that means their big guns will be otherwise occupied.”