G.H.O.S.T. Teams: Book 1 - Magic

by Bobby Brimmer

“Unlikely,” Visine said, looking Fangs over, “Seems like a lone wolf.”

  “Okay, so when you say Alpha, you are referring to potential and ability?” I asked rhetorically, “Meaning that Fangsy here is something of a bad ass. You hear that Fangsy, you’re not living up to your potential,” I said in a mock parental voice.

  His muscles tensed as he tested the heavy-duty cuffs on his wrists. They groaned from the strain but held. He struggled for a minute before finally calming down. I kept the knife at his neck and gave him my friendly and authoritative smile.

  “Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? I need information and you wanna live. What do you say we make a deal?” I smiled.

  He stared at me, his unblinking eyes trying to bore through my skull. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t appear to be a kryptonian wolf. I held the knife steady as he leaned into the blade. The knife bit into his throat, a small trickle of blood dripping down as the hissing got louder. He never took his eyes off of mine. I got the impression that this was Fangsy’s way of proving to me just how tough he was. It was wolf speak for “You’ll never break me, copper”. The soreness in my body backed up his tough guy statement, but I would never let him know that.

  “Look Fangsy, we both know that you’re tough. Heck, I’d even say you’re at least the third toughest person in this room. So take pride in that,” I mocked, “But there is nothing left to prove here. We just want some information. We already know that your boss is looking for the orbus.”

  His muscles tensed up as I insulted him. Then, as he was too busy being angry to keep his facial muscles under control, I saw the slip. When I mentioned orbus, there was the slightest hint of recognition in his eyes. I smiled at the victory.

  “See, you do know something that can help us. So it’s probably best if you start talking now,” I said.

  He broke eye contact with me and looked at his restraints before glancing around the room and taking in his situation. There was a slight sag in his shoulders, just enough to let me see the shame in his body language. I got the impression that it wasn’t any kind of loyalty to his boss that was preventing him from talking, but rather a need to be contrary to the man who defeated him in combat. Pride is a tough thing to fight. He looked up at Visine before looking back at me.

  “What’s in it for me,” he growled.

  His voice now had a guttural quality to it and it was definitely deeper than before. As his eyes were still amber I assumed that it was the silver bringing out his inner wolf. I smiled at him and put the silver dagger away.

  “Well first, I stop hurting you. Because friends don’t hurt friends,” I smiled, “Second, you tell us everything that you know concerning your boss and the orbus and I put in a good word for you.”

  “Your good word helps me how?” Fangsy asked.

  “A possible reduced sentence, maybe even a chance at early parole. You gotta be excited about less time in the kennel,” I said.

  I know, I know, the dog jokes weren’t helping. But there were just so damn many of them running through my head that one was bound to sneak out. I watched his reaction, hoping to gauge his interest in talking. The more I watched his body language the more I got the impression that he was just hired help with his only loyalty to the big boss being in the form of cash. But there was still resistance since I had defeated him in combat. No one likes the idea of giving information to a conqueror. I figured if I was just a bit nicer and less condescending he might open up. As time was running short I was really hoping that he cared more about his future and less about holding a grudge against me.

  “Look Fangsy, I’m willing to believe that you are just a guy caught in a bad situation. You took a job without fully knowing what it entailed, and it bit you in the ass legally. But now is your chance to help yourself. Just tell us what you know,” I stated seriously.

  I didn’t really believe that he was a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although he was basically a mercenary, I was pretty sure that Fangsy was a bad guy and he knew exactly what he was getting into. But there were more important things to do now than worry about the smaller fish in the pond. We needed to find the head honcho and if giving Fangs a light sentence was the way to do it, then so be it. I watched his body relax as he slowly surrendered to the idea of talking.

  His nostrils flared as he let out a huge breath, “I don’t know much.”

  “Well tell us what little you do know and hopefully it will be enough,” I said.

  He nodded his head slowly and he began to tell us what he knew. Our Q&A basically consisted of Fangsy giving a short answer and me having to constantly ask for clarification. It was a very tedious process, but what we learned was this.

  The big boss called himself the Servant of the Lady. The name meant nothing to me and Visine gave a non-committal shrug. Apparently this Servant dude left with two sexy ladies in purple robes to retrieve the orbus from a bar in the Veil. And yes, I am still adding the sexy villainesses part. The three of them left about an hour before we arrived. Their destination was the Blue Weasel, a bar in the Veil that Visine had actually heard of. The orbus was apparently some kind of a summoner’s focus. I didn’t really know what that meant and Fangsy really didn’t seem to understand it, so I figured I would ask Kara and Freddy about it before we left.

  Once we had all of the information that we thought we were going to get, Visine and I escorted Fangsy outside and handed him off to the security personnel. Vlad was parked right by the front door, so Visine and I sat on his hood, giving ourselves a good vantage point to watch over everything as the prisoners were secured. At about this point a medic, a tall young skinny guy with dark hair, came over and started trying to clean and dress Visine’s wounds. Visine was focused on the prisoners and didn’t seem to pay the medic any mind. As I looked over the wounds in his arms, I noticed that although there was blood everywhere, he didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore. Damn, Visine heals fast.

  After several minutes of cleaning, patching, and bandaging Visine’s wounds and immobilizing his right arm, the medic shook his head and begged Visine to go to the hospital. Visine scoffed and when the medic looked over at me for help, I put up my hands and laughed. The medic shook his head in frustration before finally surrendering and settling for explaining to Visine how best to care for the wounds. It was obvious that the advice fell on deaf ears. Before leaving, the medic cleaned up the slash on my cheek from where Fangsy caught me with his claw. I was told that werewolfdom wasn’t contagious, but since I didn’t know how dirty Fangsy’s claws were, I let the medic clean the wound thoroughly. Once the medic left I looked over at Visine.

  “You sure you don’t want to go to a hospital?” I asked.

  He glanced down at his arm and smirked, “Just a flesh wound.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, “Hey, I’m the one that makes the jokes around here,” I stated.

  Visine rewarded me with a small smile as we watched the GHOST’s prisoner-transports drive off. A handful of personnel were still milling about to secure the area for further investigation. My mind wandered as I watched them scurry about and I couldn’t stop thinking about my first chance to visit the Veil.

  The Veil, as I said before, is the world next door. A place of myth and legend where all of the creatures from the storybooks are actually real. Fairies, Trolls, and Dragons are just a few of the things that call it home. In order to get there, you have to find a doorway, or more accurately a tear in the fabric of reality. If you locate one of these gateways and step through, you will find yourself literally in a different world. Something to think about the next time you ask yourself how come they can’t track down Bigfoot.

  These breach points are actually fairly uncommon. Chicago being the exception, as it’s almost honeycombed with doorways. They describe it as the hub between our two worlds. That is why Team Five is stationed there. Washington DC has a few doorways, several of which have only recently been discovered, hence the creation of our team. As a matter of fact, Rock Creek Park, w
here we currently were, was now known to possess several doorways. One of which I assume we were about to use. I glanced over at Visine.

  “I guess I finally get to check out the Veil huh?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” He sighed, clearly not happy about it.

  Chapter 19

  We were sitting inside of Vlad with the doors closed in order to give us some privacy. Although I didn’t really care if the GHOST crime scene personnel overheard us, since I didn’t know who else might be lurking in the surrounding woods, I figured it was best to play it safe. My car has one of those fancy hands free systems that links to a cell phone and lets you hear the caller through the radio speakers and respond via strategically placed microphones. But if I haven’t mentioned it already, I have issues with cell phones. I’m not a fan of anything that can be used to triangulate my position. So outside of the guys wowing me at the car show, the system never gets used. But after Vlad gave the okay, Visine somehow linked the hands free system to the cell grid. A moment later I heard the sound of a ringing phone coming from Vlad’s speakers.

  “Okay, neat trick,” I said.

  Visine smiled. After a couple of rings Freddy answered the phone and said hello.

  “Ey Freddy B, how you doin’?” I asked in a bad Italian accent.

  There was a pause before he responded, “Mr. Chang? That is a very interesting voice. I am feeling fine, thank you. I just got word of your encounter. Are you calling in order to make a report?” he asked.

  “Nothing to report yet, we’re still working the case. Is Kara awake, we need a little magical info?”

  “Yes she is, hold on, I’ll put you on speaker,” he replied.

  I heard him fumble with the handset and then the sound took on a more echoey tone.

  “I’m here,” Kara said.

  Her voice sounded rough and it was clear that she was still in a lot of pain.

  “Have either of you ever heard of an orbus? The baddy here thought it was some kind of a summoning focus,” I asked.

  I listened to the silence on the other end of the call as they both mulled it over. Because I am never one to miss an opportunity to be a pain, I felt the need to speak up.

  “Take your time. It’s only the fate of the world in the balance,” I quipped.

  “Thanks. My concussion loves the additional pressure,” Kara mocked.

  I couldn’t help but smile. If she was joking then hopefully that meant she was feeling a bit better. Freddy, who clearly doesn’t understand the finer points of team banter, attempted to put Kara at ease.

  “There is no pressure Ms. Tremont, we all know that you are doing your best. Contrary to Mr. Chang’s inference, the fate of the world is certainly not hanging in the balance,” he said.

  “Hey, I told you, my car sensed the impending apocalypse. That is nothing to sneer at,” I responded.

  “Mr. Chang,” Freddy sighed, “there is no evidence to support such a claim. As I have told you repeatedly now, the only known case with global implications is in Chicago and being handled by Team Five. Bringing a murderer to justice, as is our current case, is just as important. There is no need to embellish the facts,” Freddy retorted.

  “Whatever you say Freddy. But I’ll take the word of my car over GHOST Intelligence any day,” I said.

  “Thanks Boss,” Vlad said.

  I heard Freddy huff in the background and I noticed Visine smiling next to me. I’m such a pain.

  “Be that as it may,” Freddy said, “As for the matter at hand, the orbus, I am afraid that I am not familiar with any device by that name,” Freddy said.

  “Okay. Kara, anything?” I asked.

  “I’m guessing that the name is a slang term, not something official. But it’s not uncommon for a summoner to use a focus. I assume by the name that it’s some type of orb. Most orbs are used as focuses and batteries to store power. This is normally the best way to manipulate enough manna for a very large casting. Does that help?” she asked.

  It did help and I didn’t like what it was implying. This time I was the one who remained silent as my mind thought about the implications. Kara, in a much more mature fashion than I did, broke the silence.

  “Bruce? What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Just putting pieces together. The bad guy just went into the Veil in order to acquire an orbus and bring it back here. Our best guess is that the device is a summoning aid and used for really big stuff. The Lady Servant was powerful enough to convince five sorcerers to work for him. And now he is trying to amplify that power. That sounds to me like the Lady Servant is about to bring something really big and nasty into DC. Am I right?” I asked.

  I could hear everyone coming to the same conclusion on the other side of the phone. There was a small sigh from Kara before she responded.

  “That does seem likely,” Kara whispered in response.

  “Okay then. I guess we better get moving. You all try to figure out what Lady he serves and learn more about this orbus. We are heading into the Veil. Wish us luck,” I said.

  “Wait a minute. You cannot go into the Veil without proper backup. I have been told that Mr. Lazarus is injured and you…” the phone cut off.

  I looked over at Visine and smiled, “Thanks. Now we need to find a Veil entrance. We’re in Rock Creek Park, there has to be one close.”

  Reaching into his pocket Visine pulled out a small medallion. It was attached to a black cord that looked long enough to be used as a necklace. The medallion itself was a brown metal, about the size of a quarter, and covered in weird runes. If I had to guess, I would have said that it was an ancient coin from some lost empire. He wrapped the cord around his hand several times leaving the coin dangling about an inch below his fist. Then he held it up to his mouth and whispered, “reperio ianua.”

  The little medallion started to glow blue before tugging on his hand in a northerly direction. It seemed that our path was heading straight into the woods. I patted Vlad on the dash.

  “Sorry pal, looks like you’re gonna have to wait here.”

  Vlad was quiet as Visine and I got out and made our way back to the trunk. I popped it open and grabbed my sword. This particular katana was a little shorter and less curved than the more common decorative pieces that you have probably seen. As I often find myself fighting indoors, in cramped spaces, I tend to lean towards shorter blades. This sword wasn’t crafted by some master blade-smith or handed down through the generations. It was just a sword, made with modern steel and a rubber coated handle. Tradition takes a backseat to function. Plus, when you go through as many blades as I do, you tend to avoid expensive sentimental pieces. I also grabbed a few throwing knives and placed them in the many empty sheaths upon my body. Visine glanced over the weapons in my trunk.

  “Got anything man sized?” he quipped.

  I laughed and looked over at Visine. I nodded towards his right arm and the wound in his leg before I spoke.

  “You sure you wanna come with me? I can handle this,” I said as serious as I could.

  He never looked over at me or bothered to respond. I didn’t think that he would. He was tough and this was personal. There was no chance that I could get him to sit out. Scrounging around in my trunk, he came up with a big knife and a Chinese broadsword. While I would have considered it a decent sized sword, it looked rather small against his large frame. He smacked the flat of the blade against his good leg a couple of times to test the strength.

  “This will do. Let’s go,” he said.

  He slid the sword into the right side of his belt, allowing for a left-handed draw. The medic had secured his right arm into a sling earlier, but after fighting for almost a century, I had a feeling that Visine was just as competent with his left hand. Although he was walking with a heavy limp he still managed to move at a decent pace. I closed the trunk and caught up with him, matching his speed. With my katana secured on my back I touched the leather band on my arm.

  “Stay out of trouble pal, we’ll be back as soon as we can,�
�� I told Vlad.

  “Will do Boss,” Vlad responded in my head.

  We walked for a few hundred yards before we crossed a small service road that connected Beach Drive to Oregon Avenue. I made a snarky comment to Visine about how we could have driven to this point, but he ignored me and just kept heading deeper into the woods. The medallion was pulling towards the north and a little to the east. Another couple hundred yards and it started tugging on his hand much harder. It almost looked as if it was going to break its cord.

  “Is that a good sign,” I asked.

  “We’re close,” he said.

  Just a bit in front of us was one ugly ass tree. I guess more accurately it was three trees, gnarly looking things that were all growing out of the same spot. The medallion pulsed blue and pointed straight at the trees. Visine extended his hand until the coin touched the bark, which caused the blue glow to cease and the medallion to dangle free once more. He turned towards me.

  “Here we go,” he said as he stepped around the right side of the tree. There was a haze in the air, almost like a heat distortion, and then he was gone. I sighed and said, “Here we go,” to myself before stepping around the tree and through the haze.

  Stepping into the Veil reminded me a lot of those machines at the doors to grocery stores, the ones that blow air down in order to keep the ac in. There was a quick rush of air, which caused me to blink rapidly as the world in front of me changed.

  I was now standing in a very different forest. It was much darker here as thick foliage and a canopy of branches blocked out most of the sunlight. A light breeze was rustling the leaves and making the branches creak. There was a small dirt path in front of me heading off to the left and right. Thanks to the dense forest surrounding us, the trail was our only option. Visine was standing in front of me, his left hand absentmindedly scratching his wounded arm as he looked around. He was glancing back and forth between the two directions as if trying to decide which way to go.

  I glanced behind me and noted that every last trace of Rock Creek Park had vanished. Well, except the ugly tree, which seemed to be living in both worlds. Just thinking about that made me smile. I was in another world, how cool is that? From the little bit that I gleaned from training, the rules of nature were slightly different here. For example, there was very little chance that Visine’s guns would fire. I won’t pretend to understand the intricacies of gunpowder, but the process by which it burns and builds up pressure doesn’t work here. The Veil is its own world and it plays by its own rules. Maybe that is why it gets dragons.