Authors: Eileen Wilks
Death Magic (7 page)
Lily, however, was looking at the floor, not the walls. “Is that for decoration, do you think?”
The floor here was the same warm hickory as on the rest of the ground floor, with one addition: a thin silvery inlay delineated a circle that included most of the room. “You can ask Ruben. I wonder if the need to keep secrets from Deborah is why . . .”
“Why what?”
“Ruben and Deborah seem to possess the kind of rapport that comes from intimacy. She’s important to him, yet he seldom speaks of her. It seemed odd to me, but perhaps that’s how he protects those secrets he holds. He doesn’t speak often of his work to his wife. He doesn’t speak often of his wife when he’s working.”
“A lot of cops do that. They want to keep the ugly shit they see from touching their families, so they don’t talk about the job at home.”
“You don’t do that.”
She snorted. “As if I’d ever had a chance to, with you.”
That pleased him, so he moved close and kissed her.
A voice spoke from the doorway. “What a lovely reason to slip away from the party.”
Lily jolted. Rule let go of her without looking away from her annoyed face. “Hello, Fagin.”
“You heard him, didn’t you?” Lily looked past him at the man who’d joined them. “You left an hour ago. I saw you leave.”
The older man beamed at them. “It does my heart good to think I tricked such a clever and watchful woman.”
“You didn’t want anyone to know you’d stayed here.”
“No more than you did, my dear.” He lumbered into the room carrying a paper plate with goodies from the dessert bar. “If you have any electronics on you—phone or whatever—you need to put them on that table in the hall.”
“Why?”
Fagin waggled his eyebrows at her. “Because you won’t learn why you’re here if you don’t.”
Rule retrieved his phone and held out his hand for Lily’s phone. He could see the questions jostling around in her by the way her lips thinned with the effort of holding them back.
Funny. With the time rapidly shifting from “soon” to “now,” he didn’t feel so philosophical. His stomach was tight with worry. No, call it by its true name: fear. Taking their phones into the hall gave him a moment to get his face and body back under control.
Ruben arrived in the hall. Their eyes met. Ruben’s voice was as relaxed as Rule wished to be. “Ah, you’re placing your phones elsewhere. Good.”
They went back in the study together.
“Ruben,” Lily said, “what in the world is going on?”
“Paranoia is a common occupational hazard. I’m afraid mine has increased recently, since someone really is out to get me.” Ruben glanced at Fagin. “I’ll set the circle.” He closed the study door, then crouched and put his hand flat on the floor, covering a section of the silvery inlay. After a moment he nodded. “It’s up.”
Lily’s eyebrows lifted. “Learning some new tricks?”
“I can’t set a circle, but I can activate one. It’s best if we aren’t overheard.”
“Which this will make sure of.” Fagin dug into his shorts pocket and pulled out a small, silk-wrapped object. He unrolled the cloth to reveal a quartz crystal the size of Rule’s thumb and held it up. “Quite a clever invention, this. The circle blocks magical eavesdropping. This will take care of the technical variety.” He set the crystal on the leather-bound blotter on the desk, then patted his pockets. “I don’t seem to have . . .”
Ruben moved to the other side of the desk, opened a drawer, and took out a hammer that he handed to Fagin.
“Ah, thank you.” And he smashed the crystal.
Lily blinked. “That felt like node energy. A pretty good shot of it, too. I thought quartz didn’t store power well.”
Fagin handed Ruben the hammer and began dusting the smashed crystal into one large and chubby palm. “Not as well as gemstones, no, but that’s what makes it work so well for this. A quartz matrix is a bit unstable, magically speaking. Overfill it too suddenly, or smash the crystal, and it releases the stored power all at once. Makes a nice little magic bomb for scrambling tech, even if one isn’t a practitioner.” Fagin looked at the bits in his palm. “Trash?” he said to Ruben.
Ruben gestured behind the desk and Fagin went to deposit the shards.
Lily watched. “You did that to disable any bugs?”
“That’s right.”
“What about directional mics? Or lasers? Will the glass and drapes keep those from working?”
Fagin’s eyebrows slid up. “I have no idea.”
Ruben moved behind his desk. “A directional mic won’t work. The glass in the windows is too thick and the drapes are heavy. A laser device might—”
“Lasers?” Fagin asked.
“A laser beam is bounced off a window. The vibrations in the glass caused by sound in the room cause equivalent variations in the laser beam. Sophisticated equipment picks up and decodes the reflected beam to render any conversation in the room. With such thick glass, however, that’s unlikely to work. Also, I believe Friar is biased toward magical means.”
“Friar.” Lily’s voice was flat.
“He
is
a listener.”
is
a listener.”
Who couldn’t eavesdrop magically on conversations near Rule. Ruben knew that, though he didn’t know why. And Lily didn’t know Ruben knew. And Rule would be glad when he didn’t have to make quite so many who-knows-what calculations.
“Just in case, however, Deborah is going to . . . ah, there it is.”
The thrum of bass from a sound system started up outside. Rule nodded, appreciating the trick. The others might not hear it, but the windows were vibrating to the bass. “That should do it.”
Ruben sat and gestured. “Please be seated, and I’ll explain.” He waited while they did—Rule took the wooden chair nearest the door—then lobbed his first bombshell. “I wanted you to know that I will be resigning from the Bureau due to my health.”
FIVE
LILY’S
stomach went tight. “I hate that. I hate it. I’d hoped . . . you look so well. Healthy. I guess the healer Nettie sent couldn’t do as much as I’d thought.”
stomach went tight. “I hate that. I hate it. I’d hoped . . . you look so well. Healthy. I guess the healer Nettie sent couldn’t do as much as I’d thought.”
Ruben’s smile was small and wry, but as genuine as everything else about him. “He did a great deal, or I’d be dead. I’m told the damage was extensive. He was able to repair quite a bit—enough that I can hope to be around for a while yet. Not enough, unfortunately, to raise that from “hope” to “expect.” The Unit can’t be run by someone who could die in the middle of a crisis.”
“Anyone can die. Isn’t there some way to continue to share responsibility? Croft’s good, but without your Gift . . .” She cut herself off in midquestion, glancing at Fagin with a small frown. Then she looked at Rule.
“You’re wondering why Fagin is present. No, he is not my choice to run the Unit.”
“Thank the Good Lord above,” Fagin said. “Not that I’d accept if you did try to foist it on me.”
“So why is he here? And Rule?”
Ruben ignored that question. “The news of my impending resignation is not to be spoken of outside this room. I’m delaying it because I believe strongly that it’s best if the enemy behind the attack on me remains uncertain of my role for a while longer.”
“Friar, you mean. You don’t think he’s dead.”
“Officially, he died in the explosion. For now, we want him to think we have no suspicion of his continued role as
her
agent.”
her
agent.”
“We?”
Ruben smiled and ignored that question, too. So she offered him another one. “What about Croft? Does he—”
“I won’t provide a list of those who know or those who don’t. You might be tempted into unwarranted assumptions about those I haven’t informed.”
Lily nodded slowly. “So is this about the investigation? About finding the traitor? Or is it about
her
?”
her
?”
“Both, since the existence of the traitor bears on another decision that I am asking you to not divulge. I’m establishing a clandestine organization I call the Shadow Unit to fight
her
and her agents and allies in our realm. This group consists of both Bureau and non-Bureau personnel and will operate without the knowledge or sanction of the government. I’d like you to be part of it.”
her
and her agents and allies in our realm. This group consists of both Bureau and non-Bureau personnel and will operate without the knowledge or sanction of the government. I’d like you to be part of it.”
Lily’s stomach hollowed. Her hands went cold. She stared at him, unable to believe what she’d heard. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am entirely serious.”
Anger washed through the shock, making her insides quiver. Her eyes narrowed. She twisted to look at Fagin. “You’re in it? You’re part of this—this Shadow Unit?”
“That I am.” With his hands resting on his stomach, he looked like a badly dressed Buddha. Placid. Perhaps not really listening. “In an advisory capacity, primarily. I’m not one of the ghosts.” He smiled at the look on her face. “That’s my little nickname for those on the front lines in this war. Shadow agents, lacking any official existence. Ghosts.”
She grimaced and faced Ruben. “No.”
“You should listen before deciding.”
“It may not be in your best interests to tell me more.”
“You aren’t thinking,” he said crisply. “If I’m right, the Shadow Unit is essential to stopping an Old One from establishing her rule and worship in our nation and committing genocide along the way to creating a planetwide theocracy. If I’m wrong, I’m attempting to form a criminal conspiracy based on my delusions or lust for power, and you will need to stop me. In either case, you are obligated to learn everything you can.”
“Damn it,” she whispered. Then again, louder: “Damn it, damn it, damn it.” Her stomach roiled. Her hands clenched and unclenched on the arms of her chair. She sucked in a breath, held it briefly, then let it out with a slow shudder. “Right. You’re right. So tell me.”
He leaned back slightly. “There has always been information I have not allowed into the record. You’re aware of some of it—lupi secrets such as the mate bond. I assume there are additional lupi secrets you haven’t told me about, and I suspect there are also events you haven’t spoken of. I don’t know the specifics, obviously, so I may be wrong in assuming that these matters sometimes involved extralegal actions on your part.”
She started to speak, then shook her head—not denying his assumption, but refusing to comment on it.
“Now think about the fact that you are a single agent. One who has proved a nexus for the enemy’s attempts, perhaps, but only one.”
“You’re saying
she
’s made more attempts than the ones I know about.”
she
’s made more attempts than the ones I know about.”
“Oh, yes. Think about it. There are one hundred seventy-nine full Unit agents, forty-one groups or individuals we contract with for their special skills, six hundred and five agents in the Magical Crimes Division, and just under fourteen thousand regular FBI agents. Did you think you were the only one who has had to deal with potentially explosive situations involving unusual magic or beings? Situations that could not be resolved through traditional law enforcement methods?”
“I haven’t heard of any cases where our people were coloring outside the lines.”
“Neither has the news media, fortunately.” He paused. “Increasingly, I’ve seen a choice before me. If the enforcement of the law remains my chief duty and highest priority, I will have to accept a high rate of casualties—both in Unit agents and in the civilian population. If protecting the people of this nation is my greatest priority, I will be forced to allow and tacitly encourage more and more extralegal activities on the part of Unit agents.”
“Every officer of the law faces that decision,” Lily said.
“Would it be easier if we didn’t have to read some murdering asshole his rights? Sure. Would that protect some of his future victims? Probably. That doesn’t make it right. There’s a reason cops don’t get to be the prosecutors and judges of the perps we arrest.”
He nodded. “You’re right, of course. And yet for the last several months I’ve had an increasingly strong feeling that there needed to be an organization that was separate from the legal institutions. I began thinking about how such an organization might be established, how it would function, what kind of personnel it would need, how they would communicate, how it could be kept secret. I didn’t envision myself running such an organization, but as helping establish it, then cooperating with and sometimes assisting it covertly.”
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