Game's End

by Natasha Deen

  Serge rolled his eyes. “Big deal. You can fake ID.”

  Gregory slid the plastic rectangle under the door. I picked it up. “No bad feelings off touching it,” I said and flipped the licence so my friends could see it. “He looks okay.”

  “They always look okay,” said Craig. “If bad guys looked like bad guys there wouldn’t be any innocent men in jail.”

  “What do we do?” I asked. “I want to open it, I feel okay about him, but my powers are weird right now.”

  “I’m sure you’re talking about this,” said Gregory. “But it’s cold on this side of the door.”

  “Let him in,” said Nell. “I’ve got two knives and a wicked high kick.”

  “Maggie, Nancy, I am who I say I am. I’m not a reporter or anyone else looking to make money off you,” said Gregory.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and wished for the right answer to show itself to me.

  “Open up,” said Gregory. “I know who you are, Maggie. I know what you are. I know about the souls you’ve transitioned, I know about your ghost-brother Serge and your ferrier-boyfriend, Craig. Let me in, and I’ll tell you who Hank really was.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I opened the door and crinkled my nose against the smell of the old mill. Gregory and I took a good look at each other. Serge checked for auras and energies while Craig and Nell gave Gregory a hard once-over.

  The initial checks done, Gregory pulled out a worn photograph and held it out. Dad, him, and a bunch of other guys from the platoon, squinting against the desert glare, their skin browned from the sun. “He was a good man.” He waved the photo at me. “Take it.”

  “Don’t you want to keep it?”

  “I have him in my heart,” he said, bouncing on his toes to ward off the cold. “I don’t need him anywhere else. It’s more important for you to have these mementos—I brought it for you. I figured with everything going on, you’d want proof I knew your dad before you let me in.”

  “You met in the army?” Nell asked.

  He nodded. “First day of basic training. ”

  The wind swept the snow from the porch to my feet. “Come in,” I said. Text Nancy, tell her what’s going on. Use my phone so she can respond.

  Serge nodded. “Already ahead of you.”

  “You’re your father’s daughter, Maggie,” he said. “Trust but verify.” He stepped inside, stamping his feet against the mat. “Thanks. It’s cold out there and dry. The weather’s doing all kinds of things to my sinuses.”

  “I’ll get you some coffee,” said Nell. “Are you hungry? We have sandwiches and soup.”

  “That sounds good.”

  I took his jacket and led him up the stairs. Ebony and Buddha moved from their spots under the table and headed toward the bedrooms.

  “Animals,” said Gregory. “Did Hank ever tell you about the dog we adopted while we were on tour?”

  I shook my head.

  “Found her in the broken-down rubble of a building. We took care of her the entire time. There was a kid—Ali—who used to hang out with us. He loved that dog, too. When we left, Hank let Ali keep her. I think it broke Hank’s heart to give her up, but he knew she was in a good place. But I didn’t come here to tell you war stories, and your dad would be ticked if I was jabbering on instead of catching you up.” He moved to the table.

  I took a seat beside him. Nell took one on the other side, while Craig went to the stove for soup.

  Gregory pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. “I used to visit Hank—you were just a baby then, Maggie. I had to stop because of the weather. This dry air messes with me. Headaches, nosebleeds, and medication wasn’t what it is, now.”

  “Do you want some ibuprofen or aspirin?” I asked.

  He shook his head and grinned. “You wouldn’t believe it to look at me or hear me complain, but I used to be the best in the JTC. Your dad and I, teammates against the world.”

  My heart contracted, and contracted again when he continued, “Teammates until you, Maggie. You were his everything.”

  “Thanks,” I whispered.

  “Boy, he and I loved taking risks. The more dangerous the operation, the more there was to lose, the more we wanted it.” The smile slipped from his face. “When I found out what happened to Hank, I knew it was fallout from one of our tours.”

  Craig set the food in front of Gregory, then sat down.

  “Your dad never talked about his time in the military with you,” said Gregory. “It was one of the few things we disagreed on. I thought you deserved to know, but some of the things we had to do—Hank didn’t want to relive those moments, and he didn’t want you knowing about the things he’d done—” His lips twitched. “—He’s gone now, so I’ll honour the memory and not tell you, either.”

  Well, that was helpful.

  “You don’t need to know the specifics of our missions to know we dealt with dangerous people. It’s enough to say that our methods weren’t always pretty.” He took a mouthful of soup. “Most of the bad guys are in prison, some of them dead. But one man, he escaped.” Gregory winced and pressed his fingers against his temple. “I think I will take that aspirin, now.”

  Nell rose to get it.

  “Nancy texted back,” said Serge. “I guess Gregory gave her the secret code she needed to get to the guys who can verify him and Hank. It’s all checking out. Your dad was part of the military, so was Gregory. She says she’s taken copies of the photos so you can see what Hank looked like when he was younger.”

  Nell returned and I said, “Tell me more about the man who escaped.”

  Gregory popped two pills and swallowed them dry. “He wasn’t a bad man—”

  “Does he have a name?” asked Craig.

  “It wouldn’t matter,’ said Gregory. “Like Maggie’s dad, this man can blend in and knows how to change his identity. God only knows what he looks like or what name he’s using now.”

  “What name did he use when you and Dad were looking for him?”

  His mouth pulled into a flat line. “Lucien.”

  “What happened?” asked Nell.

  “Opinions vary. He was either a madman or a man ahead of his time, but our team had our orders. It was our last mission and maybe that’s why the operation went sideways,” said Gregory. “Lucien escaped but his capture was the responsibility of another team. Your dad left the military, married, had you.” Gregory leaned forward. He ran his finger along the scar on his cheek. “You can walk away and try to make a new life, but your old decisions have a way of finding you.”

  Tell me about it.

  “The military assumed—or hoped—that he’d died. But when I heard Hank had been murdered, I knew Lucien was still alive.”

  “You think he found Dad?” I asked. It made sense. The bruises on Dad’s knuckles, his sudden, violent death at the end of a gun blast.

  Gregory nodded. “I’m sure he’s behind your dad’s death, but it gets worse.”

  I wasn’t sure how that was possible.

  “Lucien vowed his revenge would be the ultimate payback. He didn’t just come for your father. He came for all of you. I can’t let anything happen to you or Nancy. I made a promise to Hank and I won’t break it.”

  “How do we find him?” Nell asked.

  “If I could talk to Nancy—damn—!” Gregory dipped forward, pressing his hand against his nose. “This weather.”

  “How did you survive the desert?” I asked as I handed him a tissue.

  “I was younger then,” he said. “Nosebleeds were a sign of a man’s virility.”

  “I’m glad I wasn’t alive then,” said Nell.

  “We have to figure out who Lucien is pretending to be,” said Gregory. “Is there anyone in town who’s acting strangely?” he asked.

  “It’s Dead Falls,” said Nell. “Everyone acts stran
gely.”

  “What about new people, guys who’re hanging around?”

  “Two reporters, Carl Reid and a guy named Savour—I don’t know his first name,” I said. “But the town’s overrun by new people, and Lucien could be hanging in the shadows. But Carl—” I thought of the supernatural protection that surrounded him. “He’s the one I’d bet on.”

  “Him?” said Gregory. “Why?”

  I shrugged. “He’s been pushy and he said he’s been researching my family. He says he has information on my powers and he’s threatening to go public if I don’t do what he wants. The problem is that I’m sure he wants me to contact someone from the other side, someone he lost. He didn’t believe me when I told him I can’t do something like that.”

  “Go on,” said Gregory. “What is he doing?”

  “He’s been following me—really following me—and he threatened to leak information to Internal Affairs and have Nancy investigated for any covering up she did on my behalf.”

  “Maggie! He’s been following you!” Nell smacked my arm.

  “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Craig asked.

  “Mags, I love you,” said Serge. “But you can be a real deadhead sometimes. How could you not have told anyone he’s stalking you?”

  “He’s a reporter, I thought it was part of the job.” I gestured to Gregory. “I didn’t know about his possible connection to Dad.”

  “I really wish I was off suspension,” muttered Craig.

  “But there was something else…” I thought back to our conversations. “He knew about Dad being military, but Dad didn’t talk about his service.”

  Craig stared at me. “You have a guy who’s following you, who knows information about your family that’s not part of the public record, and it didn’t occur to you to say anything?”

  “I really thought it was part of his job as a reporter. Maybe he’d bribed someone in the department for information and found out about the tattoo.”

  “Or maybe he already knew about your dad’s service because he was on the wrong end of your father’s gun.”

  “I bet that’s why Hank had the stash of weapons under his bed,” said Nell. “That’s who he was waiting for—Lucien.”

  “And maybe that’s why there’s no record of Dad in the military database,” I said, looking at Gregory. “Because his real name was something else.”

  “Your dad and I worked the covert missions. We wouldn’t show up on the regular channels. You’d have to know the right people to talk to and the clearance codes to find out anything. And it gets complicated.”

  Of course it does.

  “Hank changed his identity when he realized Lucien was coming for him. He wanted to protect you.”

  Maybe that was why he wouldn’t talk about Mom. Not because mention of her was painful, but because if I started connecting with her family, started looking for the other side of my family, Lucien could find us.

  “The airport,” said Nell. “The problem with your ID. If your dad was changing his identity, then he must have changed yours. No wonder you triggered the alert when you went through security.”

  “It’s more than that,” I said. “Dad wanted me out of town, fast. The video that was posted, the one that went viral, it showed the people at the gym that night, and Dad’s at the minute-mark. I bet that’s how Lucien tracked us here. He saw us.”

  “Use the right search terms, the right image parameters, and the internet crawlers will go through millions of bits of data to alert you to the thing you’re looking for,” said Nell. She turned to Gregory. “Who was she? What was their real last name?”

  “I promised your dad I wouldn’t say, and I won’t, not until we know you’re totally out of danger.”

  “But if Dad had family, they might be in danger, too.”

  “Lucien has the same tech as the military, that means listening devices that are state of the art, and he might have ears on you, right now. I’ve probably said too much. I wanted to bring my equipment. It would tell us if there are bugs in your house or near it. But I was in too much of a rush to get here. If there’s time, I’ll drive into Edmonton and see about picking up what I need.” Gregory stood and pressed the tissue to his nose. “I’m sorry to cut our conversation short, but I should find a pharmacy and get something to help with this.”

  At the door, he turned and said, “I’ll talk to Nancy and tell her everything I know. We’ll get this guy, Maggie, I promise.”

  “What do we think of him?” I asked when I went back to the gang in the kitchen.

  “The night we saw Rori on the road,” said Craig. “You sent back a warning. Beware the light, he comes in red. The name Lucien means light, and red could be your dad’s blood.” He gave me a smile that had no humour. “Nice, isn’t it? I remember what a name means, but it takes me forever to remember green liquid in blood.”

  “There wasn’t just Mr. Johnson’s blood. Amber and Larry are dead too. Not to mention Gregory and his nosebleeds,” said Nell. “Lucien isn’t just coming in red. He’s coming in a lot of red.”

  “Not to criticize a military veteran,” said Serge. “But Gregory wasn’t that helpful. I get that he’s trying to protect Hank’s memory and to protect you too, Mags, but we don’t need politeness. We need answers. We need to know exactly how the operation went wrong, what this Lucien guy used to look like, and what he looks like now.”

  “I think it’s more than that,” I said. “Don’t you find it weird that Lucien and the soul-eater show up at the same time?”

  “You think they’re connected?” asked Nell.

  “I think they’re the same person,” I said. “The soul-eater is a human being, and this Lucien guy has been hiding from the police for decades. What better way to hide than to use ghost power?”

  “It makes a certain kind of sense,” said Craig. “He withstands an army barrage that kills his family, but leaves him unharmed. That could be supernatural protection. And if he has all those souls at his disposal, he could be anyone. Even if he’s caught, he could use the ghosts to break free, or manipulate circumstance.”

  “Carl had supernatural protection,” said Serge.

  “He’s not the one,” said Craig. “The soul-eater is coming after the two of you. If he’s also Lucien, then he’s not just coming for power, he’s coming for revenge. Hiding under the identity of Carl is one thing, but hiding under his identity and allowing supernatural protection to be visible is too revealing. My instinct says Lucien is someone else.”

  “Savour’s been around, too,” I added. “Maybe he’s Lucien and using Carl as his cover to get close.”

  “Or maybe it’s neither of them,” said Serge. “And Lucien is a mortal who’s still in the shadows, plotting.”

  “Good point,” I said. “This guy’s supposed to be crazy smart. If I was him, I wouldn’t come near me until I was ready to kill.”

  “But if it is Carl or Savour, then why didn’t they kill you when they made contact?” asked Nell.

  “Too many people around,” I said. “It’s one thing to kill me or my dad in the dark of night. The only time we were alone was in front of the funeral parlour. There’s video surveillance there. He’s not going to kill me when there’s a trail for the cops to follow.”

  “You’re right,” said Craig. “If he’s mortal, then he’s spent a lifetime living in the shadows and being patient. If he’s also the soul-eater, then he’s one very old, very bad guy, and time has made him cagey.”

  Before I could respond, the radio clicked on, and the static hissed through the speakers.

  “Maggie, oh, Maggie, he’s coming. He’s coming for you, Maggie.”

  Great, Mom. Tell me something I don’t know. “Yeah, I know he’s coming, but who is he? What does he look like—”

  But she only wept and called my name.

  “Any suggestions?” I
asked Craig.

  He shrugged, then turned to Serge. “Do you think you could reach through the static and make contact?”

  “I could try.” He moved to the radio and put his hand on top of it. He raised his other hand. Then he closed his eyes. “Maggie’s mom—” He went quiet and I guessed he was telepathically talking to her.

  She shrieked and his eyes snapped open. “Whoops.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Nothing! I was—”

  The static on the radio grew louder. So did her keening. The toaster and the coffeemaker, both beside the radio, began to vibrate.

  “Exploding glass will be a bad thing.” I shoved Nell behind me. “Get cover!”

  The glasses in the cupboards rattled, the cutlery in the drawers shook. I turned, running for cover under the table. The explosion blasted me forward. I smashed my head against the edge of the cupboard, feeling something hard hit my stomach. Warmth bloomed from my belly as I crashed to the floor.

  Nell yelled my name. I groaned and rolled over. Her gaze locked on to the red spreading from my torso, and she began to scream.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Calm down,” I said. “It’s just soup.”

  “Why do you think I’m screaming?” she said. “That’s homemade goodness, blended tomatoes and everything.”

  “I’ll eat the sweater, okay?”

  She helped me up. “Leave it. My soup’s finally made it an item of quality.”

  I scanned the kitchen to figure out which mess to clean up first, then stared at what I saw. “It’s fine. The kitchen’s totally fine, no mess anywhere, except for the pot of soup.”

  “I noticed that too,” said Craig. “I guess your mom just went after you.”

  “Someone needs to talk to this woman about appropriate displays of maternal love.” I turned to Serge. “What did you say to her that got her so riled up?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “Just that Hank was dead and the bad guy was coming after you.”

  “We need to talk to you about your communication skills, Casper.”