by B N Miles
“Okay,” he said, loosening up a little. “All right. Can I help you with something? You here about the tractors?”
“No,” Jared said. “I’m with the Meta Marshal Service. I’d like to ask you a few questions, if that’s okay.” He took his badge out from under his shirt.
The Goblin stared at him for a second, then narrowed his eyes. “Marshal Service?” he asked.
“That’s right. Just a few questions, nothing intense, if you have a second?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know what I can help you with, Marshal.”
While Jared spoke, Cassie and Jessalene fanned out around him. They were casually picking through the junk, just looking at stuff, pretending not to pay attention. The Goblin’s eyes were jumping from Jared over to the two girls, and Jared couldn’t tell if he was interested in them because they’re gorgeous, or if he really didn’t want them going through his stuff. Jessalene picked up an old, empty oilcan, frowned at it, and tossed it aside. The Goblin winced when it hit the concrete floor and clattered into a pile of similar cans a few feet away.
Jared took out a notepad and a small pencil from his back pocket. “What’s your name?”
“Mondo,” the Goblin said. “Mondo Willhaven.”
Jared noticed Cassie snicker, but he ignored her. “Okay Mondo. Nice to meet you, thanks for taking the time to talk with me.”
“Yeah, all right,” Mondo said. He frowned at Jared. “This gonna take a while? I got a lot of tractors to work on.”
“We see that,” Jessalene said with some venom.
Mondo looked a little surprised at her tone, so Jared spoke up. “Do you work here, Mondo?”
“Sure do,” he said, turning back to Jared. “I own Big Roots.”
“Oh, great,” Jared said. “You employ a lot of guys?”
Mondo cleared his throat. “You, uh, said Meta Marshal, right?”
Jared nodded. “Yes, sir. Part of the MetaDept.”
“All right. Yeah, I employ mostly Goblins here. Got a Dryad that comes and goes sometimes, mostly just does tree work.”
Jared glanced at Jessalene. She stood stiffly over to his right but didn’t speak.
“You guys do a lot of work around here?”
“Sure,” Mondo said. “You know. Usual stuff.”
“Mulching, mowing?”
“Tree trimming, bush removal, whatever needs doing.”
“Been in Glenside a while?”
“About ten years,” Mondo said, frowning. “Is there a problem, Marshal?”
“No, not at all. I’m just trying to establish a few things.”
“Marshal Service goes after fugitives, right?” Mondo crossed his arms. “I don’t use fugitives.”
“Not saying you do.” Jared closed his notepad. “Listen Mondo. You ever do work for a local Dryad clan? They’re based not far from here.”
“Maybe.” He frowned and narrowed his eyes before glancing over at Jessalene. “Could be we’ve done some work.”
Jared followed his gaze then looked back at the Goblin. He recognized her name.
“Do you know when that was? And what sort of work you guys performed?”
“Oh, ah, I don’t know,” Mondo said. “We don’t keep good records. I think it might’ve just been a quote for something.”
“Quote for what?” Jared pressed. “Odd to need to do landscaping work for a Dryad clan, right? I mean, they control plants, so.”
Mondo shifted, getting visibly uncomfortable. “Not sure what you mean. We get a call asking for a quote, we go out and give a quote. Can’t turn down work around here.”
“Sure, sure, I get you. Not making any accusations here. Like I said, just trying to establish some facts.”
“Would you two stop snooping?” Mondo snapped, glaring between Jessalene and Cassie.
Cassie stopped and looked surprised. But Jessalene bared her teeth at him. She was about to speak, but Jared talked over her.
“I’m sorry if we’re intruding, Mr. Willhaven,” he said. “My partners here are just curious about your setup. I have to admit, I’m curious too. A Goblin landscaping company is an interesting thing.”
Mondo rolled his eyes. His whole posture was more aggressive than it had been before. “Just because we’re Goblins you think we should be selling meth, right?”
“Not necessarily,” Jared said with a shrug. “Lots of Goblins do lots of things. But I’ve never heard of a landscaping company before.”
“Yah, well, now you have. My daddy cut grass his whole life for other folks, so when I got older, I started my own landscaping business. We’re one of the most successful landscapers in the area, got thousands of employees, thousands of clients.” The Goblin puffed up his chest and Jared could tell this interview was getting out of hand.
“Okay, Mr. Willhaven,” Jared said. “I’m very impressed.”
“Damn right you are, Marshal. Listen, if you’re done, I gotta get back to work, so why don’t you see yourselves out?”
“Just one more question.” Jared tilted his head. “What’s the name of that Dryad who works for you?”
“Oh shit,” Mondo said. “I don’t know. Just some guy.”
“Come on. You gotta call him something, right?”
“Hank.” Mondo kicked at an old tire. “Guy’s name is Hank. All right? You got what you wanted?”
“I think so.” Jared looked at Jessalene. She was about to say something but thought better of it. “Thanks for your time, Mondo.”
He headed for the door. Cassie followed, but Jessalene lingered. Jared was afraid she was about to do something rash, but she just shook her head and followed.
They went out to the car together and got in. Jessalene crossed her arms, looking annoyed, but Jared didn’t start the engine just yet.
“Well?” he asked, looking at Jessa in the rearview.
“It’s them,” she said. “They took him. I know it.”
“You don’t know that,” Jared said.
“Come on. You heard him, he said he was there. And some Dryad named Hank works for them?”
Jared frowned. “Do you know any clan members named Hank?”
“No,” she said. “But I don’t know absolutely everyone.”
“It’d be odd if someone from your clan worked for a Goblin, right?”
She nodded. “Very odd.”
“What do you think, Cassie?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure,” she said. “He got weird there toward the end.”
“Goblins do that when they’re under pressure,” Jared said. “Seen it a bunch before. They puff up and act big and tough. It’s a defense mechanism. You should see them in groups, it’s almost funny.”
“I think he was hiding something,” Cassie said. “There’s a reason he got defensive when you started asking about Dryads.”
“I agree.” Jared frowned. “But we can’t force him to talk.”
“Sure we can,” Jessalene mumbled.
Jared glanced back at her. “We’re doing this clean, remember?”
“Yeah, I get you.” She looked out the window.
Jared sighed and started the car. He agreed with both of them. Mondo was hiding something, and he was probably involved with Wen Bet’s disappearance. Or at least he was involved with something shady.
Problem was, they didn’t have enough to go on just yet. He seemed like he was hiding something, but that wasn’t a crime, and it wasn’t grounds to search his place.
But they did have a lead.
“Let’s head home,” Jared said. “I’ll drop you two off then hit the office and see if I can turn anything up about a Dryad named Hank.”
“That works,” Cassie said.
“I’ll call my mom and see what she knows,” Jessalene said. “And maybe push a few of the council.”
Jared nodded and pulled out. As they got back on the road, he caught a glimpse of a small, pale face staring at them from out the front window, the paper peeled back a few feet, watching them l
eave.
6
Jared came up with nothing on a Dryad named Hank back at the office, and Jessalene was in a foul mood for the rest of the night. He didn’t ask, but he figured she didn’t turn up anything useful, either.
The Goblins seemed like a dead end. They were definitely involved in something, but Jared couldn’t be sure it had anything to do with Wen Bet. He had a suspicion, but he just couldn’t confirm it, even if all he wanted to do was break down that door and use magic on Mondo until the little Goblin spilled everything.
Jared went to sleep early that night. Jessa stayed in her room, but Cassie came to him in the middle of the night, curling her body against his. “I hate how upset she is,” Cassie whispered, and Jared nodded, wrapping his arms around her body.
In the morning, he woke up early, made coffee and eggs, then went outside to grab his paper. He found a large envelope instead, brown and creased. It looked ancient. He frowned, picked it up, and brought it inside. The material crackled under his fingers, and he could’ve sworn it had its own aura, the feeling of dusk just outside an old library’s window.
The thing felt like magic. He could sense it, crackling along the edges. It was addressed to Cassie via his house and had an official MetaDept return address in the top left corner. He put it down on the table and went upstairs to wake her up. “You got something in the mail,” he said.
She frowned, her red hair messy. She always looked gorgeous so early, the way she smiled and blinked away sleep, the way the early sunlight drifted through her stray flyaway hairs. “What?” she asked, sounding groggy.
“Mail,” he said. “From the MetaDept. Showed up this morning.”
“What is it?”
“Come find out.” He grinned and left. Jessalene was in the shower, and he was tempted to pop in and say hello, but he figured she wanted some space right now. She was working through this whole thing and it wasn’t easy for her. Cassie was better about knowing what to say.
He went back downstairs, drank some coffee, ate some eggs, and eventually Jessa joined him. She frowned at the envelope. “What’s that?” She poked at it with one finger and pulled back like it stung her.
“It’s for Cassie.”
She snorted. “Looks like it’s going to blow up.”
“I know. Can you feel it?”
“Magic, yeah. Just a little bit though.”
“That’s some serious MetaDept shit right there.” Jared laughed. “What do you think it is?”
“I have a guess.” She sat down and sighed. Jared got up, poured her some coffee, and brought it back. She smiled at him and reached out, tugging him down. He kissed her on the lips, soft and slow, letting it linger for a moment.
“Thanks,” she said.
“No problem.” He sat in the chair next to her. “I know this is hard. I’ll look around some more today at the office.”
She shook her head. “It’s fine. I just… it feels like we have a good lead, right?”
“I agree,” Jared said. “Mondo was clearly hiding something. He got upset when I mentioned your clan. And I’m pretty sure he recognized your name.”
“I caught that too,” she said. “But then I can’t find anyone that remembers anything about them. Or anyone that knows a Dryad named Hank.”
“Is that a common Dryad name?”
“Not really. I mean, Dryad names don’t really work for humans, so we tend to take human names to pass better.”
“Do you have a Dryad name?”
She nodded and said a word that vaguely resembled Jessalene but with way more syllables and vowels.
“Huh,” he said. “I’ve never heard Dryad spoken out loud before. It’s pretty.”
She smiled. “Thanks. That was just my name, though.”
“You’ll have to teach me how to say it.”
Cassie came bounding down the steps a second later. Whatever Jessa was about to say was swallowed up in the black hole of Cassie’s unrelenting cheerful morning attitude. She wore a big black t-shirt and small shorts that just poked out beneath her shirt, making her look oddly unbalanced and very petite. Her breasts showed clearly and her nipples poked against the fabric.
“Hello, lovers!” she said, bounding up to the table.
“Too early,” Jared said. “Take it down a notch.”
“Never too early.” She spotted the envelope. “That’s for me, right?”
“Open it,” Jessalene said, sounding eager.
“Yeah, I’m curious too,” Jared said, unable to help himself.
Cassie snatched it up and slowly broke the seal. She grinned at them, opened the envelope, and dramatically pulled out the contents.
It was one single paper, the size of a passport. Jared could feel the magic on the thing, plain as morning sunlight. She stared at it, blinking for a long moment, before holding it out for Jared.
He took it. Nothing happened. He could still feel the buzz, but touching it didn’t trigger a spell.
The paper was thick and heavy, almost like vellum or papyrus. There was the official MetaDept seal at the top, the all-seeing eye tilted sideways with a small ray piercing from its iris, and beneath that, it said Cassie Grim in fancy script. Runes were etched around the edges, which Jared knew were for official verification purposes. This thing could never be forged, not with magic like that infused directly into it. Beneath her name, it read, “The Meta Department of the United States of America hereby grants Temporary Status to the aforementioned Meta.”
“It’s your visa,” he said and laughed. “Oh wow. This got here fast.”
“Let me see.”
He handed it to Jessalene and she inspected it. “Wow. Cassie Grim, you’re official now.”
Cassie beamed at them. “Look at me. A real member of your world.”
“Well,” Jared said. “Don’t let it get to your head. You’re still an anomaly and a threat to the very existence of this universe. But congrats anyway.”
She laughed and took her visa back. She stared at it before lovingly tucking it back into the envelope. “So they can’t kick me out now, right?”
“Not without a headache, at least,” Jared said. “You’re not safe, so don’t think you can start committing crimes with impunity.”
“Aw, what’s the point of having a boyfriend in law enforcement if I can’t commit just a few crimes?”
“I’m a Marshal,” Jared said. “Not a cop.”
“Same difference. Did you make eggs? I’m starving.” She hurried into the kitchen.
“Coffee’s on, too,” he called out and smiled at Jessalene. She grinned back at him, shaking her head.
“You could tell that girl the house is on fire and she’d still be smiling,” she said.
“I know,” he said quietly. “It’s good for me.”
“Yeah. It’s good for me, too.”
Cassie came back into the room, her plate piled full of eggs, her mug on the verge of overflowing. She frowned at them, a piece of toast in her mouth. “What?” The toast fell down into her plate.
“Nothing,” Jared said and Jessalene got up to help Cassie carry her feast over, laughing the whole time.
They finished breakfast together. Jared kissed his girls goodbye and headed for the door.
“Have a great day at work, sweetie!” Cassie called out.
“Don’t get in trouble,” he said and slipped out the door.
It was a nice morning as Jared began his normal walk to the office. He smiled to himself, remembering the look on Cassie’s face when she got her visa just a few minutes ago. It was amazing how fast he went from seeing her as a prisoner, to having her deep inside his life.
As he reached the corner of the street, he stopped and frowned. Parked in the line of cars on the opposite side was a white truck, beat up and rusting on the edges, with Big Roots Landscaping emblazoned on the side in big green letters.
“You have to be kidding me,” he said to himself, turning toward the truck.
He saw two figures move.
One popped up like he had been trying to hide and the other started saying something and pointing. Jared stared at them in total surprise. They were Goblins without a doubt. They were both small, pale, and bald, and he thought he caught a glimpse of pointy teeth as the driver turned the engine on and started to pull out.
Jared stepped into the street and waved at them. The Goblins started shouting, fear clear in the driver’s eyes. The truck moved back and forth, rocking out of its tiny spot, until the front got enough room and the driver could floor it. The truck jolted forward, swung back to the right, narrowly missing Jared and the cars opposite. The truck hit the street and sped off, leaving Jared standing there, staring after them in total shock.
“What the hell…” he whispered, shaking his head.
Goblins were not known for their brilliance, but they weren’t considered particularly stupid, either. That was a trap a lot of people fell into, underestimating Goblins just because of their appearance.
But that was monumentally dumb.
He turned away from the fleeing truck and headed back to his house. He walked inside and found Cassie lounging on the couch and Jessalene sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. Both of them frowned at him.
“Forget something?” Cassie asked.
Jared stood there for a second then sighed. “We have to go back out to the suburbs today,” he said.
“Really?” Cassie asked. “Why?”
“The weirdest thing just happened.” Jared walked over to the table and sat down. Cassie got up and joined him, curling one leg underneath her as she took a seat.
“What’s up?” Jessalene asked, looking concerned. She put her coffee down and tilted her head.
“I was walking to work when I noticed a truck sitting at the end of the street… with Big Roots Landscaping painted on the side.”
Jessalene laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Yep, I’m serious. I approached it and the Goblins inside freaked out a little. They tore out of that space and drove off before I could ask what they were doing.”
“Mondo sent them to watch you,” Cassie said.
“But he sent them in a truck with their company’s name on the side.” Jessalene laughed. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
