Alchemy of Shadows

by David L Burkhead

  Jeff took the hint. He shoved Becki into the back seat before jumping in behind her as I started the car. As soon as I heard the back door slam, I put the car in gear and pulled out. While my hindbrain beat at me with the need for frantic haste, I nevertheless carefully pulled into the street and drove at modest speed, nothing to draw attention.

  My heart sounded loud in my own ears as I turned onto Madison Avenue, heading south. Later, when we passed the Marion county line I began to breathe a little easier.

  #

  Once away from the city, I pulled into a dark country road. I wanted off even the main roads. We would need gas soon. One thing about the Monster, it was not a fuel-efficient vehicle. I handed my phone to Jeff.

  “Pull up a map of gas stations. We want to find something away from the highway, preferably in some sleepy little town.”

  “You sound like you’ve been on the run before,” Jeff said.

  I chuckled. "This isn’t my first time, no. It’s just harder these days with all the computers and ID tracking. If that wasn’t just one Shadow-ridden officer and the police are after us, we’ll have a little time before they start tracking our phones. We’ll need to replace them first. Likewise with cards. We need to get gas, but if someone checks the bill, they’ll know where we were.”

  “So what do we do?” Jeff said as he tapped on the screen of my phone.

  “I’ll find a pawnshop or something tomorrow. We’ll get cash there. At some point we’ll have to dump the Monster, find another car. Another cash deal if I can.”

  Jeff looked up and handed me the phone. “License and registration?”

  “That will be a bit harder.” I took the phone and glanced down at the map. A few taps with my thumb and I had selected a gas station. A major chain, but listed as closed. That meant no people would be around but with the modern card operated pumps we would still be able to fill the tank. “I’ve done it before but...things are harder these days. New documentation requirements make it harder to get identification.”

  I cast a quick look over my shoulder. “I’ve only had to do it for myself before though.”

  Jeff looked down at Becki, still sleeping on the back seat. “Is she going to be all right?”

  “Sleeping powder,” I said. “Better than chloroform. A pinch in a drink and you go peacefully to sleep. Inhale the dust and...she’ll be dead to the world for the next few hours then wake up and be fine.” I glanced at the map on my phone. “In fact, you might want to relax and try to sleep yourself. Once I get gas I’m not stopping until we’re as far from here as we can get.”

  Jeff nodded and leaned back in the Monster’s big back seat next to Becki. I drove into the dark. At the next intersection, I turned off State Route 67 onto one of the county roads. There were too many cars even on the State Route for my taste.

  You didn’t get to be as old as I am by taking unnecessary chances.

  #

  I got gas without trouble, and then drove through the night. The sun was rising just as we rolled into North Nashville. The gas gauge was hovering around one quarter tank. I would need to get gas again soon, and to find a place to stay. We were far enough away we were probably safe so long as we did nothing to attract attention or that could turn up in a computer search. I could pay cash for gas, avoiding any flags on my cards. A hotel would be harder.

  But first I needed cash.

  I pulled into the parking lot of a closed business and stopped the car. I left the engine running. I turned on my phone and opened the browser. I needed a pawnshop or a cash-for-gold place, preferably someone who would take gold chain without asking for ID or, worse, provenance for the gold. I found a likely candidate and punched the address into the mapping application.

  I heard a groan from the back seat as I pulled back into the street. Becki’s face popped up in the rear-view mirror.

  “What happened?” She looked around. “Where are we?”

  “Nashville,” I said. “You got a whiff of my sleeping powder. Sorry about that.”

  “Nashville? Why?”

  “How much do you remember?”

  “We were back at the hotel and...a cop?”

  I nodded. “Shadow-ridden. Until we know whether it was just the one ridden police officer or if the Shadows have got the police looking for us, it’s better to stay hidden. And the farther we are away, the larger the area they have to search, and the safer we are.”

  She nodded. “What do we do now?”

  I told her my immediate plans.

  “Gold?” She sat up straight. “You have gold to sell?”

  I grinned. “I’m an alchemist. We’re kind of famous for that. People forget the rest of alchemy and only remember turning base metals into gold.”

  The mapping application on my phone directed me to the dealer. Once parked, I got out, leaving my door open, and went to the rear of the Monster. Becki got out behind me, leaving Jeff still sleeping in the back.

  At the rear of the car I opened the trunk and moved the spare tire aside. Beneath it lay a wrapped bundle which I handed to Becki before putting the spare tire back in place.

  “It’s heavy,” Becki said. “What is it?”

  “Open it.”

  She unwrapped the bundle. Inside were a dozen short sections of necklace and bracelet chain of various thicknesses and lengths, all in the bright yellow of pure gold.

  “I do it in pieces,” I told her. “As if an old piece had been broken and I’m selling scraps. Complete jewelry, especially something that wasn’t originally gold, might raise questions. Imagine someone spotting a maker’s mark indicating pewter, or even silver, on a piece of solid gold jewelry.”

  I held out my hand and Becki passed the bundle back to me. I selected several pieces amounting to a couple ounces of gold. I would not get anything close to the full value, not here. I needed enough for us to live on for at least the next few days, and that included cash enough to replace the Monster. She was just too distinctive a vehicle if we were going underground.

  I folded the remainder of the bundle closed and dropped it into the pocket on the driver’s side door before closing the door. I would no doubt be selling more elsewhere soon.

  A bell rang as we opened the door to the shop.

  “May I help you?” the man behind the counter asked.

  “You buy gold?” I asked.

  “That’s what the sign says.”

  I laid the strands of chain on the counter.

  The man looked down at the chain then at me. “I can’t give you anything for gold electroplate.”

  “Solid gold. I thought it was just junk when I was cleaning out the attic but...look at the broke end of that chain. Gold all the way through.”

  He looked down at it. “I’m going to have to test it.”

  “Please do.”

  He removed a test kit from underneath the counter. A few minutes later, he nodded.

  “And this is the part where you tell me that this has great sentimental value, right?”

  I shook my head and laughed. “I’ve got no particular attachment to that stuff. Came across it while cleaning out the attic. Like I said, I thought it was junk.”

  “Good,” he said. “I hate those song and dances.” He pointed to a sign. “That’s today’s gold price. You can check it on the Internet if you want. I pay fifty percent of that.”

  “Fifty percent!” Becki slapped her hands on the counter and leaned forward. “That’s outrageous.”

  I placed a hand on her shoulder. “No, Becki. It’s fine. He’s a business, not a charity.”

  “And that’s sixty-five point two grams,” the man said and followed that by a cash amount.

  I nodded. “That’s fine.”

  A few minutes later, we walked out of the shop. The cash would not fit easily into my wallet so a rubber band held it folded in one pocket.

  “What now?” Becki asked.

  “Now, we wake up Jeff and find breakfast,” I said. “Then we look for another car, somethin
g cheap. That should break trail enough that we can take some time to figure out our next move.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Before going for breakfast, I stopped by a chain superstore and bought an inexpensive pre-paid phone. I pulled the battery from my phone and suggested that Jeff and Becki do the same with theirs. We then found a restaurant open for a late breakfast and settled into a booth.

  While Becki and Jeff perused their menus, I turned on the new phone and started browsing news sites, looking for those carrying Indianapolis local news.

  “So far we seem to be in the clear,” I said. “At least we haven’t been mentioned in the news.”

  “Would we be?” Becki asked.

  “I don’t know. The simplest story, if they wanted to get the police involved, would be that I had somehow kidnapped you.”

  “Yeah, right.” Jeff shook his head.

  I looked up at Jeff. Even sitting he towered over me.

  “What? You don’t think I can overpower the two of you, force you into my car, and run off with you to some dark den where I keep you bound for my own iniquitous purposes?”

  “Ooooh, ‘iniquitous purposes’,” Becki grinned. “Am I your iniquitous purpose?”

  I choked on my orange juice.

  Becki’s mouth fell open. “Why Mr. Jaeger, are you...interested in me?”

  I set down my glass and held up my hands. “You just...you just surprised me. You’re friends, both of you.” My nod included Jeff in the declaration. “And you’re in this mess because of me.”

  “So, what next?” Jeff asked.

  “Car,” I said. “The Monster is just too distinctive.”

  I felt a pang at having to abandon the Green Monster, but I’d had to learn not to get too attached to things, or people for that matter.

  It would be easier to have walked away from Jeff and Becki, give them airfare back to Indianapolis and just disappear. Perhaps with me gone the Shadows would leave them alone.

  Problem was, over the years I’d learned that the Shadows were just as concerned with hiding their presence as I was. Would the Shadows ignore two who knew about them and who knew how to hurt them? Sadly, that did not seem to be the case.

  I activated the new phone and opened the browser, calling up a classifieds website. "Cars for sale in the Nashville area." I wanted something cheap, but something that ran. It did not have to run well so long as it ran at all.

  You can do a lot with alchemy once you understand what you need to do. The same principles that let the Elixir of Life preserve and restore my own health and youth could do the same with mechanical devices. Generally, mechanical devices were much more difficult to work with alchemically, the results more limited, but for some reason automobiles and motorcycles responded well to alchemy. Perhaps people put so much of themselves into their vehicles that their cars and bikes developed a sort of soul.

  I pecked at my breakfast while Jeff and Becki ate. Looking through the list, I saved three separate links to potential cars that might suit. In addition to something that ran, I needed something big enough for the three of us, plus the gear I’d managed to save.

  The Monster was big enough I could practically use it for an apartment. That might be important until I could obtain ID for the three of us that could pass at least moderate scrutiny.

  I could arrange ID that could pass even the deepest scrutiny by police, anything short of a full background check, but it takes a generation to do it. In the modern world of interlocking databases, somebody with no history of credit purchases, of online activity, of existence going back to their youth, can raise suspicion. Some of it can be faked, data entered into records after the fact. But faked data was risky. A backup made before the faked entry, restored after it, would wipe it away. Or if someone simply checked against backups, that, too could reveal the fake. A few could simply be data entry mistakes, but too many and questions arise, questions I would not want to answer.

  Better to insert the entries in real time over the course of years.

  The next good ID that I had was currently only fifteen. I would have to wait at least three years before I could effectively use it. A fifteen-year-old with no parents or guardians in sight would be a problem.

  I had older IDs but when I’d taken the name Johann Schmidt I had stopped updating them. I could possibly reactivate one but...risky.

  Perhaps it was time to leave the country, head somewhere where laws weren’t so pervasive.

  I did not want to do that. I had come to like America. Not only was it one of the more pleasant places I had ever lived, but I’d watched it grow from a collection of colonies to the superpower it became.

  Then there were Jeff and Becki. Could I have taken them with me? Would they accompany me to some place they would see as a crime-ridden hellhole? I would have to approach that idea carefully.

  #

  The first car, an old Jeep Cherokee, was a bust. We parked two blocks away and walked to meet the seller.

  The car “ran” in that the engine started. The rattle of a loose valve train did not worry me, nor did the clouds of blue smoke. I could fix both. No, the problem was that the transmission simply would not go into gear. I could mix up an elixir that could fix that but it would take a week. The simple, generic elixirs I carried would not serve that purpose. I needed something we could drive now.

  Car Two was an old Honda Odyssey. This one would not even start. I always wondered why people do that, made claims in ads that would be obviously false immediately when prospects arrive to look. It was not even bait-and-switch as they did not have something else to try to sell us. Just this non-running van that they claimed ran.

  Car Three was supposed to be an old Ford Explorer someone had painted in vivid orange. The ad indicated a problem with the fuel pump, but I thought a bit of elixir in the intake and some more in the fuel tank should take care of that.

  As we approached the lot where we had agreed to meet the seller I froze. The man standing next to the car wore mirrored sunglasses. A duffle bag sat at the front of the old SUV.

  “Adrian?” Becki whispered to me.

  I shook my head. The sun was high in the sky with no clouds. I had never seen a Shadow-ridden outside in bright sun even with sunglasses. After a moment, I shrugged.

  I stepped forward, “Brandon?”

  The man beside the Explorer looked up. “That’s me. And you must be...”

  “Erwin,” I said, giving him the name I had used over the phone.

  We shook hands. He looked me over.

  "What happened to you, short stuff?"

  Before I could say anything, Jeff laughed. "You should see the other guy."

  "You look like you've been worked over too," Brandon said. "So, what happened?"

  "Someone called me 'short stuff'," I said.

  Brandon raised his hands. "Hey, if it's none of my business, it's none of my business. Just curious."

  “So what can you tell me about the car?”

  “‘94 Explorer,” he said. That put the car several years over my own claimed age. “Four liter V6. It’s got the manual transmission, I’m afraid.”

  “That’s not a problem,” I said. “I learned on a stick.”

  Not entirely true. The car I’d learned to drive had a combination of pedals and a handbrake to control the transmission. But I had soon learned to drive the ancestors of the manual transmission that would be standard for the next fifty years or more.

  “Hey!” Becki said. “I can’t drive a stick.”

  I grinned. “Then I’ll have to teach you. Jeff?”

  “Have to teach me too, I guess.”

  I sighed. It would have been nice to have someone able to slide right into the driving duties. We could get farther, faster, if we could switch off.

  “No help for it,” I muttered.

  “Um...” Brandon looked at me hesitantly.

  “Sorry,” I said. I reached for the driver’s side door. “May I?”

  He nodded. I opened the
door and took a look around the interior.

  “AC work?” I asked.

  “Don’t know. Haven’t had it running long enough to see.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t suppose it matters, not at this price. Radio?”

  “See for yourself.”

  Keys were already in the ignition. I turned them to the aux setting then reached across to turn on the radio. It blared with a local country station. I turned it off again. The radio, I noted, was an aftermarket unit somebody had installed without a proper dash kit. Ugly, but it had both a USB socket and a Bluetooth logo so I would be able to use my phone with it.

  The seats showed quite a bit of wear, but no major splits and no springs poking through the fabric. Being an SUV, the car had plenty of space in the back.

  I stepped back, pleased. It would make a worthy successor to the Monster, provided it ran long enough for me to be able to work my alchemy on it.

  I looked at Brandon. “Can you show me how to open the hood?”

  He nodded and reached past me to release the hood latch. I followed him to the front of the car and he showed me how to release the second latch under the front of the hood.

  The engine was filthy. Not uncommon in older cars, but it showed a decided lack of maintenance.

  As I stretched up on tiptoes and bent over to look into the engine compartment, I dropped my left hand into the pocket of my jeans. I palmed the small vial in that pocket, a simple restorative elixir for mechanical devices, a mechanical equivalent to youth restoration. I popped the latches on the air filter cover and removed the filter, ostensibly to inspect it. Filthy, as I expected. I looked at it, shrugged, and put it back, only it went back with a few drops of elixir on the inside of the filter, where they would be sucked into the engine. I removed the dipstick, looking at the black sludge in place of oil that clung to the end of it. It had been a long time indeed since anyone had changed the oil on this car. Half the vial of elixir went down the dipstick tube while I was making this inspection. The other half would go into the fuel tank later.