“But you did study calculus before. This wasn’t the first time.”
I shrugged. “No. It wasn’t. Once credentials started becoming important I had to start going back to school when I started a new life. That meant taking a lot of the same basic classes.”
“Exactly, so you...”
“Was always there when we needed him,” Jeff rolled over her again. “Rides? The Green Monster was always available.” He met my eyes. “And don’t think I haven’t figured out that you slipped me a mickey that time. Same stuff you used on the cop?”
“Same stuff,” I said. “There was nothing you could do by worrying and you needed to rest.”
“Exactly,” Jeff said. “I needed. You’ve always come through with what I, or Becki, needed.” He fixed his glare on Becki. “You could do worse. A lot worse.”
I held up my hands. “Hey, wait a minute. What makes you think that I...”
Jeff threw up his hands in a dramatic gesture. “Just because I’m good at football, why does everybody think I’m stupid? I have eyes. I’ve seen your face when she walks into the room.”
Becki’s voice was soft. “Don’t be...don’t be...silly.”
Jeff stood up. “Hey, everybody!” He pointed at Becki. “This is my sister. If the two of them have any brains at all, this—” He pointed at me. “—is her new boyfriend.”
Silence held for a moment then one person started clapping. Another joined him. Soon the whole restaurant was clapping.
I stared at Jeff, my face frozen in shock. I switched my gaze to Becki to see her equally stunned. I closed my eyes and let my head fall forward onto folded arms.
I had centuries of experience on these two, a lifetime they could never imagine. So why did I feel so completely overwhelmed, so completely out of my depth?
When did my life get so out of control?
#
We sat in the Menace outside a small, seedy hotel. I flipped through a file folder I previously had kept concealed, wired to the underside of the rear seat in the Monster. The folder held each of the alternate IDs that I’d been maintaining as well as more recent ones that I’d abandoned.
I first set aside all the identities which proclaimed me a minor. A minor cannot rent a hotel room by himself, certainly not pay for two adults, even young adults, without raising questions I did not want to answer.
“Expired license,” I said, tossing one aside. “License good, but no cards still valid.”
All the little things that go into making the existence of a person real, all with time limits. Not only did I need valid, current, ID, but most hotels will no longer take cash. I also needed a credit card that had not expired.
Finally, I’d whittled the choice down to two. One proclaiming me as being twenty-seven, with a VISA card that had about six months before it expired. The other identified me as a twenty-nine-year-old with a single month left on the card.
A quick check of the customer service line on the one showed that the bank had cancelled the card. That left me pretending to be a twenty-nine-year-old man.
I did not look anywhere near twenty-nine. Picture matching or not, this was going to raise questions.
I laid out the documents in front of me. License, still valid. Passport, expired two months ago. Four credit cards of which only one was still valid, and that not for long.
“Well?” Becki asked.
“I don’t know if they’re going to buy this or not. I look entirely too young for this.”
Jeff leaned forward from the back seat and reached out to turn my hand so the ID faced him. “Texas, huh? You wouldn’t have a gun license, would you?”
“Expired,” I said, waving at the pile of discarded papers.
“I wouldn’t worry about the ID,” Jeff said. “Most people don’t look closely at them anyway. Yeah, you look young, but not that young.”
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
He raised his hands. “Ask me no questions. I’ll tell you no lies.”
“All right,” I said. “Let’s see about getting a room.”
I stepped out of the Menace and went to the back, where I opened the hatch. We had stopped at a thrift store where I had purchased a couple of suitcases to add to my valise of alchemical supplies along with a few changes of clothes for each of us. That took nearly all of my remaining money. I would have to sell more gold soon.
I would have to make more gold soon.
The clerk at the front desk barely glanced at my ID. He took my card and a few minutes later we had two adjoining rooms with an interconnecting door. For the first time since discovering Darryl was Shadow-ridden I felt reasonably safe.
In the room I shared with Jeff, I opened my valise and started laying out the contents, running a quick inventory. Empty vial of sleeping powder; there might be enough clinging to the glass for a single use. Small sealed jars of oil of magnesium. With the tools I had, plus a torch to replace my abandoned furnace, I could make alchemical salt of magnesium, the remaining ingredient for Tru-Magnesium, the key element of my new flares.
I looked down at the equipment and materials and wondered. Was I really planning to go back and actually fight the Shadows?
I was.
Before I could consider fighting anybody I needed sleep. I had been awake and functioning entirely too long and coffee could only do so much.
A quick shower revitalized me, but only briefly. While Jeff took his turn in the shower I finished towel-drying my hair. I pulled back the covers of one of the twin beds in the room and slid into it.
I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
#
We spent the next several days in preparation. I sold more gold, to a different vendor this time. Becki and Jeff made sure we had food to eat when we did not go to a restaurant. I purchased magnesium fire starters, a few at a time, from every gun store and outdoors supply place in the area. And Nashville had a lot of them.
The Orange Menace—now bearing temporary tags issued by the State of Tennessee—had an advantage over the late Green Monster. The cargo area in the back was expansive enough to set up a laboratory in it. Rather than generate smells in our room which even that hotel’s management could not ignore, I could drive out into the countryside where no one would be disturbed. The occasional squirrel or deer might object to the odor, but humans would be none the wiser.
Thanks to salvaged materials, in three days I had two vials of lesser elixir and a dozen Tru-Magnesium flares. Gold preparation was under way. I also had more costume jewelry chains and lead fishing weights transmuting to gold.
Even if we resolved the problem with the Shadows, and any legal issues, the semester was ruined for Jeff and Becki. Any financial aid would now likely be lost. I promised myself I’d cover their future schooling since I’d caused their loss.
A search on the Internet showed only that Jeff and Becki were missing. The police wanted me for questioning. About what, the notice did not say.
The day came soon enough when we bundled into the Menace and turned back for the north. I had wound through back roads on the way down, trying to avoid police involvement. I felt confident enough in my new identity and that no one could trace me to the Menace, to take I-65. Faster and more convenient. The police wanted Adrian Jaegar for questioning. Henrik Gustav, beyond an inconvenient hole in his history, was completely clear.
I let country music blaring from the Menace’s speakers cover my own mumbling in disbelief.
I was really doing it.
I was going back to face the Shadows. For the first time in my life, I was not running from them.
I was going to face them.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
We arrived near Indianapolis about nine at night. I took I-465 east and took the Emerson Avenue exit on a whim. I did not have a specific destination in mind yet, just planning to stay lost in the size of the city while we determined our next action.
Just off the interstate I found a motel, one of a national chain noted for chea
p rates. Before we went in, I stopped at a gas station to change clothes in the restroom. A light blue dress shirt, khaki slacks and a matching jacket, black leather belt and matching dress shoes, freshly polished, a nice business casual outfit. While I still looked too young to be twenty-nine, I did not look so young that the clerk would question why I was renting a room and have reason to check my age against my ID.
Tom and Becki remained in the Menace while I entered the lobby. I stepped up to the counter.
“Can I help you?” The clerk asked. He looked to be in his late twenties, dark complexioned with straight, black hair, wide mouth, somewhat stunted nose. He wore a polo shirt and jeans. This hotel did not apparently insist on uniforms for its front desk personnel.
“Need a room.”
“You have a reservation?”
“‘Fraid not. You were the first place I saw when I decided I’d driven enough for today.”
“Let me see what I got.” He tapped at the computer keyboard.
A few minutes later, I had a room. The room had an exterior entrance which was good, not having to go through the motel with Jeff and Becki and maybe draw questions we did not want to answer.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the door to the room was the single double bed. I grimaced, but it would not be the first time I had slept on a floor. Jeff and Becki could decide between them how to deal with the bed.
Jeff headed immediately to the bathroom. Becki flopped back onto the bed.
We each had our own phone. During the trip up I had stopped at various stores along the route. Using my Henrik Gustav identity, I had purchased half a dozen phones on pre-paid minutes plans. If anybody back checked that, well, that would be a problem but I hoped to not need this identity that long.
“Adrian,” Becki said.
I held up a hand. “Henrik.”
“What?”
“My name is Henrik. Henrik Gustav.”
“Oh, sorry. I’ll try to remember.”
“Try hard,” I said. “Someone might wonder why you are calling me Adrian when my driver’s license claims I’m Henrik. Best to get in the habit early.”
She nodded. “Henrik. What’s our next step.”
Jeff emerged from the bathroom, wiping his hands on a towel.
“Our next step is to get Coach Ata’s address.”
“His number’s unlisted,” Jeff said. “I think he had his ‘specials’ out at his place, but that never included me.”
On the bed, Becki pushed herself up on her elbows. “School will have it in their records.”
I nodded. “Could you get the laptop set up?”
Another purchase we had made along the way. I really needed to make some more gold.
“You going to hack into the school admin computer?”
I grinned. “Something like that.”
I activated one of the spare phones and opened a web browser. A few minutes got me to the school website and logged into my student account. A few more taps and I had the student directory onto the phone. Once that finished downloading, I put the phone into airplane mode, making sure it was no longer talking to the local towers. If my activity had alerted authorities it might be possible for authorities to connect to it remotely still but this would buy me a little time.
Becki had the computer set up by the time I finished. I plugged a cable into the phone and into a receptacle on the computer.
A minute later and the directory was on the computer. The phone was not only shut down but the battery pulled.
I browsed through the directory, noting several names and numbers, trying to remember who I had seen working in the appropriate office. A few minutes later, I had a list to start from.
“I know that name,” Jeff said pointing at one of the lines on my list. “Where have I seen...?”
“Tim Hathcock,” I said. “If I remember correctly he works in the admin office.” I grinned. “Now, let’s see...”
I turned on another phone and punched in the number.
Tim answered on the third ring. “‘Lo.”
“Mr. Hathcock,” I said. “This is Karl Huffman, in IT. There’s been some unusual activity on your account in Administration. We think you may have been hacked. Can you answer a few questions so we can get this straightened out?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Can you confirm your street address for us?”
Tim responded with a street address. I looked at Becki and grinned. She just rolled her eyes.
I ran through a number of other questions. Then, finally...
“Okay, I think we’re about done. Can you give me your password now, so I can get this reset?”
Tim spelled out his password. I typed it into the document on my computer.
“Thanks, Tim. We’ll get things straightened out right away. I’d recommend when you come in Monday that you change your password and you might want to take a look at your other security settings.”
“Yes. I’ll do that. Thank you.”
Becki stared at me. “He just...gave you...his password?”
I grinned wider. “You’ll be amazed at what questions people will answer if they think you have authority and you slip it in among a bunch of innocuous things.”
I waved at the document that contained a list of Tim’s personal details, including his user ID and password on the Administration computer.
“This is what most hacking consists of. You don’t hack the computer. You hack the users. The human element is always the weak point.”
#
I had steel costume-jewelry chains in the process of transmuting into gold back at the hotel along with some lead fishing weights that I had stamped into disks as though they were coins whose markings had worn off. Simple and easy to sell once they finished transmuting.
Tim’s user id and password had given me access of the list of faculty and their home addresses, including that of Coach Ata.
I sat in a rental car outside a small house on the north side of Indianapolis. Jeff sat next to me. Becki had the Menace a few blocks over. If things went bad, she was our backup ride.
If things went bad, we would need to run. Nobody knew about the Menace and I wanted to keep it that way. Thus the rental. Anybody tying us to this car would burn the Henrik Gustav ID.
I wiped the palms of my hands on my jeans leaving visible wet spots.
“Relax, Adr...Henrik.” Tom flashed me a grin. “We’re past the defensive line. All we’ve got to do is sack the quarterback.”
“You haven’t been running from these things for more than two hundred sixty years. Every time I’ve faced them before, running was all I could do. And now we plan to go in there after one?”
Jeff’s grin broadened to shark-like proportions. “Yeah. Fun.”
I rolled my eyes. “‘Fun’ he says.”
I started to say something else but Jeff held up a hand. “Car coming.”
I slumped in my seat turning my attention from Jeff to the view out the windshield. Not one but two cars were approaching. The first was a blue Acura by the logo on the grill. I did not know the model. The second was a red Toyota.
The Acura turned into the driveway of the house we were watching. The Toyota stopped behind him as the garage door opened and the Acura pulled inside. The Toyota then pulled into the driveway. The driver’s side door opened. Chuck stepped out.
First thing I noticed was that despite the bright afternoon sun, Chuck was not wearing sunglasses. Either not ridden by a Shadow or with the Shadow deeply hidden within him. He walked to the front door of the house, which opened to admit him.
“Chuck,” Jeff said at my side.
“I noticed.”
“Continue or pass?”
I hesitated. “If we continue, we’re committed. We’ll probably have to go into hiding, on the run, whatever happens. We’d never explain what we’re doing to the police. ‘Officer, we had to attack the football coach. He was ridden by a magic shadow that can possess people and freeze with a touch.’�
��
“I know,” Jeff said. “Becki knows. I could give you a song and dance about the right thing to do but you know what? I just want a chance to finish giving Chuck the beating I started. Never did like that creep.”
I chuckled. “Then let’s do it.”
I opened the door and stepped out of the car, patting the pockets of my jacket to confirm the presence of the flares that lay within them.
For the first time ever I was deliberately going to face the Shadows of my own free will.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I licked my lips as I stood in front of the door. Jeff waited at the side, his back pressed against the wall where he would be out of sight of the peephole. I had welding goggles perched on my forehead. Jeff had a matching pair, similarly positioned.
I clenched and opened my hands, then wiped them on my shirt, leaving more wet streaks. I checked that the two fanny packs I wore, one with the pouch over the right hip, the other over the left, were both unzipped so I could grab their contents quickly. I flexed my hands again.
Jeff rolled his eyes. He nodded his head to the side, towards the door.
I drew a deep breath. Jeff was right. I was stalling.
I rubbed my thumb across my fingertips and did the most difficult thing I had ever done in my centuries of life.
I pressed the doorbell.
The peephole darkened for a moment, then the door opened. Ata stood in the doorway, wraparound sunglasses covering his eyes, a wide grin on his face.
“What a surprise, Adrian. What brings...”
Before Ata could finish, Jeff pivoted around the door jamb and launched himself through the doorway. He slammed into Ata like a rhino trampling a poacher. He drove Ata backward into the entry hall where they both crashed to the floor. Ata’s glasses went flying.
“Eyes!” I shouted as I drove my right hand into the fanny pack on that side. My hand closed on one of the flares. My left hand reached up and pulled the welding goggles down, settling them over my eyes. I kicked the door shut behind me.
Everything went dark. I had placed cut circles of aluminum foil between the lenses in the goggles. No ordinary goggles would be dark enough for what was about to happen. My right thumb found its way into the protruding loop of the igniter on the flare. I pulled.
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