“Okay,” said Donovan. “Now I’m really curious.”
Donovan looked at the MetLife Building, looming over them. “I wonder what kind of security they have.”
“What are you thinking?” said Susan.
“I want to know who this guy was. According to Upstairs, he came to work every day and no one knows what he did. Becker said, ‘We’re working on it,’ in the tone that means ‘in six months or so someone might deign to pull the assignment out of an in-box somewhere.’ Marci, do you have something that could get past security, in case they’re checking?”
Marci looked doubtful. “I can do emotional stuff, and trust falls in there. But I can’t do illusions. I suck at light manipulation.”
“So?”
“So … maybe. Not exactly my area.”
“Welcome to fieldwork. Give it a shot?”
“All right.”
They walked in the door, Susan and Donovan pretending to be in deep conversation, Marci a step ahead of them. He saw her shoulder’s tense, and her fingers twitched a little. The security guard looked up, smiled, and, “Hey, Sherri.” He gave Donovan and Susan a smile and waved them through. When they were inside an elevator, Donovan said, “Sherri?”
“I have no idea,” said Marci.
“Well, good work,” although, in fact, he almost regretted it; he’d had thoughts of going to a costume shop and dressing them all like a cleaning crew like they do on TV. He’d always wondered if that would actually work.
The office was on the forty-first floor. They stepped out of the elevator into a wide hallway. Showing off, thought Donovan. See how unconcerned we are with the cost of space? You can drive a truck down our hallways. Whatever. The hall was illuminated by fluorescent light fixtures every five feet, with smaller ones to the side.
They found the office. Donovan put his gloves on; Hippie Chick did the same. He took out the knotnot and said the words. Marci giggled, which made an odd sound in the empty hallway. Donovan opened the door, and looked inside. Then something slammed into him and he was on the floor.
“What the—”
Susan jumped over him, into the room, rolling.
It was over before Donovan had time to know it was going on: Susan was straddling a man who was facedown on the carpet; she had his arm up behind his shoulder and was gripping his hair with her other hand. Then Donovan noticed, a foot or so from the guy, a gun: a semi-auto complete with silencer, just sitting there. Donovan glanced over at Marci, who was pale, but seemed steady. Then he smelled cordite. He looked back and saw the bullet hole in the wall behind him, and he didn’t feel at all steady himself.
“We need to get out of here,” he said.
Susan nodded. “What do we do with this guy?”
“Let me see him.”
Susan pulled the man’s head up by the hair. The man had scar tissue around his eyes, and his nose had been broken at least once. His clothing was dark and loose fitting, not overly expensive. His hair was a little shaggy—he hadn’t had it cut in several weeks—but his face was well shaved. He seemed more dazed than either frightened or angry, but that wouldn’t last. Donovan said, “We need to question him. We’re going to feel pretty stupid if he’s the guy we’re looking for and all we do is turn him over to the PO-lice. Is your place good for that, Hippie?”
“No,” she said without hesitation.
“Then I hope yours is, Marci—because we’re sure as hell not hauling this asshole back to my place on a train, and I think a taxi might present problems even if we can find one to take us to Jersey.”
“I think I might be able to manage a sort of slipwalk, now that I’ve done it,” said Marci. “I mean, not a full slipwalk with all the bells and whistles, but I think I can duplicate enough of the effect to get us there. Or, I know. This is better.” She walked forward, knelt, and touched the man’s forehead.
The guy’s eyes suddenly looked even more dazed.
“You two will have to support him,” she said. Then she looked back and forth between Susan and Donovan, as if she’d been doing this all her life. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get our poor, drunk friend back home.”
“I’ll get the cab,” said Susan. “I can talk a cabbie into anything.”
“A New York cabbie?” said Donovan.
“It’s my super-power,” she said.
Donovan and Susan helped the man stand; he really did act like he was drunk. Donovan said, “Can you hold him for a second?” Susan nodded. Donovan took a quick walk around the room: There was one small bookshelf, a table covered with newspapers and magazines, a desk with half a dozen more books and a few papers on it. Hanging near the one window was what looked like a cross between an American Indian dream catcher and a mobile made of stained glass.
“All right,” he said. He took their prisoner’s other arm. “Marci, get the lights. Use your elbow, not your fingers. And shut the door, but don’t touch the handle.”
“What about the gun?” said Susan.
“Not my gun, not my fingerprints.”
“All right.”
They set off back toward the elevators.
* * *
“So,” said Becker. “You interrogated him yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Because?”
“Because you’re in Spain and I didn’t want to keep him trussed up in my apartment until you could get here. And because I don’t like your interrogation techniques, Mr. Becker.”
“I see. We will discuss that another time, Mr. Longfellow. For now, what did you learn?”
“None of the facts are useful; some of the conclusions are.”
“Please, Mr. Longfellow. I know how clever you are. It is why you were brought into the organization. What did you learn?”
“He was hired anonymously; all he has is an email address. I’ll text it to you if you want, but good luck tracing it. He was paid in cash, unmarked bills left at a drop; he has no idea who hired him or how that person picked or found him. But what’s interesting is what he was hired to do. He was given a key to the office and told to enter it at six o’clock that evening, remain for fifteen hours, and kill anyone who came in during that time.”
Becker was silent for nearly a minute. “Yes,” he said at last. “I see what you mean about drawing conclusions. Who is he?”
“Ex-army, ex-boxer, ex-merc. Did a stretch for armed robbery, was arrested for manslaughter once, but no conviction.”
“How much was he paid?”
“Five hundred bucks, with the promise of a thousand later for each one of us he killed.”
“Not very much as such things go.”
“No. Mr. Becker, why is it that we don’t have someone who can use magic to trace an email address?”
“I’m told Research and Development is working on it, but it isn’t easy for reasons I’m afraid I do not understand, and that I doubt you would, either.”
“It’d sure be useful.”
“No doubt it would. How did you get the information from the attacker?”
“I asked nicely.”
“Please, Mr. Longfellow.”
“I’m mostly telling the truth, Mr. Becker. There were a few subtle threats, maybe, but for the most part, we just talked. We cooked him some roast chicken, gave him some beer, and had a conversation. No torture, not even a hint of a spell from Marci. We convinced him that if he cooperated we’d let him go, and that he had no reason to protect those who hired him.”
“And you think he told the truth?”
“We know he did. Marci can tell; that sort of falls within her skill set.”
“What did you do with him?”
“Let him go.”
“Do you think that was wise?”
“I don’t see the harm.”
“He knows where you live. He can report it, and our enemies can find you.”
“Yeah? That’ll be interesting.”
“We do things differently, Mr. Longfellow.”
“Yes, we do, Mr
. Becker.”
“In any case, we’ve established that they’re on to us. Or they are now, if they weren’t before.”
“Yeah. We also know that their resources are limited if they have to go outside their group to take a shot at us, and not all that effective a shot at that. Five hundred? A thousand per? That’s not big-budget stuff.”
“Agreed.”
“And?”
“Yes,” said Becker. “I was able to confirm the nature of his connection to the Roma Vindices Mystici.”
“So was I,” said Donovan.
“Were you indeed? How so?”
“That’s what he did in that office for eight hours a day: He was recruiting for them. His area ran as far west as the Ohio border, as far south as the Maryland border, north to Canada. And he also kept track of who was looking into government corruption. Your assumption about him being involved in making reporters disappear is almost certainly true. From what I know of the Mystici, he would have been doing that on his own as a private contractor for someone, not for the Mystici, but I speak under correction, of course.”
“Good work, Mr. Longfellow.”
“What is it with these people? Are they just, you know, doing bad stuff because they’re bad, and like to twirl their mustaches and say, ‘Bwa ha ha’?”
“They protect each other, just as we do.”
“But the things they do—”
“You know their history, Mr. Longfellow.”
“Some of it. The Foundation isn’t especially forthcoming with those of us who are merely employees, Mr. Becker. And none of my cases so far have brought me up against them.”
“You aren’t against them now, Mr. Longfellow. The members of their order are sworn to defend each other. They have no goals, or master plan.”
“But they’re such assholes.”
Becker might have smiled. “Some of them,” he said. “But then, similar words have been applied to me at times.”
“That’s hard to believe, Mr. Becker. So, our shooter. He either doesn’t like the Mystici, or doesn’t like some assholes in it.”
“Yes.”
“Other than being frat brothers, do the two victims have any connection?”
“We’re still checking. I’ll let you know if we find anything. I assume you will also look into the matter.”
“Yeah. So here’s the question: Why do we care?”
“You care because you’re being paid to, Mr. Longfellow.”
“What, a hundred and thirty dollars a month? That’s not a lot of caring, Mr. Becker.”
“And a place to live. And that’s just the retainer. For active service, you’re paid by the hour.”
“Right. Eight dollars and fifty cents.”
“That is the best we can do, I’m afraid. You know we’re not wealthy.”
“But why do you care? Your people, the ones who pay me? What’s the Foundation’s stake in this?”
“Mr. Longfellow, anyone able to stop time and willing to murder presents a danger, don’t you agree?”
“Mr. Becker, we both know you sent my team to look into Lawton-Smythe’s death before we knew about the time-stop. So, what is it?”
“Your job is to prevent knowledge of magic from leaking out into the awareness of the general public. You truly cannot see how exactly this sort of thing could lead to that?”
“Not really. Especially the coronary. It isn’t like the Arizona business, with pyrotechnics that everyone could see and had no good explanation. Or that mess with the flying ship in Biloxi. And it seems like the people being killed are bad guys. Isn’t that one of the things carved into the plaque? ‘People shouldn’t use magic to do bad things to each other,’ or whatever it is in Latin. So, what is it really?”
“If that is all, Mr. Longfellow, I should follow up on your intelligence and see if it leads anywhere. I’ll be in touch.”
Donovan stared at the camera long enough to make his point, then said, “I’m including the interrogation on my time sheet, Mr. Becker.”
“Very well, Mr. Longfellow.”
“Marci and Susan were there for the whole thing, so I’m going to tell them to include it on theirs, too.”
“Very well, Mr. Longfellow.”
“I’ll talk to you soon.”
Donovan closed Skype, and turned around. Marci and Hippie Chick were sitting on his sofa, in earshot of the computer, though not in range of the camera. Marci was drinking tea. Susan had white wine. Donovan was drinking horseradish-infused vodka on the rocks because he felt like it, that’s why. Three of Donovan’s knotnots were sitting on the table, next to Marci—she’d recharged them while he was talking to Becker, which would have been distracting if it had involved anything more dramatic than her face going blank and the room warming up a little. He picked up the devices with a nod of thanks and put them in his closet, then came back, sat down, had a sip of vodka. It burned pleasantly.
“All right,” he said. “You heard all that. Anything come to mind?”
They both shook their heads.
“Me neither,” said Donovan.
“You have a nice place,” said Marci, looking around. “It’s cozy.”
“You mean tiny.”
“I guess.”
“It’s what they gave me.”
“How’d they recruit you?” she asked. Then she looked suddenly hesitant and said, “Or are we not supposed to talk about that?”
“I don’t mind. Do you mean how, or why?”
“I was asking how, but now I’m curious about why.”
“Why is because I had the right skill set. I was going to be a private investigator. I had an uncle who was an ex-fed, if you can believe it, and he trained me.”
“What happened to that plan?”
Donovan considered, then shrugged. “He lived in Los Angeles, and I was staying with him there while he taught me. He died, and after the funeral I was going to take a flight home. The TSA guy decided I needed to be frisked, and he touched my junk.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah. I broke his wrist. And a couple of ribs and his jaw. So all of a sudden I can’t fly, and I can’t get a PI license.”
“Really!” said Susan. “I never knew that. No offense, Don, but you don’t look like a bruiser.”
“I’m not. He was a little guy with a lot of attitude.” Donovan didn’t mention his own broken ribs, from where the other TSA guys had held him down and kicked him. It didn’t seem germane.
Marci nodded. “Well, so that answers the why. Now, how?”
“I should have let you interrogate our friend.”
She smiled nervously. “Sorry if I’m being—”
“Naw. It’s all right. The how is easy enough: They brought me back from the dead.”
“Literally?”
“Almost. I was shot by a PO-liceman. For jaywalking.”
“Really?”
“That’s not what he said. And there were words exchanged first, and I probably shouldn’t have tried to run. But yeah. They brought me back from nine shots, at least four of which were fatal. I guess I wasn’t technically dead at the time, or they couldn’t have managed it, but technically dead doesn’t have a really good definition when it comes to medicine, and less when it comes to magic.”
“I know,” said Marci.
“Anyway, yeah, back without any what they call ‘deficits.’ Gave me a new identity, new face, set me up. I could get a PI license now, but I figure I owe them.”
“So,” said Susan, “you knew about the magic from the start.”
“You didn’t?”
She shook her head. “They handled it well. I’d see something bizarre, and they’d shrug it off and refuse to explain. It went on for months like that, all during my training. By the time they told me what was really going on, I was in a head space to accept it.”
“They’re clever,” said Marci.
“That they are,” said Donovan. He looked at Susan. It was interesting that they’d never talked about t
his before. He said, “Do you know why they recruited you?”
“Yeah. Because I got too big to be an acrobat.” She turned to Marci. “How about you?”
“Me?” said Marci. “When I was fifteen, I levitated a paperweight and threw it at a guy who—who I didn’t like.”
“That was it? You just levitated something out of nowhere?”
“That was the first time I did something I couldn’t explain away. The next day William sent me a text message.”
“William?” said Donovan. “I don’t know him.”
“Head of recruiting.”
“Must have been after my time.”
“I guess. He specializes in magic training and fart jokes. The message said: ‘You can do more than levitate things, and I can help.’”
“Huh,” said Donovan. “That’ll get your attention.”
Marci nodded. “I used to sneak out to practice with him two or three times a week, whenever I could. Once I was on my own, working for them just seemed obvious.” Then her brows came together and she tilted her head. “Hey, tell me something?”
“Sure.”
“Were you just, ah, blowing smoke up Mr. Becker’s ass?”
Donovan frowned. “Huh? No, that turns out to be a bad idea. What do you mean?”
“All that stuff about what Blum did.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s real.”
“How could you know that?”
“I told you, my uncle was an ex-fed and he trained me.”
“But—”
“Did you see a computer on his desk?”
“Um. I don’t remember. I was kind of excited.”
“There wasn’t one. But there was a CAT Five cable sitting on it, so what do you conclude?”
“That he uses a laptop and brings it home with him.”
“See? It isn’t that hard.”
“But how does that—”
“It was just an example.” He drank some more vodka and leaned back in his chair. “Of course, we can go a little further: that he’s using CAT Five instead of the building’s wireless means he’s concerned with security, and that he doesn’t know a lot about how computer security works. But that doesn’t get us very far, either.”
“So then how did you know all that stuff?”
Donovan drummed the fingertips of his left hand on the arm of the chair, and looked at Susan, who was a wearing one of her little smiles. “All right,” he said. “Next to the cable—I mean, right next where his laptop would be—was a map of the northeastern United States, with nodes marked on it. One of the things nodes are used for is recruitment—a sensitive might be drawn there, so the Mystici, and us, keep a watch on the major ones to see who shows up. Pretty much anything else, like most uses of magic, he’d have the lines, the points, and the nodes. Also, right on his desk, in easy reach, he had a listing of psychiatric hospitals and wards in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts—all the states in his area. Sometimes sensitives are first diagnosed as schizophrenics, so keeping track of those is something else a recruiter would do. The thing hanging from the ceiling is one of the standard ways to construct—hell, I don’t know what they call it; ask the kiddie pool. But it can detect when magic, especially uncontrolled magic, is used within a certain distance. That’s probably how your friend William found you. Put it all together, he was doing recruiting.”