Alison shrugged. “The school does have powerful magic around it. Not like that’s a secret. What’s the big deal? Isn’t that a good thing?”
Shay looked between James and Alison, frowning. “Seriously? Neither of you?”
“Seriously what?” Alison asked.
James shrugged.
The tomb raider closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes, and a mask of disappointment descended over her face. “The girl’s one thing, but you, too, James? I guess that’s the real disappointment.”
He grunted. “What the hell are you talking about? What is this job? Who hired you?”
Shay crossed her arms. “I was thinking maybe I shouldn’t do anything until you two figure it out, but I’m hungry, so I guess I better hurry this along. No one hired me. I hired myself.”
She marched over to the suitcase and unzipped it. The tomb raider reached inside and pulled out a tiny green beetle. She held it up and shook her head. “Get it now?”
James frowned but didn’t say anything, not understanding the implications of some strange green beetle in Alison’s luggage. Maybe the School of Necessary Magic had a pest problem, or the beetle was some strange Oriceran creature that liked to wear unnecessary top hats.
Alison tilted her head. “It’s magical, but it’s like the magical aura has been suppressed somehow. If I’m not looking right at it, I can barely even see it.”
Shay rubbed the back of the beetle. It glowed for a few seconds, and a green shell formed around the bug. She stuck the now-formed capsule in her pocket and sighed.
“Do you have any idea what that was, kid?”
Alison shrugged. “A bug?”
The tomb raider nodded. “Yes, in many senses of the word. It’s a tracking bug. It’s very easy to track from a long distance with very little effort. Of course, one major disadvantage is that you have to get close enough to plant the damned thing, to begin with.”
Alison blinked. “Wait. You planted a magical tracking bug on me?”
“You’re damned right I did.”
“But why? You could have just called me if you wanted to know where I was.”
Shay shook her head. “You made such a big deal about independence and proving yourself that I decided to do a little test. I flew into town before you got here and followed you at the train station. I planted the bug to see if you’d figure it out.” She frowned. “I was basically right behind you and your friend when I did it, but you never even noticed me.”
James frowned. “Friend? What friend? What was his name?”
Alison rolled her eyes. “It was a girl, Dad. Calm down.”
“Oh.” The bounty hunter nodded, satisfied. “No big deal.”
Shay patted her pocket. “Wrong. This is a big deal because of the other big disadvantage of the bug. You can crush it just like any other bug or throw it out, so if you’d found it, it would have been very easy to handle, but you didn’t find it. You had no idea it was there. So not only could someone have tracked you, but they could have tracked you all the way to your home and taken you out when they felt like it.
Alison sighed. “Um, sorry?”
The tomb raider shook her head. “Not good enough. Not damned good enough. That school might be teaching you magic, but that doesn’t change the fact that people are targeting you—dangerous people—and once you leave that school, you’re at risk. You have to get your head in the game, kid, or the next thing you know you’ll be in some Drow dungeon crying.” She pointed at James. “No matter how tough he is, he won’t be able to do crap for you if you’re on Oriceran. The people sniffing around for you have major magic. It was too close the last time the Drow came knocking.”
Alison looked down at the floor.
James frowned. “Come on, Shay. It’s not that she shouldn’t be a little more careful, but you don’t have to be such a bi… You don’t have to be so harsh about it.”
The tomb raider spun toward James and shook a finger at him. “Harsh? You’re not off the hook either there, daddy dearest. I’ve got major harshness to still drop.”
“Huh?”
Shay sneered. “Remind me again what the Drow have been doing here on Earth? Because from what I can tell, it’s mostly been them trying to kill you. You might have forgotten that with all your dumb stunts with that idiot from the Black Sun, but don’t think I have.”
Damn it, when is she going to stop complaining about that?
James grunted. “It doesn’t matter. I’m still alive. They aren’t, and from what the cops told me, according to the consulate, there won’t be any more Drow coming for a while. We won, and the Oricerans are gonna keep an eye on them.”
“Oh, that’s what you’re depending on? Oricerans guaranteeing they’ve got those rule-breaking assholes already under control?” Shay marched over to the bounty hunter, her eyes narrowed and her hands on her hips. “If you don’t make sure she is clean, you’ll be having to dig Drow out of your ass, and even with the amulet it won’t be enough.”
Alison sighed. “I’m sorry. I should have been more careful. You’re right, Aunt Shay. With my sight, I should be checking everything and everyone more often. If I had been paying more attention, I would have found the bug.”
James glanced at the girl and back to Shay. He didn’t want to undermine the importance of security, but he also didn’t like the idea of the girl being depressed about failing some insane Shay test involving magic bugs on her first day back. They’d gotten through all the tension from the last few weeks, and there was no reason to bring it back up.
“We get the da… We get the point,” James rumbled. “Going on and on about it won’t help anything now.” He shrugged. “Why don’t you just eat some pizza and calm down?”
Shay rubbed her temples, stepped back, and took a deep breath. “You’re right, and I’m hungry. Haven’t had anything but coffee for a while.” She headed over to the dining room table to grab a slice. “You do get, Alison, that I’m not riding you for no reason? I’m not just trying to be a bitch here. I worry about you, and I want to do everything I can to make your life safer.”
The girl nodded. “I know you care, Aunt Shay, and I’ll try to do better in the future. It’s not like…” She shrugged. “Learning magic isn’t like learning stuff in a normal classroom. It keeps me more on my toes than you think, and my abilities have improved.”
“Good. I just really think it’d be annoying if James and I have to go invade Oriceran to get you back.” Shay offered Alison a grin. “Even though it’d be fun to see him destroy an entire world.”
Alison chuckled and smiled back.
James shook his head. “I don’t even like going down to Mexico. But it doesn’t matter. We’ll be going on vacation there soon enough, but for this week, I’ve got a few things to take care of.” He looked at Alison. “I want you to come along so we can spend more time together.”
The teen nodded. “Sounds good, Dad.”
Shay bit into her pizza and smiled. “This is actually pretty good.” She winked at James. “You’ve finally bought a clue about true pizza.”
Yev leaned back in his chair, the phone to his ear. “I understand how this might cause some issues, Senator, but as I’ve explained, this adoption can’t proceed, not with that man and that girl. The level of political fallout for both worlds is just too high. It could unravel everything we’ve both worked for these last few years. You’ve been a great benefit to the consulate in the past, and we only hope you’ll continue to realize the importance of what we do here.”
The senator sighed on the other end. “I want to be angry and scream at you about America being the land of second chances, but I appreciate how you’ve always been straight with me in the past about bullshit that might harm California or the country. I don’t know how the other consuls and ambassadors handle things, but you’re a good egg, Yev, and I’m glad I’ve been dealing with you.”
Good egg? The Light Elf frowned. After all these years on Earth and in
the United States, he still had trouble understanding their mindset and idioms at times.
“I appreciate your understanding, Senator, but we’ll need a little more direct assistance in defusing this matter.”
“What do you mean?”
Yev sighed. “If Oricerans openly oppose the adoption, we risk empowering anti-Oriceran groups. We’re all too aware of the people just waiting for an appropriate rallying cry to convince people of alleged nefarious deeds. Blocking the adoption of a photogenic teenager by the world’s most famous bounty hunter would risk political damage that might take us years, if not decades, to recover from. We can’t be seen as having a direct hand in this. I’m all too aware of how manipulative many people feel Oricerans are, and elves in particular.”
“I get that, so what are you suggesting, then? Obviously something more than just asking him not to do it.”
“You’re, of course, much more familiar with your laws and culture. What I’m about to pass on to you comes directly from a king’s advisor—and thus the king, just to make that clear.” Yev took a deep breath. “We’d ask that your government play the role of the reluctant party. That you find some sort of reason based on Earth laws and customs to oppose the adoption, preferably something specific to Brownstone.”
The senator clucked his tongue. “This won’t be one of the things I’ve done in my career that will make me proud later, but I’ll call around and pull some strings. I’m sure someone at a lower level can figure out a plausible-sounding excuse to stop this. That is, if you’re sure there’s no other way?”
“Unfortunately, Senator, I’m very sure. We must do whatever it takes to make sure James Brownstone doesn’t adopt the girl, for the good of Earth and Oriceran.”
5
Manuel gesticulated wildly as he finished telling his story. “So I told the motherfucker, ‘If you’re the twin, then you won’t mind coming with me to the police station, right?’ Then the fucker tries to stab me, so I knocked his ass clean out. Stupid-ass bounties. Why do they always try that shit?”
The gathered men laughed. They were about half the total strength of the agency. The other men were out on jobs, including the current Vegas team.
Shorty grinned. “Man, you should have heard some of the shit Trey was telling me about.” He looked around. “Where is he, anyway? I ain’t seen him all day.”
“Working a job,” Manuel replied.
“I thought he was training with us today.”
“He… What the fuck?” Manuel’s attention slid past Shorty, and the men gathered by the pit followed his eyes to James, who was marching out of the Brownstone Building with a hot thin girl wearing track shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. Her pale skin contrasted with her dark hair, except for the white on the ends.
James gestured around the area. “This is the main training area. It’s for body weight exercises. You’ll do runs, too, but not without me or some of the men, Alison.”
Alison shook her head. “Are you serious? This is how you want to spend time together? Making me exercise? That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.”
The bounty hunter grunted. “You’re not exactly in Shay shape.”
“But we had PE in school,” the girl whined. “I’m not going to be a bounty hunter. I don’t need to be in that good of shape. Not Shay shape or James Brownstone shape.”
He shrugged. “No one said you had to be as good as us, but endurance can save your life. Shay’s right. We were both sloppy, and I was already planning a lot of this anyway. Just going to do more of it right away.”
Shorty and Manuel exchanged glances. Max stepped toward the men.
“Is she a new trainee?” Max adjusted his glasses and lowered his voice so only the other bounty hunters could hear him. “Damn, she’s hot. But why would Brownstone bring in a chick like that? Is she gonna work with Charlyce?” He furrowed his brow. “Wait, can we date co-workers?”
Shorty frowned. “What the fuck you talking about?”
“I don’t remember signing shit about not dating anyone at work. That’s not against the rules, right? She don’t look like she’s gonna be working jobs, so it’s not like it’d mess anything up when we’re out tracking bounties.” Manuel shrugged.
Shorty laughed. “You serious, man? She’s hot, but I think she’s a don’t-you-dare-touch-me kind of girl. She’s probably some girl Brownstone saved from a fucked-up serial killer, and now he’s trying to train her so she can kick ass as part of her therapy or some shit. Because that’s the way Brownstone rolls. He makes people fucking better than they were.”
“I don’t remember him saying shit about bringing anybody,” Manuel replied.
Daryl, who had been stretching nearby, laughed. “Y’all a bunch of dumb motherfuckers. Don’t you know shit about anything?”
The men all turned to him, most looking even more confused than before.
Shorty snorted. “What are you talking about, you loud-mouthed fool?”
Daryl nodded toward the girl. “That’s Alison, you dumb shit. As in Alison Brownstone, the girl he’s adopting. That’s James Brownstone’s motherfucking daughter.”
Several of the men grimaced.
The man laughed. “And you dumb fucks were gonna go hit on her? I almost would have paid money to see that shit. It would have been the show of the year once he found out.”
Manuel scrubbed a hand down his face. “She looks older than she is. That’s not fair.”
Daryl snorted. “Don’t fucking matter. You even think about sniffing her way, we all know what Brownstone would do. He’d pound your face into the cement like he did King Pyro or kick you through a window. And he’d be right to do it. I’d beat your asses if I had a daughter and you fuckers came around her.”
Shorty gave a little salute. “Nothing but professionalism from me. I’m staying well away.”
The men all laughed.
“No!” Alison shouted after James murmured something to her. She stamped her feet. “I shouldn’t have to do this. It’s not fair.”
James snorted. “You’re whining about a little exercise?” He waved a hand. “I’ve got to go talk to Charlyce about something. If you want to stay here and continue to have a tantrum, be my guest. If you want to go back home, start walking. It’ll be good exercise.” He spun and marched toward the door.
“You’re such a jerk sometimes, Dad.” Alison glared at the bounty hunter until he entered the building. “A real big jerk.”
Shorty shrugged. “What should we do? Go ask Mr. Brownstone what to do?”
Daryl nodded toward the girl. “Nah. We know what he wants. We help her. It’s obvious why he brought her here, you know what I’m saying? He said as much.”
The men all nodded and marched as a group toward Alison. The girl stood there, arms crossed, still glaring at the door and muttering angry teenage barbs about her father.
Daryl approached Alison and gave her a polite nod. “Hey, Alison. I’m Daryl.” He gestured to the gathered men. “We all work for your dad. This ain’t all of us, but it’s a good chunk of us. Welcome to the Brownstone Agency.”
Alison sighed. “Sorry you all had to see that. Not my finest introduction.”
“Hey, I didn’t get along with my old man, either. But we’re gonna help you out.”
She blinked. “Help me out?”
“We’re gonna help train the poor out of-shape-white girl.” Daryl smirked. “That way your dad will get off your back.”
Alison narrowed her eyes. “Just because I’m not some super-athlete doesn’t mean I can’t take care of myself. I’m tougher than I look.” She lifted her chin and sniffed.
Daryl held up his hands. “Not saying you ain’t, but we was all tough, too, real tough, but then your dad brought us in off the street, and with the help of the staff sergeant, he made us tougher. You can always get stronger, and getting stronger is all about being prepared. It’s like the man said, ‘To not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency
is the greatest of virtues.’”
Alison blinked. “My dad said that? It doesn’t sound like him.”
The bounty hunter laughed. “Nah. That sh…that stuff was from Sun Tzu, The Art of War. Our training’s directed by Staff Sergeant Chris Royce, retired United States Marine Corps, but he ain’t here today. He’s big into stuff like Sun Tzu and Marcus Aurelius and all sorts of other old generals and warriors.” He pounded his chest with a fist. “Strong heart, strong mind, strong body, you know what I’m saying? Physical training improves the others, and then at the end, you’re a warrior.”
The girl jerked her head from man to man, her eyes unfocused. The men didn’t quite know what to make of it. “I’ve got a strong heart, mind, and body already. I can take care of myself. I don’t need your help.”
Daryl shrugged. “Sure, sure, Alison. I bet you do a mean foot stomp. That’ll scare people off.”
Everyone laughed.
The girl smirked and lifted her hand. A purple flame winked into existence.
“Damn!” Manuel yelled. “She’s a witch. We're gonna have fucking magical back-up now. Hell to the yeah.”
Shorty smacked him on the back of the head. “Watch your mouth around Alison Brownstone, you fool.”
More murmurs broke out, the men all staring at Alison’s flame with interest.
Alison blinked and lowered her hand. “Um, I’m not technically a witch. I…” She waved a hand, and the flame disappeared. “Don’t worry. It’s complicated, but why aren’t you scared? It’s magic.”
Daryl and Shorty exchanged a look, but it was Shorty who spoke. “Brownstone Agency is all about the reputation, you know what I’m saying? If we get scared and run from magic, it makes Mr. Brownstone look bad, and even though we handle the lower-level bounties, you never know what might pop up. We ran into a witch in Vegas not all that long ago. She beat our…” He coughed. “She had some good magic and we had some trouble with it, but we didn’t run.”
The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone Omnibus Page 43
