Whisper of Shadows (The Diamond City Magic Novels) (16 page)

Chapter 12

WE CRAWLED OUT of the cave right into a tangle of scrub. My brothers and Dalton had scouted the area earlier and had cut away branches to hollow out a space underneath. I followed Leo, who crab-crawled fifteen feet along the rock cliff until the scrub gave way to a pile of boulders and a stand of trees. Leo had left the lantern inside the cave, and the flashlight he carried was covered with a green filter. Hunters used them to keep animals from seeing them from the sides.

Beyond the trees, I could see the glow cast by the compound’s floodlights. It was lit up like a baseball stadium. I could feel the pulse of magic the place put off. It was thick and heavy.

“How much time do we have?” Jamie asked Leo.

Dalton answered, “Twenty minutes until your mother and Agent Arnow go inside.”

“Let’s hustle, then,” Leo said, then set off.

He led us through the stand of pines and scrub to just this side of a twelve-foot-tall perimeter fence. A trench filled with cement ran beneath it. Magic throbbed through it, and from the wires and insulators I could see, it was electrified. Cameras were mounted at intervals. The two closer ones had been turned upward toward the trees. On the other side there were no trees. In the distance—maybe fifty yards away—a blocky building loomed, its form dulled by the snow. Lucky for us there was snow. The cleared space meant no cover. A killing field. In the old days, that was so enemies couldn’t approach a fortress without being seen, and so archers could shoot at them. I had to assume there was security watching the space, ready to kill. But with guns, not arrows. Hopefully they’d be too distracted by what Leo and Jamie did to notice us approaching.

“My null isn’t going to help with the electricity in the fence,” I pointed out.

“Won’t be a problem. Once we get to work, there’s not going to be any electricity going anywhere. After that, we’ll make a hole in the fence for you,” Jamie said.

They’d already dug down to the drainage pipe they planned to use to get close to the building. A hole was peeled back like something had burst up through the corrugated steel. Inside, the pipe’s diameter was only three feet across, if that. I shuddered.

Leo swung down to stand inside. Taylor handed down a duffel, and he thrust it into the pipe ahead of him, then crawled inside.

“We’re down to seven minutes before Mel and Arnow get here,” Jamie said, jumping down. “Time to get to work.” He looked at me. “We’ll let you know when we get in place so you can hit the null. We’ll do our best to take care of the shooters on the roof and knock out the lights, but be careful.” With that he gave a little salute and a reckless smile, then ducked down after Leo.

We waited.

I was in no mood to talk. Instead, I crouched down behind a bush, watching the compound. It was nestled in a wide canyon with steep, tree-filled ridges circling around. Only one road in.

“What’s with you and our dad?” Taylor asked Dalton suddenly. “How long have you worked for him?”

I glanced over. Taylor had her arms crossed and had squared off opposite Dalton. The light and shadows coming through the bushes and trees carved his features into alabaster and obsidian. Taylor’s red hair darkened to the color of dried blood where her braid hung out from under her ski hat. I shuddered. What a depressing thought.

“Just over seven years,” Dalton said.

Wow. He’d actually answered. Seven years. That was three years after Vernon had vanished off the face of the earth.

“How did you meet him?” Taylor asked.

“I was working for someone else. He asked me to work for him instead.”

“Oh, please, spare me the details,” Taylor said sarcastically. “You talk so much, I hardly can stand it.”

Dalton actually smiled. “The story is boring.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” She glanced her watch. “At least for the next five minutes or so. Tell me your story.”

Dalton’s smile widened. “You’re a good pilot,” he said instead.

“I know. Don’t change the subject. I’d like to know just who has my back going into that compound.”

His smile faded as he turned serious. “I owe your father a great deal. He asked me to come and make sure you stay safe.” He flicked a glance toward me. “All of you.”

“Wow. He sent an army of one. It’s like I’m surrounded by angels.” Sarcasm didn’t do a lot to veil Taylor’s anger.

“He cannot interfere too much,” was Dalton’s irritating reply.

“Why not?” I demanded. “Who is he afraid of?”

He looked at me, his eyes rimmed in blue. “It is not for me to say. Ask him.”

“He’s not exactly forthcoming.”

He shrugged. Not his problem. I gritted my teeth and turned to watch the compound again. I was done trying to get blood from a turnip. Though bashing Dalton with a baseball bat and getting blood the good old-fashioned way certainly had appeal.

Taylor hadn’t given up. She had a captive audience and wasn’t going to quit before she got some satisfaction. “What’s in section nine of the compound?”

That seemed to confuse Dalton. “How should I know?”

“Because Vernon said we should check it out.”

“I wasn’t aware of that.”

I looked at him again. He actually sounded sincere, and he looked more than a little annoyed. He didn’t like Vernon keeping him in the dark, either.

“You know, I’m beginning to think you’re just about useless,” Taylor snapped, stomping away.

I smiled at Dalton’s look of chagrin, which was followed by pure fury. He glared at Taylor like he wanted to strangle her.

“Look, they’re here,” I said as headlights swept up the entrance road and disappeared. There must have been a parking lot on the other side. From our position, I couldn’t see Mel and Arnow get out and go in. I hoped they didn’t run into trouble. They had the proper government clearance, and Mel had gotten someone in the upper echelons to help smooth their way in.

“How long before you think they’ll get down to Price?” Taylor asked.

“As long as it takes, no more, no less,” Dalton said.

Taylor glared. “Wow, maybe next you’ll give us the big news that water is wet and snow is cold and oh, by the way, an avalanche will crush you like a bug.”

“Do you ever shut up?” Dalton asked.

Taylor moved fast. Before I knew what was happening, she’d kicked him twice on the outside of the right thigh with rapid thumps. Despite the fact that Dalton had to be surprised, he responded almost as fast as she struck. He snatched at her. Taylor must’ve expected it. She collapsed into a one-legged squat on her right leg, gathering her left leg under as she twisted and thrust out her right. Instead of smashing him behind the front knee, she only caught his feet as he jumped into the air. It was enough to trip him. He pitched forward. Taylor rolled out from under him, rising into a crouch.

Dalton should have fallen onto all fours, his head and neck exposed. Instead, his fall turned into a tight shoulder roll. He gained his feet, spinning around to face Taylor. I tossed a pinecone between them.

“Ahem,” I said. “Not to be a killjoy, but would you mind waiting to beat each other up until later? Maybe save your aggression for actual enemies?”

Of course, in my book Dalton
was
an enemy, but at the moment, a useful one.

Taylor took a long breath and let it out, then straightened out of her stance.

“Sorry.” She said it to me, not Dalton. “Didn’t mean to lose my temper.”

“No worries,” I said. In fact, it had been amazing to see her move. She’d learned a whole lot since the last time I’d seen her fight, which had been at some sort of class recital thing when she was fifteen. That had been right before Dad left.

I looked at Dalton. “You okay?”

He didn’t take his eyes off Taylor. “I’ll live.”

“Good. I guess.”

“Your concern is touching,” he said, his lip curling in his favorite sneering expression.

“Did I sound concerned? Sorry. Didn’t mean to. Next time, I’m likely to help Taylor out.”

“She’ll need it,” he said, eyes narrowing until he looked half-asleep. “You won’t catch me by surprise again,” he said to her. “There
will
be a next time.”

“Sure,” Taylor said, bending to dust herself off. “Just let me know who to notify as next of kin.”

His sneer disappeared as one corner of his mouth lifted in a reluctant smile. He didn’t reply. He turned his back on Taylor to watch the compound.

I glanced at my watch. The whole episode had taken maybe two minutes.

Waiting became grueling. I almost wished the two of them would get into it again. Instead, Taylor had come to wait beside me. She remained silent and still as a shadow.

Worry clawed at me, but I forced myself to breathe and trust that Mel would be all right, and that this insane plan of ours would work.
We were breaking into the fucking FBI
.
I’ll take $2,000 in the category of
“Things I never thought I’d be caught dead doing,” Alex.
A laugh at my own idiocy bubbled up inside me. I swallowed it. I was getting hysterical. I needed to keep my shit together. Not just for Price—for all of us.

A full ten minutes had gone by before a soft clanging sound came from the pipe. I looked. A piece of steel had elongated into a wand with a thicker ball at the end. It was tapping against the inside.

“I’m up,” I said, unzipping my backpack and lifting out my null.

It was one of the big coffee cans—a little over forty ounces. I’d filled it with lead and melted it down into a solid chunk. I made a habit of picking up the lead balance weights that fell off cars. They made great nulls. Over the years, I’d collected enough of them that I was able to melt it into a solid chunk over a camp stove. The result was heavy, but it held magic well.

Even as I picked it up, I activated it. Power spread out from me in an invisible wave. It rolled out across the grounds, and I felt magic sucking down into it like water down a drain. It kept going past the main building and on outward, rising up the surrounding slopes. I felt it stop as the null reached its maximum circumference. At almost the same moment, it shut down, having sucked up all the magic around.

I dropped the expended null before zipping up my backpack. I slid it over my shoulders. “It’s done. My null drained what spells were active, but there’s likely emergency backups.”

“Maybe you should have brought backups,” Dalton said.

“Maybe I should have,” I said. In fact, I did have one more big null, plus a handful of smaller ones. The big one wasn’t nearly as powerful as the canister of lead, but it would likely shut down anything the feds were able to activate. Or so I hoped.

Only a few seconds passed before the lights surrounding the building went out. Simultaneously, the wires in the fence unraveled, opening a wide hole. We jumped through, me first, then Taylor, then Dalton. We ran across the open space. Dalton and Taylor were faster than I was and pushed ahead. I couldn’t see anything, with the flying snow and darkness. A couple of inches had accumulated, and I wondered if we stuck out like sore thumbs on the white background. Half expecting to get shot, I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at the building unscathed.

Jamie and Leo crouched down beside the gray wall. Both pressed bare, flattened hands against the cinder block. They had faraway looks.

A gunshot ran out from on top of the roof. Dalton, Taylor, and I drew our weapons and pressed up against the wall, searching for the shooter.

“Missed one,” Leo said. “Sorry. Wait . . . Got it.”

He was referring to the gun, not the person. Hopefully he’d morphed the gun into handcuffs and shackled the guy.

Lights flashed on. The brightness hurt.

“Oh no you don’t,” Jamie said.

A second later the darkness returned. White splotches danced across my vision. I squinched my eyes closed and blinked, but they didn’t go away.

“Backup generator is down,” Jamie said. “All the circuits are fused. Melted down all the electronics.”

“Got the guns I could find,” Leo said. “Not a hammer or trigger will move. Still checking . . . Did you get all the cell phones?”

So the guards on the roof were still on the loose. They just didn’t have guns.

“What about Mel?” I asked, though I wasn’t entirely sure they would answer. Both were deep inside the metal runs of the building. Their focus was spread out across innumerable channels and inlets, skipping across desks and under floors, zipping through the electric lines and swirling around in lightbulbs. They were sorting everything, trying to understand what was what, and then pushing out beyond.

“No, no,” Jamie murmured in response to whatever scene inside that he could hear or feel in his mind. “You should stay there. That’s right. Those doors aren’t going to open anymore. Cell phones are useless. I think we’re good to go.”

It took me a second to realize that the last was aimed at me. Or maybe Leo. Leo responded.

“Back out, then. Let’s see what we can do to get inside.”

I tried not to pace and fidget as I waited. A scrape of sound above us caught my attention.

“What’s that?”

Dalton didn’t answer. He looked up, and his eyes flashed to green. Once again, I wondered just what he could see. “Company,” he said, raising his gun again and trotting away, weapon held up at eye level.

“Stay here and keep an eye on the boys,” Taylor said to me, following after him.