Authors: Scott V. Duff
“Sounds so humanitarian put that way,” I said, leaning back in the chair with a grimace. Something about this really bothered me and I didn’t know what. Well, I did: Apaches, Paladins, SMAWs—it’s a long list.
“There
were
a few casualties, though, after you left,” Velasquez said with professional stoicism. “Colonel Almareda and two of his aides were found dead in Almareda’s home early this morning. Suicide pact, apparently, blew their own heads off. If there was any communication between them and outsiders, we don’t know it.”
“Yeah, well,” I muttered uncomfortably, then sighed. “I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what happens then. Can you shed any light on why we suddenly have more money than we should?”
Ric grimaced and covered his face with both hands. “Damn, you’re fast,” he said through his hands. His double-irised eyes peeked over the tips of his fingers. “Yes, Lord, I can explain.” He sounded an awful lot like a teenager explaining a dent in the fender.
“Wait, wait, why do I feel this is backward?” I asked the man more than twice my age. He smiled.
“Wait till you hear the whole story,” Velasquez said. “You’ll think I’m Donnie Grimes telling you this by the time I’m done. As you can see from the report in front of you, the raid on the camp went amazingly well. The Armorer’s stealth teams performed superbly and actually took a little more than maybe they should have in terms of personal affects. They managed to collect just under twenty-two thousand dollars in chips from various casinos in Reno and Vegas. While Ellorn and Alsooth were showing Tom the high points of the new collection, Ted and I picked twenty men and sorted the chips between them and send them out to cash them in. That’s all, just cash the chips in.”
“The
ransé
discovered gambling on the human level,” I muttered, then more cheerfully, “I suppose that’s better than the goon level.” Velasquez barked a laugh.
“We know that kind too well already,” Ric said, still smiling, but it was no longer a friendly one. I could see that smile causing another man to pause the merest second before reacting.
“What did they play?” I asked, but I should have known better.
“They followed our original premise of anonymity and played short-term games with controllable gains like blackjack, keno, roulette, and things like that. Of the twenty, three aren’t allowed to gamble, having had that addiction before.” Their geas prevented their addiction from ever gaining a hold on them again, but I still forbade it. “But they still enjoy casinos so they volunteered as drivers. But seventeen men can only make so much money and still keep a low profile in five casinos with twenty-two grand. So they cashed in their chips and rented a room and set that money aside for the paymaster.
“Then they pulled the other money out, looked at it, and said to themselves,” Velasquez continued while standing up from his desk, square and not as tall as Byrnes, but no less imposing. “They said, this isn’t even enough for breakfast the first day; we gotta do better. By this time, they only had about two to two and a half hours before either or both of us would finish what we were doing and notice they hadn’t reported in yet. So they solicited help.”
Velasquez sat on the corner of his desk, grinning grimly again. He didn’t want to tell me.
“Oh, crap, please tell me they didn’t put hundreds of brownies on slot machines in full view!” I said behind clamped eyelids. That started my imagination rolling, things like one brownie in a fedora and long trenchcoat standing on the shoulders of another, rolling dice at the craps table. Like that wouldn’t catch somebody’s attention!
“Nothing that drastic!” Velasquez agreed, chuckling. “Not quite that drastic anyway. Um. Well, um. They got everyone involved that wasn’t working that fell below a commissioned officer.”
I was silent a moment, not wanting to count or do the subtraction. “That’s over two hundred people, Commander.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Two hundred people cheating at blackjack, keno, craps, roulette, and no telling what else,” I muttered, glancing over at Nil. Poor kid had no idea what was going on. “And no one saw this? Nobody caught on? I find this hard to believe, Commander. Even if it wasn’t the casino officials, someone may have noticed. We can’t have the damage to our reputations. Let’s not let this happen again, okay?”
“Yes, Lord, completely understandable,” Velasquez said with a nod.
“By the way, how much did they finally come away with?” I asked, just out of idle curiosity.
“Well, Lord, that’s sort of a hard question to answer,” Velasquez said with a gleam in his eyes. “Right now, we’re in excess of twelve million.” He paused a few seconds, waiting for my reaction, but I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. “But if we redeem all the chips… the total is more like fifty-four million.”
“What?” I shrieked, standing up suddenly, surprised. “In less than an hour? Were they running between tables? Throwing each other around the casinos? Fifty million? How could someone not notice that?”
“Two hundred men over thirty-six casinos in four cities?” Velasquez asked. “Maybe.” He shrugged, unsure what to do. Unfortunately, I was right there with him.
“Pete and Mike handling this?” I asked, falling back down in my chair.
“They’re in Dublin and New York rearranging finances,” Velasquez said. “Master Borland said to wait before cashing in any more chips until I’ve spoken to either you or him further.”
Drumming my fingers on the armrest, I considered what to do. And just for today, I decided on the lazy route. “Well then, since everything seems to be in control here, I guess I’ll go enjoy the rest of my day off,” I said, standing again. Velasquez looked both pleased and vaguely surprised.
“Very good, Lord Daybreak, enjoy yourself,” he said cheerfully.
~ ~ ~
Ten Guardsmen walked the property, six in a large circle at regular intervals while the other four randomly roved around. It was overkill for the house itself, but the whole three hundred acres would be different. Nil and I appeared on the back patio in the quiet afternoon, lacking even the farming noises of our neighbors now.
Seeking Ryan through his diamond, I found him driving his expensive sports car through the streets of London.
Ryan, are you free?
Daybreak?
Ryan thought but didn’t say this time.
Yes, but I don’t want to distract you while you’re driving…
Not at all, Archdruid. This is easier than a cellphone
. Ryan was certainly in a good mood, it seemed.
And I have news. We close on the house Monday.
Monday! Very good, Ryan. Thank you, that is good news. I have some nervous huri that are just itchin’ to get started on it.
Some nervous what?
Huri
, I sent through the diamond link.
A kind of faery you haven’t seen before, a very special kind. You’ve met their cousins, the ransé, not that you knew that at the time. In any event, do you have plans for the afternoon? I’m going somewhere that might interest you, I think.
Apartment shopping
, Ryan said.
Then hopefully furniture shopping, but in reality, free as a bird. Are you at the house or the hotel?
At the house, but…
I’ll be there in twenty-five minutes.
Based on where he was, I’d guess more like forty.
“Well, Nil, we have a short wait,” I said, sitting down at the wrought iron tables. “Anything you want to do?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said meekly. “Um, would you show me how to make fire?”
Quirking my head to the side, I looked at Nil, confused. “Fire?”
“Yes, sir, Wizard’s Fire,” Nil said a little more firmly. “Zero was quite excited about it. He said that even though you helped him with its creation, the joy and exhilaration of the act was almost as good as communion. Will you teach me, Lord?”
Chuckling, I stood up again and said, “Of course, I will, Nil. Let’s move away from all the buildings, just in case.”
We jogged quickly through the house and up the driveway toward the road. Nil’s excitement increased with nearly every step we took. I was heading for an empty field across the road, part of the land purchase. The hills would hide us from prying eyes and there wasn’t anything short of grass to destroy. With Nil being as strong as Zero, I was expecting another basketball-sized fireball. I started explaining the basics of the process before we crossed the road, drawing the magic from the land around us and showing him plenty of examples.
“You might have an easier time than Zero because of this,” I said, pooling the angry elemental energy above my hand. “All magic is about controlling different kinds of energy, forcing your will and intent on the world and making it real. Magefire is one of the easier acts because it’s reactive and emotional. Usually the first time, your master is whackin’ ya on the side of the head with a stick.”
“Re-al-ly, Lord?” Nil asked slowly, wide-eyed in astonishment.
Chuckling, I hugged the
huri
to me roughly. “No, Nil, I’m kidding,” I said. “Though, truth be told, I wouldn’t put it past some of them.” I raised the energy blob up a yard, compressing it, then lit it afire, producing a bright blue, baseball-sized magefire ball. I tossed it into the opposite hill, causing a large explosion with plenty of noise. Nil loved it. Something about testosterone and explosions just go hand-in-hand.
Four Guardsmen burst over the top of the hill at top speed from the house. As a unit, the four of them leapt, flying high through the air and landing in a diamond pattern around us, searching intently for the danger.
“Impressive, gentlemen, thank you,” I said, still startled by their appearance. “But that was me.” The four of them relaxed instantly then started apologizing for interrupting. “Stop apologizing for doing your jobs, guys. You didn’t do anything wrong. Is anyone else over there worried and waiting?”
“Not anymore, sir,” Cpl. Sands said, grinning sheepishly. “May we watch, Lord?”
This was Nil’s lesson.
Do you have any objections if I include them, Nil? I’ll understand if you want to keep this personal.
“I have no objections, Lord,” Nil said, facing the hill that I’d just blown a large hole in. He’d managed to pull a good portion of the energy together, but it wasn’t enough to do much. His control was fine, better than Zero’s. The same problem existed here as in Arizona last night. There just wasn’t much ambient magic around here. I dropped a lodestone into my hand.
“Nil, hold up a second,” I said quietly, approaching him and holding out the lodestone. “Can you feel the well within this stone?” He touched the orange lightly with his fingertips, sinking his senses in.
He was hesitant to answer. “I sense something, Lord, but I don’t know what,” he said, nervously.
“You’re being too gentle, Nil,” I chided good-naturedly. “Prod at it. Pull at it like taffy. You won’t hurt it.” Glancing up at me, he bit his lower lip in concentration and actually managed to pull a thin blue thread from the stone. He was so startled by it that he lost his concentration. “Very good, Nil! That’s a start.”
“Do it again, Nil!” urged Cpl. Sands from a few feet behind us. “That was cool.” The other three were clustered around him, equally excited, and connected with Sands directly as team leader, choosing him because he had the best image of what Nil was doing. Then they’d linked their vision into his to watch. And they did it seamlessly as a function of the Guard. Fascinating to watch, truly.
“Go ahead, Nil. Try again,” I said, smiling sedately. “Show me you can use the lodestone adequately and I’ll give it to you.”
“Really?” he asked, then without waiting reached into the lodestone again. He pulled a solid draught of light blue out of the stone and held it aloft in the ether for all to see. His control was excellent for someone so new.
“Wicked!” Anderson blurted out, excitedly. The men congratulated Nil boisterously, crowding in closer and clapping him on the back. I smiled at him while he held the energy, calculating what he’d need for a good first fire.
“All right, guys, settle down. We’re here to learn something,” I chided mildly, stepping down the hill a little to stand sort of below the rope Nil held. “Nil, see if you can pull about thirty-five percent off and separate it, please.” He pulled a bit too much, but that was okay, I was estimating in his favor anyway. “Now push that back into the well.”
“Lord?” Nil asked surprised. He struggled briefly for control of the two bundles of energy.
“The lodestone works like a battery that you can add or subtract from,” I said. “Just like a ley line, except there you generally just pull what you need to build your reserves.”
“Will I need to build reserves since you’re giving me this, Lord?” Nil asked, trying to redirect the energy into the battery.
“Yeah, ‘fraid so,” I said, watching the energy diffuse over the surface of the stone. “Push a little harder, Nil. Maybe we are heavy-handed. Anyway, your reserves are what you work with to make bindings, spells, and invocations. We’re going to do this differently than Zero. Here, Nil, let me take care of this. It’s getting in the way of what’s important.” Dropping the orange stone into my pocket, I took the excess packet into my cavern and stuffed it into a corner. “All right, Nil, now divide it in half again and give half to the Guards.”