“Maybe your weak ass should get around to learning that Trick, Flea,” Caleb said. “Although I doubt you could wrap your head around it.”
“Hey man, I’m about to wrap your head around…”
“Enough.”
Kel’s tone brought the bickering under control in a second. I suspected Martin and Caleb were no joke as far as mages go, but they both knew that Kel was the alpha dog in this pack.
“We will proceed with the meeting,” she said. “I will secure the sphere in a safe place to insure that they don’t try to make a play for it. We will give them a chance to fall into line and see things our way, but if that fails… be ready.”
“She’s talking to you, Flea,” Caleb said, and got up to leave.
I had to bite my lip and swallow it all down. Guys like Caleb were the reason why I became a street mage in the first place; arrogant jerks who had all the advantages of formal training under a master instructor, who then flaunted their talents over those who never had those opportunities.
I had to fight and scrape and steal every scrap of knowledge I could find to learn my Tricks. Nobody sat me down and walked me through it. And yes, that meant that most street mages never became as powerful as those mages who had the benefits of formal training. We were always at a disadvantage. But that’s why I signed on with Kel, and I guess that’s why I stayed with her, even when she scared me half to death; she’d made me into much more than I was before.
After their last little snarky jabs at me, Martin and Caleb took off, leaving me alone with Kel. It was late at night at that point, almost 3 a.m., and I was exhausted, but Kel never seemed to sleep, especially after she’d yanked the life out of someone.
“I am going to secure the sphere,” she said. “Alone. I will meet you here in the afternoon.”
And with that, she was gone, too, leaving me alone in the safe house to try to get some sleep. That wasn’t exactly easy. After watching her Wither a guy, dealing with Caleb’s taunts, and finding out that we were going to have a face to face with some hostile mages from this group they called the Cabal, my mind was pretty much spinning.
Still, I must’ve been more tired than I thought, because I did finally fall asleep. It was a shallow sleep, filled with fitful fragments of dreams about Kel Withering hapless victims, and once the sun was up, I mostly found myself staring at the ceiling, my mind still whirring from the night before.
You ever have one of those arguments, and even after you wake up the next day, it’s still on your mind? Those two jerks mocking me in front of Kel had really gotten under my skin, and when I finally gave up on sleeping half the day away, I was still hot under the collar from their insults.
Luckily, I knew the medicine that I needed. A little retail therapy always made me feel good.
One good thing about working with Kel… from all those years of clandestine sneaking around, she had a huge shadow bank account to fund her activities. And, even better, she didn’t seem to give a single fig about any of it. Money didn’t mean much to her.
So, she didn’t really care when I went out and spent it. Which I did. They don’t call me “Fly” because I can fly… I can’t, actually. Never learned that Trick.
They call me “Fly” because I’m always dressed to the nines, as stylish as a man can get. Always. It killed me in prison, being stuck in those baggy, blue uniforms. One of the first things I did once we got to the safe house was to get myself some suits from Brooks Brothers. Usually, I wore all bespoke, top of the line, but desperate times, you know? Brooks Brothers at least got me back to a remedial level.
After two months in that safe house, though, I’d gotten my wardrobe game pretty much on point. Lately, I’d been setting my sights on watches. You can’t overestimate how important a good watch is to finishing a man’s style. There was this shop downtown where I’d become a bit of a regular, not only because they had some seriously fine watches, but a seriously fine blonde young lady who worked behind the counter, as well.
I decided that a little time flirting with her and a new high-roller watch on my wrist would chase away those bad feelings of mine right quick, so I headed down there and rolled in just before noon. My girl was there, standing behind the counter, smiling at me in the kind of way that makes a man feel like a king.
“How you doing, gorgeous?” I said.
“Better now,” she said. “What’s your pleasure today?”
“Oh, you want to be careful with that question, sugar,” I said, tipping her a wink.
“Are we looking at Rolexes today?”
“Rolex,” I said with a shrug, waving her off. “They’re all right. But I had my eye on a Patek Phillipe you got tucked away. You remember showing that to me a couple of days back?”
“I do,” she said, drawing some trays of watches out of the display case and setting them on top of the glass. “Have a look at these.”
She must’ve been trippin’ that day, because those weren’t Patek Phillipes she put in front of me, but some regular old Rolexes. I mean, not bad for Rolexes, but I had just told her what I was in the market for, and I reminded her as much once she’d put the wrong tray on top of the glass case.
She hesitated for a moment, the smile fading from her face, but it only lasted a second, and that coy smile that made me go crazy for her came back and I had to forgive her. What can I say? I’ve always been a sucker for the ladies.
“I’d really love it if you gave these a look,” she said. “This one in particular. With that suit you’re wearing? Perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
“Yeah?” I said, picking up the watch she’d pointed out and turning it over in my hands. It was all right, I guess, but perfect? Not hardly.
“Just try it out. Put it on. Think about it.”
You know what? It was the weirdest thing, but that Rolex really started looking good to me. It’s strange how you can have one particular item in mind, that you’ve been talking yourself into buying for the better part of a week, and then… pow. All of a sudden, you change your mind at the last second and something totally different catches your eye.
She was right, my favorite blonde in a tight dress. That Rolex did look perfect with my suit. The more I looked at it, the more I saw it.
Even better, I’d forgotten all about Caleb’s snippy little comments. I was so wrapped up with my new watch, I even forgot to try to get that blonde’s number. I whistled my way out the door and back onto the streets, happy as a clam.
Things were starting to go my way. I could feel it.
***
A full five minutes after Fly left the store with his new watch, Cass Wheeler walked in. She wasn’t wearing a two thousand dollar suit like Fly; she was dressed simply in jeans and a black leather jacket, and the only jewelry she wore was an ankle bracelet tracking her movements, courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, her new employer.
She took a second to spot the correct counter; the one with the tall blonde saleswoman wearing a practically sprayed-on tight red dress. The saleswoman was in the process of returning some trays of watches back into the display case when Cass approached her.
“Mickey,” she said to the tall blonde, “he’s gone. You can drop the act now.”
“Hmm?” the blonde woman said. “Oh, right. Look away quick, Cass. It makes it easier.”
Cass looked off to her left, and then back behind the sales counter. The tall blonde had disappeared, replaced by the dark-haired, tiny Mentalist who had been recruited along with Cass by the FBI after the recent madness at Trubuilt 187 prison.
“Ugh,” Cass said, blinking her eyes a few times painfully. “I never get used to that.”
“What, when I drop an illusion?” Mickey said, putting the last tray of watches back into the display case. “It can be kind of jarring, I guess.”
“But he bought it? Fly?”
“Bought the watch, or bought my illusion of his favorite blonde sales lady?”
“Both.”
“I think… ye
ah,” Mickey said. “He almost threw me there when he asked for some brand name that I’d never heard of, but I pushed the thought into his head that what he really wanted was the Rolex that we made into a tracking device, and it worked. We, um, we do have a, um…”
“We have a federal warrant for you to manipulate his mind into buying the right watch,” Cass said. “You’re not going to get in any trouble, Mickey.”
“I’m just checking. I’m still not used to this stuff.”
“You’ve been doing it for months now.”
“Still. I get nervous.”
“Of course you do,” Cass said, drawing a radio out of her jacket and clicking it on. “Michael? It worked. He’s got the tracking device on him. We’re coming to you.”
“This is so exciting,” Mickey said, clapping her hands together as she walked around the counter to join Cass. “We finally have, like, a real lead.”
“So exciting,” Cass said. “Listen, Mickey… you’re sure this Mentalist charm tracking device thing will work? You’ve never made one before.”
Mickey stopped and looked at her. “That hurts my feelings, Cass. We tested it. We tested it, like, a million…”
“All right, all right. I’m just saying. Rolexes aren’t exactly cheap. Michael practically shit his pants when we dropped the budget proposal on him.”
“It’s not my fault that Fly likes to piss away all his money,” Mickey said. “Where do you think he gets it all, anyway?”
“Who cares? Fly is a means to an end. Make no mistake, I want that creep back in mage restraints, but the whole point of tracking him is to get to…”
“…get to Kel,” Mickey finished for her, clapping her hands together again. “I think we’re finally going to do it!”
“Just…” Cass said, shaking her head. “Just do me a favor and don’t clap your hands like that in front of the other federal agents.”
“I can’t help it,” Mickey said, following Cass out of the store and across the street. “I get excited.”
The back door of a nearby windowless van opened up and a hugely muscular man climbed out, wincing as he stretched his legs and arms. “Please tell me it worked.”
“It worked,” Cass said.
“Thank God,” Dread said. “Three days in a row. There’s no room in that van.”
“No room for you, Godzilla,” Jolly, their Healer mage, said, as he climbed out of the van as well. “You might want to ease back to like, maybe only ten protein shakes a day.”
Dread ignored him, putting a hand on Mickey’s shoulder. “You’re okay? It went okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” Mickey said with a shrug.
Cass punched Dread on the arm lightly. “She’s a big girl, Dread. She can take care of herself.”
“I know, I know,” Dread said. “And she’s got that Defense charm that Shifty made for her, it’s that… Okay. I know.”
Cass had to smile. “You’d think you would’ve learned your lesson two days ago.”
Two days earlier, Mickey had been practicing some new self-defense Tricks with Dread, and had rendered him instantly unconscious with her magic. It had taken them nearly ten minutes to wake him back up, and he still had a mark where he had hit his head when he fell like a stone.
“Yeah, I’m really sorry about that,” Mickey said, poking at the bruise.
Dread stared at her.
“Okay, no I’m not,” Mickey said. “But I’m really sorry that I’m not sorry.”
“Whatever,” Dread said. “Get in.”
“Where’s Shifty and Lysette?” Mickey asked as she climbed into the van.
“The store next door,” Cass said, getting her radio back out of her pocket. “They were going to teleport in if anything went sideways. Lys? Shifty? We’re all good. Time to head back to base.”
Cass waited until Shifty and Lysette came across the street and climbed into the van before getting in herself. Michael was in the driver’s seat, fidgeting and looking back and forth from Cass to Mickey.
“Relax, Michael, I told you, he bought it,” Cass said.
“And you’re sure the charm will work, Mickey?” Michael asked.
“Why does everybody…” Mickey began to say with a groan. “Yes. Yes. It will work.”
She caught the looks from everyone else with her in the oversize van and rolled her eyes.
“It’ll work, you guys.”
“It’s just that… sometimes, things don’t go exactly as expected with you,” Michael said, pulling the van out into traffic.
“Tell me about it,” Dread said, fingering the bruise on his face.
“I’m new at this,” Mickey said. “I mean, come on. Before I met you guys, I only used my Tricks to hide from my cats and creepy guys at the bar. I’m still getting used to being Secret Agent Lady.”
“All right, all right,” Michael said. “Let’s get back to the office and try it out.”
“How will this thing work again, Mickey?” Lysette asked. “You can see him wherever he goes?”
Mickey jumped a little when she spoke. Lysette was pretty tight-lipped as a rule, and it always startled Mickey a bit when the Physical Adept actually said something out loud to her.
“Um, no. I can see through him. And hear through him. Clairvoyance, it’s called.”
“We’ve also put an electronic transmitter in the watch,” Dread said. “So we can track him in case that clair… clear…”
“Clairvoyance,” Mickey finished for him.
“Right. That. In case that nerd stuff doesn’t work.”
“It’s going to…” Mickey started to say, then bit her lip and said, “I hate you guys.”
Michael pulled the van into the parking garage at the offices of the FBI. Once they were parked, the entire group got out of the van and headed into the building, Dread and Jolly grumbling the entire way about sore joints from being stuck in the van for days.
The building itself looked more like an office building than a police station; the floors mostly made up of cubicles filled with agents in suits, answering phones or studying computer screens intently. There were as many accountants and IT experts in those cubicles as there were field agents; more, in fact.
Cass tried to ignore the sidelong glances and sneers from the faces populating the cubicles as their group filtered through the building. She and her group had been recruited by Michael after fighting off a devastating prison riot created by Kel and Fly; but the reason she’d been in the prison in the first place was that she was a convicted felon.
Federal agents tended to frown on that sort of thing.
Three months in, and their group still got the stares. Well, now that they actually had something to go on, Cass figured that maybe the hate would get dialed down a notch.
“My office,” Michael said. “I don’t want to wait on this.”
Michael’s office was on the far side of the cubicles, and once they were all inside, the pressure of the stares from the cubicles lifted. Unfortunately, seven bodies were about three too many for the size of the small room they were now all crammed into like sardines.
“Damn it, Dread, move your big ass,” Jolly said, nudging him with an elbow. “First you take up the whole van, now here…”
“Not my fault the room is small,” Dread said, unfolding a laptop and setting it up on Michael’s desk.
“Every room is small when you’re in it,” Jolly said.
“Enough,” Michael said. “Mickey, take my chair. Anything else you need?”
“Uh, no,” Mickey said. “Just some quiet. Going to need to concentrate, you know?”
“She’s talking to you, Jolly,” Dread said.
“Man…” Jolly began to protest, but Cass interrupted him.
“Jolly. Let it go. Go ahead, Mickey.”
“Okay, here we go,” Mickey said, and closed her eyes.
Everything was dark and quiet, and at first, Mickey started to worry that everyone’s concerns were correct and her very expensive Charm of a Role
x wasn’t going to work after all. Then, images popped into her mind, like a television set switching on.
She swayed a little in her chair, disoriented by the sudden first person perspective images coming to her mind. What she saw was a bit fuzzy and dark around the edges, as if she had tunnel vision, and the sounds that came to her were similarly slightly indistinct, but after a second or two to get used to it, she found that she could sort it all out.
“Whoa,” she said. “Okay, yeah. Yeah, it’s working.”
“You see him?” Cass asked.
“No, no, I don’t see him. I see through him. You know, through his eyes. And I can hear what he’s hearing.”
“The electronic tracker is working, too,” Dread said, tapping his fingers on the laptop on Michael’s desk. “I’ve got his location to within about five meters.”
“He’s, uh, he’s walking down the street… wow. This is kind of weird,” Mickey said, continuing to sway a little with her eyes shut. “Like virtual reality goggles, but I’m not in control.”
“What’s he doing now?” Cass asked.
“He’s still walking… now he’s going into a building. It’s an apartment building.”
“Good. This is good,” Cass said. “This might actually be something.”
“I’ve got the address,” Dread said, still staring down at his laptop.
“He’s going up the elevator… he’s walking into an apartment,” Mickey said. “I think he’s alone. I don’t hear anyone else.”
“How long can you keep this up for, Mickey?” Cass asked.
“A couple of minutes, maybe… it’s really taking a lot out of me. Oh! Oh God, oh God,” Mickey said, shaking her head and opening her eyes. “Nope. Nope.”
“What? What is it?” Cass said.
“He’s peeing. He went into the bathroom, looked down, and… I don’t need to see that.”
Cass’s shoulders relaxed. “Mickey.”
“It’s gross. Besides, this isn’t easy. I’m really having to focus hard to tune in. Give me a second.”
“All right, he wouldn’t break in to someone’s house just to take a piss,” Cass said. “That means he must be staying there. So, we’ve got a location on Fly’s home base. That’s a good start.”
Mage Hunters Box Set Page 47
