Uncertain Allies cg-5

by Mark Del Franco

  “I didn’t detect any unusual body signatures. I will check the alley again,” he said.

  “Don’t bother. It was Vize,” I said.

  “What makes you so sure?” Meryl asked.

  I gestured at the roof. Meryl sensed essence like I did. “The dead spots of essence around the tower. Vize used the darkness to absorb his body signature and hide his trail,” I said.

  “Can you do that?” she asked.

  I nodded. I wasn’t ready to tell her that I had almost absorbed some of her essence at Shay’s studio. “What do you make of the stone in his eye?”

  Before she answered, a welling of essence built beneath us like the shock wave of something huge surfacing from within the building. Meryl and Rand felt it, too, and we all turned toward the door. No one came out of the stairwell, but the decrepit greenhouse glowed with a deep blue light that faded. The tall figure of Heydan appeared in the doorway.

  I had to admit, Heydan gave me the shivers. The power he emanated was subtle yet immense, like a placid mountain pool that hid unfathomable depths. Ridged bone showed beneath the skin of his forehead, rising from his temples and back over his bare head. His calm, dark eyes beneath a heavy brow focused over our heads at Nar’s body. With ponderous steps, he moved out of the ruined greenhouse and joined us beneath the tower, keeping his gaze on the dead body.

  “This is deep work and bodes no good thing,” he said.

  “What happened to his eye?” I asked.

  Heydan shifted, moving his body away from tower. “It was taken for what it had seen. The stone conveyed the memory.”

  I looked at Meryl. “He knows where it is now.”

  Heydan lowered his gaze to me. “You know what was sought?”

  I gestured at the swinging body. “Veinseeker hid a stone of power. A terrorist named Bergin Vize wants it to take down the Seelie Court.”

  Heydan stepped to the edge of the roof, peering off into the night sky above the harbor. Seeing such a large person one step from the six-story drop made me a little queasy. He remained silent and unmoving for so long that I wondered if he had forgotten we were there. “It is the nature of power to invite its own destruction. Shadows grow and ebb against the future as ever. I listen and wait.”

  “Do you know where Vize is?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer for another few minutes, then stepped back from the edge. “I do not know this man. It matters not who he is.”

  “It matters to me, maybe a lot of other people. I would appreciate the help,” I said.

  Heydan’s deep eyes gleamed beneath his shadowed brow. “I watch and listen. I heard a shadow move like to the one within you. The Wheel of the World turns, and I hear the sighing of Its passage. What say you to a hanging man?”

  “I warned him this would happen. He didn’t listen,” I said.

  “No one ever does,” he said.

  35

  The sky over the alley outside Yggy’s bled gray into black. Police lights flashed on Old Northern, rubberneckers pressing against crime-scene tape. Gerry Murdock leaned against a squad car, indifference in his stance though he threw the occasional glower in my direction. Meryl wrapped her arms around me inside my jacket to keep warm in the cool morning air.

  Next to the entrance to the bar, another door stood open leading to the building stairwell. Heydan wouldn’t let the police in the bar and disappeared after he opened the access door. Murdock came down the alley, all pressed shirt and clean shoes. He didn’t stop to talk to his brother. He glanced at the medical-examiner staff car. “Is Janey here yet?” he asked.

  “No, OCME sent someone else,” I said.

  He slid his hands into his pants pockets, standing back to let a beat officer enter the building. “Looks like we have the same case again.”

  “Yeah, but this time we know who the killer is,” I said.

  “Vize?” he asked.

  I nodded. “He knows where the stone is now. It’s only a matter of time before he finds it.”

  “Can we use the vitniri to track him?” Murdock asked.

  “They’re not dogs, ya know. You can’t point, and say, ‘fetch.’ They need a reason,” said Meryl.

  “I wasn’t under the impression that reason and half wolves went together all that well,” Murdock said.

  A tinge of red flushed across Meryl’s cheeks. “They’re still people,” she said.

  Murdock smirked and nudged her. “You’re so easy sometimes.”

  “Not in my experience,” I said. They both turned to look at me like I had no business interrupting. The look, in fact, reminded me that I didn’t. “I want to get ahead of Vize. We’ve been chasing him. We’ve been everywhere he’s been. Even if he had to kill Nar to get the answer, there’s a method to his search that we’re not seeing. We’re missing the pattern.”

  “Old dwarves and stone,” Murdock said.

  Meryl nodded in feigned amazement. “I would never have noticed that.”

  Down on the avenue, a murmur ran through the crowd. People had turned their attention from the alley to the sky. Above us, three Guild agents swept across the alley and over the roofline of the building. “That’s interesting. The Guild hasn’t touched a crime scene down here in ages,” Murdock said.

  “Veinseeker popped up on the alert database,” Meryl said.

  “Why didn’t you tell us he was in the Guild database?” Murdock said.

  She cocked an eye at him. “Um . . . because I’m not a field agent on your case, and no one asked me to? And that I picked up the alert from a security sending about a minute ago? And did I mention I’ve been in a coma?”

  Amused, Murdock grunted. “That coma’s going to get a lot of mileage, isn’t it?”

  With a small smile, Meryl tilted her head down. “Would you like to try one?”

  More Guild agents landed at either end of the alley and began clearing everyone out. Instead of waiting to be tossed, we walked to the avenue. At the sidewalk, the Boston police were moving their crime-scene perimeter farther out, pushing the crowd back.

  Murdock leaned against his car. “Why is it I’m annoyed when the Guild won’t take a case in the Weird and pissed off when they do?”

  “Because it speaks to your ineffectual nature,” Meryl said. They made faces at each other.

  “The Guild knows where the faith stone is. That’s why they’re here,” I said.

  Meryl nodded. “Veinseeker is flagged in the system for a reason. If you guys haven’t connected him to anything else, the stone’s as good a reason as any for the Guild to watch for him.”

  I gave Meryl a playful look. “Can I ask you a favor?”

  She sighed. “Yes, I will hack into the system, Grey.”

  I hugged her. “See? Not everything involves major interdimensional meltdowns.”

  “Yet,” said Murdock. We got in his car and drove past the growing line of Guild agents. At the Boylston Street T station, Meryl remained in the car as I stood on the curb. “Do you need change for the fare?” she asked.

  “You’re not coming with me?”

  She poked me in the chest. “I’m allowed in the front door. If I’m going to be hacking security and someone catches me, I’m not raising questions about how I got in without my building pass registering.”

  I tapped her nose. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  I entered the station and paid the fare. This early in the morning, the platform was empty and the token-booth agent half-asleep. I walked into the tunnel unseen. The glamour covering the access door to the escape tunnel had an odd resistance but let me through. I was down the stairs and through the passageway in minutes.

  Meryl was at her desk before I reached her office. The room was back in some semblance of order, at least by her standards. The piles of papers and folders that had been knocked over were back in their precarious piles, the chair was unsittable with boxes, and the trashed computer components on her credenza had been replaced and reconnected. “I will get this done with less anno
yance if you stop reading over my shoulder,” she said.

  I perched at the far end of the credenza. “You don’t want me to see how you get in.”

  She smirked. “If you can’t figure it out yourself, you don’t deserve to know.”

  She sorted through screens, leaning back now and then as she waited for something to run. “Okay, here’s a problem. Veinseeker’s alert was assigned by Manny.”

  “Eagan? The Guildmaster never put stuff in the system himself,” I said.

  “Maybe not these days. The alert goes back decades. There are even scans of old paper memos in here that predate computers,” she said.

  I read over her shoulder. “No reason given for the flag.”

  Another screen popped open. “Here’s something: Veinseeker worked on the Guildhouse,” she said.

  “When? As far as I know, dwarves never worked here,” I said.

  She shook her head. “Not like that. He helped build the place, Grey. Looks like he used to own a quarry.”

  “His brother Thekk owned the quarry,” I said.

  Meryl pointed to an old contract scan. “Not according to this. They both did.”

  I pointed to the screen. “This doesn’t make sense. Thekk drops out of the contract work after major construction was completed, but Nar continues as a security consultant.”

  “So?” she asked.

  “So, Thekk is the one that controlled the business, not Nar.”

  Meryl sorted through more documents. “This might mean something. Nar helped set up the shield dome.”

  “Looks like Thekk was cut out of the security contract. I think you found the falling-out between the two brothers,” I said.

  Meryl peered up at me. “I must have been in the bathroom during that scene, but I’ll take your word for it.”

  “I thought Eagan created the dome,” I said.

  “He did. Apparently, Nar provided some kind of”—she gave me a triumphant smile—“essence booster.”

  Cold realization swept over me. “It’s here, Meryl. The faith stone is in the Guildhouse.”

  She looked doubtful. “If it is, no one ever told me about it.”

  I stepped into the hall. The stone corridor stretched in either direction, leading to room after room of artifacts. “It makes sense—the falling-out between Thekk and Nar, Vize looking for dwarves who were here a century ago, Eagan’s alert for Veinseeker. It’s here somewhere. I can feel it.”

  Meryl came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. “Do you mean feel it like sense it or feel it like gut instinct?”

  I turned in her arms. “Instinct. We have to search.”

  “There are a lot rooms down here and a lot of stone wards in them,” she said.

  “Brokke described it to me. We can narrow the search,” I said.

  Behind us, the computer rang with an e-mail tone, then another and another until the beeping sounded like a coded message itself. Meryl’s body shield fuzzed around her as she turned off the sound. “Holy shit, Grey. Agents arrested Vize. They’re bringing him in.”

  I went around her desk to see the alerts. “Bull. If Keeva and I couldn’t catch him, no one else could. He let himself be arrested. He wants to get inside. The stone’s here. We have to find it,” I said.

  “The holding cells are down here, too,” she said.

  I went back into the hall. “I have to convince macGoren not to let Vize down here.”

  “The moment you step off the elevator, you’ll be arrested for being in the building unauthorized,” she said.

  “I’ll go back around to the front door. Call Briallen. Tell her to meet me outside,” I said.

  “Done,” she said.

  I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Lock this place down, Meryl. Don’t let anyone in.”

  She inhaled and screamed, a bloodcurdling shriek that started high and swept down into a low note. The air became electric with essence, barriers running down the hall. The grind of stone against stone echoed, and the heavy thunk of wood doors slamming. She grinned. “Sonic cantrips. Better than keys.”

  I kissed the top of her head and dashed through the wall and into the escape tunnel.

  36

  Outside the Guildhouse, I ignored the blank silver stares of Guild agents while I waited for Briallen. The Danann fairies were on high alert, flying a low-altitude surveillance around the building and backing up the brownie guards on the street. The Guildhouse was in lockdown, the primary shield dome over the building hardened and public access forbidden. By luck, I had been inside the perimeter when the barrier came down.

  No one walked the sidewalks unless they were wearing a Guild or law-enforcement uniform. Unmarked vans idled on various corners, men and women with no identification moving between them, their telltale black uniforms an obvious sign of federal authorities. Vize had destroyed a nuclear power plant, so it was no surprise the human government was on the scene.

  I caught sight of Murdock parked next to a fire hydrant up the street. I found him slouched in his seat, reading a paperback. He placed a bookmark and closed the book. “Don’t tell me you’re working a detail for the Guild,” I said.

  He shook his head. “I heard the news about Vize. I wanted to watch a little karma in action.”

  One of the reasons Moira Cashel had returned to Boston was to capture Vize. If it hadn’t been for him, she might have stayed away, maybe waited until Scott Murdock died before she reconnected with her children. Instead, she’d come back, caused the commissioner’s death, and was killed by one of her sons. Vize’s getting arrested didn’t begin to cover the karma due. “I think he let himself get captured.”

  “I’ll buy that. Maybe I should have shot him the other night,” he said.

  I gave him a sharp glance at the out-of-character comment. “Are you going to shoot him now?”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you going to stop me if I say ‘yes’?”

  I folded my arms and leaned against the car. “You know, I think I would. I don’t give a damn about Vize, but I do about you, Murdock.”

  He gave me a pleasant smile. “I’m here for the karma. I’ve shot people in the line of duty, Connor. I didn’t like it. I’m not about to choose to do it, no matter how much I’d like to.”

  I squeezed his shoulder. I understood how he felt. I was ready to kill Vize. I would if I had the chance. Murdock’s doing it would make me sad. I had failed at times in my life when it came to being a better person, but I counted on people like Murdock to balance out the damage I had done.

  Briallen appeared by my side, a whiff of hot essence around her. She had used essence to travel, coasting faster than the eye could see. Dananns did it all the time, but druids used the ability only in a pinch because it was draining. “Hello, Leonard. I hope you’re not here to do anything foolish.”

  He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I’m going to wait here while you folks do the foolishness. You know Connor doesn’t have cab fare home.”

  She gave a tight smile as she pulled me away from the car. “Good. Don’t irritate the brownies. They’re on edge.”

  She glanced around the square. “They’ve cordoned off the neighborhood for two blocks around, so they’re taking this seriously.”

  “I don’t believe for one second macGoren’s men captured Vize. Something’s wrong, Briallen,” I said.

  She flashed identification at the Guild agent blocking the sidewalk, and we passed. “I agree. The important thing is that he’s in custody. Let’s see what our Acting Guildmaster is going to do about it.”

  As we approached the main entrance, Brokke waited under the vaulted portico.

  “I’m surprised they’re letting any Consortium agents through security, but for some reason I’m not at all surprised to see you here” I said.

  “I asserted my right to enter the Guildhouse as a board director,” he said.

  That was news. “Since when?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Eorla made me her second.”

  “Yo
u needn’t bother. She’s on her way,” said Briallen.

  Brokke narrowed his eyes. “You called her. Why?”

  “Because she raised Vize. I don’t trust whatever’s happening here, but I trust her to keep him from doing something stupid if she can,” said Briallen.

  Brokke lifted his gaze to the ceiling. Empty spaces spread from end to end, where the riot of gargoyles had once adorned the ceiling and columns. The huge dragon’s head over the main door remained. “The gargoyles have all gone to the Common. The essence of the standing stone down there attracts them,” I said.

  Brokke closed one eye as he stared. “It’s not that. It’s the dragon.”

  Briallen strode through the door “I’m not here for an architectural tour.”

  Brokke hesitated. “Have you ever wondered, Grey, why no dwarf enters this place?”

  In all the years I had been associated with the Guild, I had never seen a dwarf on the premises. The dwarven representative on the board of directors refused to enter the building. If the reason was known, no one talked about it anymore. “What about it?”

  Brokke placed his hand on my sleeve. A static of essence danced along my skin and settled on my eyes. Around the dragon’s head, faint dwarven runes glimmered in deep green light. “What does it say? I never mastered the dwarven language,” I said.

  “When Thekk Veinseeker did not feel he had been treated fairly by the Guild, he laid a warning on the door that any dwarf who entered would meet his doom,” Brokke said.

  He released my sleeve, and the runes faded from my sight. “Is this your way of saying you can’t stay, but you’ll meet me for coffee later?”

  He crossed the portico. “Doom is merely the judgment of our lives, Connor. I have always lived my life knowing it would be judged in the end. I do not fear my doom. If I did, I would rethink my life.”

  Briallen waited at the elevators, glaring, with her arms crossed. “I’m glad I’m the one with the least interest here.”

  I kissed her temple. “Liar.”