A whole world, p.31
The Oriceran Rich and Famous Collection: Two Complete Oriceran Universe Series, page 31
“Precisely. You know…” Winter leaned forward, his tongue darting out to lick flecks of icing from his beard. “It might be dangerous, but we could start letting Ellie play around with the stone. She’s a natural. With enough training, she might be able to control it as well as the Picts could.”
“No way. Not anytime soon. She isn’t ready. Furthermore, I’m not ready for her to start toying around with that kind of power.”
Winter shrugged and sat back. “Whatever you say, Henry. This is your house. Shall we call Nicole?”
Henry laughed as he got up to leave the kitchen. “I’ll call her. Alone. I don’t need you messing with my phone and sending a bunch of kissing emojis or something.”
Winter scoffed. “What do you mean? I would never do such a thing.”
The dwarf leered as Henry left the room.
Henry gripped the ferry’s deck rail and watched as Seattle drew closer. The boat slowed down and gently nudged the dock bumpers. The bumpers were slanted and flared to help align the ferry with the parking lot.
Although everyone else rushed off the ferry, Henry lingered for a moment and checked his texts with Nicole. It had been a simple conversation, quick and to the point.
7:03 – Nicole, I need to meet your contact again. You know who. Do you think you can make it happen?
7:06 – Good morning to you too, sunshine. I’ll see what I can do. You’re welcome.
7:07 – Thanks.
7:16 – He’ll be at the usual spot until noon today. The rest is up to you. I won’t even ask why you’re meeting him...but you can tell me. If you want. I insist.
Henry smiled, typing a response at last.
Why do you think? We’ve got a problem with a group of upstarts who are trying to resurrect a dead brand. You’d think they would have realized after the new Mummy movie with Tom Cruise that reboots rarely work out.
Nicole’s reply came as Henry was crossing the gangway to the terminal.
Let me guess. They’re about to get a big fat 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Something like that,” Henry mumbled. He stuck his phone in his pocket and headed for the nearby Pier 54.
There were lights on inside Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, but Henry knew it didn’t officially open until ten. He knocked at the door. A passing employee, carrying a box of magical mystery rocks for stocking, glanced at him but kept going, vanishing from sight.
Henry knocked again, more insistently. The employee came over, staring angrily at him through the glass. Her muffled voicer came through. “We’re closed, sir. Don’t you… Oh, hey, it’s you. Hold on.”
The young woman unlocked the door and pulled it open. “Mr. Neumann. Sorry, I didn’t recognize you since I woke up about fifteen minutes ago, and I’m so not ready to start dealing with people yet.”
Henry looked at her nametag. “Emily. Good to see you again. Is he here?”
She gestured over her shoulder. “In the usual spot. He really loves that mummy.”
She shook her head, wandering over to a shelf to start stocking her magical mystery rocks. MADE IN CHINA was emblazoned on the side of the box.
“The real mystery is why anyone pays six bucks for those things.” Henry shrugged and headed for the back of the store.
Boris was dressed in his usual tweed cap, with an Alice in Chains t-shirt showing through the front of his unbuttoned blazer. He grunted, cleared his throat, and spit into a napkin, which he then shoved into his pocket.
“Damn cigarettes are killing me, but I can’t live without ’em. You know any magic that can clear the soot out of an old man’s lungs?”
Henry shook his head. “Sorry. Got nothing. I can pass you a few bucks to soothe your worries, though.”
Boris looked him up and down. “Yeah, you could probably pay off all my credit card debt and not even notice it. But I ain’t a charity case, so I’ll take whatever wad you want to hand me. For my priceless commodity, of course.”
“Information.” Henry scratched at his stubble as he gazed at Sylvester the mummy. “I was thinking of growing a mustache like that one day.”
Boris side-eyed him. “You want my advice? Don’t. You’ll look like a creep. You know, one of those guys who drives around high schools, offering to give girls a ride home? You want more advice? Quit the small-talking and tell me what you need to know about.”
“I’m glad to see you’re as grumpy as ever. Fine. I need to know about a new gang. A bunch of young doofuses with blue ink on their faces. Heard anything?”
Boris nodded. “The Prevs. That’s the name that’s been floating around. Whispered in dark corners and all that. Good thing I like standing in dark corners or I’d be useless to you.”
“What do you know about them?”
“I know they first popped up about three months back. At first, I thought their tattoos were a new fashion trend. A hip new way that these kids had found to make themselves unemployable. As soon as Stryker started acting up, though, I started to wonder, but there hasn’t been anything concrete. Not until now. Word is, a few of those Prev goons got themselves killed at Wildcat Lake, across the Sound to the west.”
“I heard about that. Do you know of any connection with Stryker?”
“So far, it doesn’t seem like he’s involved with what they’re trying to do. If he’s playing puppet master, he’s hiding his moves real well. If you want my theory, they’re acting alone. But there’s no way in hell Stryker doesn’t know about what they’re up to. I’ll bet my soul he’s following along closely.”
Emily came closer to organize the taxidermized guitar-playing frogs on a nearby shelf. Boris waited until she was gone before he went on.
“Guys like Stryker thrive on chaos, Henry. They don’t care what happens or who gets hurt, as long as they get to have their fun. And as long as they come out on top. He might stay hands-off for good, or he might jump in and take control of the Prev tomorrow. You can’t predict what a person like him will do. If I were you, I’d be afraid.”
Henry pointed at a mermaid hanging in another display case. “I am. That thing will haunt my dreams tonight.”
Boris smirked. “Don’t be a smartass. Now, I don’t know where the Prevs are based. Maybe they’re based nowhere. They could be nomadic, always moving around and never centralized. I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you where I’d start. See if you can identify one of their members. Once you learn one name, it might be easier to learn more.”
Henry pulled his phone out, along with a few hundred-dollar bills. “That’s what I was thinking. Here you go.”
Boris looked at the money. “Four hundred bucks? For what? I pretty much told you I have nothing.”
“Sure. But you’ll eventually hear something else, and I want to be the first to know about it. I’d give you more, but I forgot to hit an ATM. Keep your ears open, Boris.”
The man pocketed his cash with a curt nod. “I always do. A guy with closed ears in this world… He’s as dead as Sylvester here.”
Henry thanked Emily in passing and left the shop, unlocking his phone to dial Nicole. He saw a fresh text from her.
Just got to Bremerton. Gotta swing by Castle Neumann. I think I left my favorite earrings there, and by that, I mean something completely different. I hope one of your underlings will let me in, or else I’ll have to bust through a window.
He hit the call button and lifted his phone to his ear, smiling as he readied his response. There was no answer, and the call eventually went to voice mail.
Henry called Winter to give the dwarf the heads up so he could let Nicole in, but there was no answer there either. Suddenly paranoid, he opened the app from the security company that had installed a set of alarms at the house. Apparently, the system had been disarmed and was now powered off.
Henry’s blood ran cold, and his hair stood on end. Something was wrong. He turned and ran for the ferry dock, cursing.
I should not have left. They were probably watching, waiting for me to go. Damn it!
CHAPTER NINE
“Yes, that’s it.” Winter leaned closer to the chassis of their latest gadget-in-progress. His eyes lit up with the glow of the welding torch and sweat poured down his face. “Hold it a little closer, Finch. Don’t let the metal go cold.”
“Cold?” Finch’s body was taut. “This flame’s a third as hot as the surface of the sun. How cold can it get?”
“Less talking, more welding. There, now you’re getting it. All right, that ought to be enough.”
Finch killed the flame, breathing a sigh of relief as he set it to the side, the nozzle pointing upward. The young Light Elf flipped the welder’s mask off his face and grinned as he licked the sweat from his upper lip. “How did I do?”
Winter leaned closer. A few of his mustache hairs touched the hot metal and immediately curled up black. He batted at them. “The stench! Nothing worse than burned hair, Finch. Other than maybe my farts after those tacos we had the other night. I’m glad I sleep alone, or else I could have killed someone.”
Finch’s eyes went wide. “A man did die like that once. He ate too much cabbage. It was wintertime, and he had the crack under his door stuffed with something to keep the heat in. A double whammy.”
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet, my boy.” Winter used the end of a screwdriver to prod the weld. “Very good, except for this spot here. It could use a touch more flame.”
Finch gave the welding torch a wary glance, then held his hand a couple of inches from the weak spot and shot a series of fireballs into it. They fizzled and popped against the metal. The seam was still soft, and the weak spot melted together.
Winter admired the handiwork. “It doesn’t have that same beautiful bead effect, but it will do. Now we have to figure out how to mount the power source inside. Henry’s going to love this. The next step up from those troublesome wind grenades…a wind cannon!”
A buzz interrupted his excitement. He looked at one of the screens, a camera feed of the front porch. “Damn! It’s Nicole Thomas again. I thought we beefed up that warding?”
Finch shrugged. “We did.”
“Then we’ll have to double-check it. We must have done something wrong or forgotten a step. Anyway, what’s she doing here again?” Winter grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Maybe she’s realized she has a thing for ruggedly handsome men.”
“Like Henry?” Finch asked.
Winter glared at his assistant. “Like me. You’re supposed to be my wingman, Finch. How’s my hair?”
Onscreen, Nicole hit the buzzer again and folded her arms impatiently. Winter pressed a button below the screen, broadcasting his voice to the front porch. “Neumann residence, Winter Snow speaking. How may I be of assistance?”
“Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior?” Nicole stood on her toes, sticking her face right up to the camera. “Open up, or I’ll start calling you Summer Rain.”
“That would be adorable, actually. But Henry’s not here right now.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Actually, it’s better that way. I sort of left something important in there. Must be in the couch cushions where I slept before.”
Winter lifted his finger from the button, smiling at Finch. “She doesn’t want Henry thinking she’s obsessed with him. Which means she is.”
“Or she’s embarrassed that she forgot something here,” Finch suggested.
“Either way, she unfortunately isn’t here to seduce me, so I’ll stay down here and keep working. Perhaps it would be best if someone more amiable went to answer the door.”
Finch took the hint and took off up the steps. Winter pressed the button again. “My trusty young sidekick is on his way to open the door, Nicole.”
She gave the thumbs-up.
Winter sat back to watch. Finch opened the door and let Nicole in. After that, it was easy to keep track of her movement through the house. The security measures had been beefed up considerably since the house had been broken into twice, first by the teenagers and then by Bechtel Stryker. There were very few dead zones, spots the cameras couldn’t see.
And that’s just the non-magical stuff. Winter laced his fingers over his belly. He was impressed with himself. Something may have gone awry with our recent warding, but I’ll get to the bottom of it. Just as soon as I get to the bottom of why Nicole is really here.
She lost Finch near the door to Henry’s office. The teenager wandered into the game room to watch a pool match between Carla and Rami. The latter was currently yelling and throwing his hands in the air. Winter pushed a button on the security system’s control board to unmute the camera.
“I said, no magic! You clearly used your powers to push that eight ball out of the way.”
Carla batted her eyelashes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re just mad that I’m better at pool than you are.”
Winter turned his attention back to Nicole. She had paused outside Henry’s office and knelt to tie her shoe.
“A generic ruse.” Winter grabbed a joystick and pushed it forward to zoom the camera in. “What are you up to, young lady?”
Nicole looked both ways and pulled a folded piece of paper out of her sock. She shoved it under the door of the office, then stood and continued walking like nothing had happened.
“Clever, but nothing gets past old Winter. You knew his office would be locked, Nicole. You wanted Henry to be the only one to see whatever that note was. But why not give it to him in person? Unless…”
He sat back, rubbing his chin.
“Unless the badass bounty hunter chick is nervous. Like a young girl asking a friend to deliver a note to her crush. Do I dare pick the lock and see what the note says? No, but maybe Henry will tell me. Especially if I demand that he does.”
He kept following Nicole. She went into the living room and started sticking her hands between the couch cushions.
“Come now, Nicole. We both know there’s nothing there but potato chip shards. And maybe a missing TV remote.”
She finally stopped her search. She took a step back and turned to the nearest camera to give an exaggerated shrug. Winter giggled, kicking his feet in delight. “You knew I’d be watching, and you did your little trick with the note anyway. Very bold, Nicole. You’ve earned my respect, but now you have my curiosity.”
Nicole left the living room and retraced her steps, poking her head into the game room. The camera was still unmuted, so Winter heard what she had to say.
“I guess I must have left it somewhere else. Thanks for letting me in, Finch. I’m heading out now. Tell Winter I said thanks, too.”
She rapped her knuckles against the wall and turned to leave, but the cameras suddenly went dead. The screens went gray and then black as the power died. The lights went out in the cave, and the hum of the computers, a source of white noise that Winter had long since tuned out, stopped.
The silence was deafening. Winter could hear himself breathing, along with the surge of his pulse in his ears. He sat forward and uselessly pressed keys and buttons as well as the power switches on a few monitors. Nothing happened. The glow of the stars in the ceiling was all that was left; the bulbs held a faint glow that was fading fast.
The power was out.
Winter got up and stumbled through the dark, feeling his way along. He reached the tool cases near the garage area and groped around until he found a flashlight. Switching it on, he followed its glow toward the stairs. There was a circuit box on the wall there. Winter pulled the door open and checked all the switches.
“Nothing wrong. Even the main hasn’t been tripped. Hm… Perhaps I ought to take a quick walk down the tunnel and see if the rest of the neighborhood is out as well.”
He took a few steps toward the tunnel but stopped when he heard a series of muffled noises from overhead. It sounded like things falling to the floor—or people running for their lives.
Winter ran for the steps and hopped up them as fast as he could. He switched the flashlight off near the top and took a deep breath as he opened the door. He pushed it ajar by a single inch, pressing his face to it to peek through.
A battle was in progress. Smoke swirled through the library. A few chairs had been tipped over, their upholstery charred and melted. Two of the teens were there, Wexell and Trent, but they were hiding behind a metal library cart as two invaders with face tattoos peppered the other side of it with fireballs and bolts of lightning from their fingers.
Why aren’t they using their powers? Winter thought frantically. Why aren’t they fighting back?
He couldn’t help them from here. As soon as he stepped out, the Prevs would turn their hands on him, cooking him like a rotisserie chicken as he fell back down the steps.
There had to be another way.
A scream erupted from the hallway. Another gang member spilled into the library, bleeding from the nose. Nicole was behind him. She jumped and spun out a powerful kick, but the intruder with the lightning turned and sent a bolt her way.
Nicole diverted in midair, twisting like a cat and landing gracefully. She cried out and threw up a web-like magical shield that absorbed the bolt and scattered it in weak bursts of static.
Winter pumped his fist, silently cheering her on. Another Prev came in behind her and slammed the butt of a shotgun against the back of her neck. Nicole crumpled to the floor.
Time to move. Winter shut the door and moved back down to the cave. He looked into the garage for a moment, contemplating his motorcycle with its mounted machine gun.
“Not stealthy enough, but I know what else to grab.”
He hurried to the lockers to grab what he needed, then ran for the tunnel. He dropped his flashlight on the way, but enough daylight bled in to see by, and Winter soon emerged into the open. He headed up the hill, boots sliding on the mud and leaves.
