Wearing The Cape: Villains Inc. (15 page)

“We know who at least one of them is,” Blackstone agreed. “And the police can make a homicide case against her. Which brings us to Detective Fisher. Detective?”

Fisher leaned forward to look around the table.

“You’re all aware of the bank job last week. A
shapeshifter
. We’ve got leads there, nothing solid, but two days later the bank employee the shifter used to do the job ended up dead. The forensic evidence suggested a superhuman killer.”

Artemis choked and Fisher smiled. Saying the evidence
suggested
a superhuman was like saying a surfer missing a leg suggested a shark.

“The damage signature didn’t match any known superhuman,” he went on, smiling at me. “So while the department followed other leads, Astra brought in a pair of consultants.” Everyone looked at Orb and Mr. Jones. “Orb’s sphere is more sensitive than even Astra’s enhanced senses, and Mr. Jones—”

“Dr. Cornelius, please,” Jones said with a smile for me.

“Dr. Cornelius is an expert on thought-forms, projections, and other manifestations of supernatural breakthroughs. As many of you have heard, the doctor’s examination of the crime scene yielded interesting results.” This time Artemis just coughed theatrically.

“It’s my fault that things got so interesting,” Dr. Cornelius said, his resonant voice too deep for his narrow frame. “Either the person who first invoked the
qlippoth
intentionally left a trigger allowing its return, or it was simply powerful enough to re-open the path that had already been laid once I got its attention. Fortunately I was able to recognize the
summoner’s
psychic signature in the echo of her summoning.”

“
Kli-poth
?” Rush asked.

“A demon.” Dr. Cornelius shrugged blandly. “One of the
Gamchicoth
, the Devourers.”

“And you killed it?” Seven asked.

“
Qlippoth
are the very opposite of alive. I burned its pathway here—shut the door on it. And in the process saw who invoked its presence.”

“Which brings us to the warrant,” Fisher said, echoing Blackstone. He pulled the folded sheets out of his suit pocket. “Spectral evidence is admissible in court only if it’s caught on film. Same for psychic visions, second sight, divination,
scrying
, sortilege, and any other kind of ‘higher knowledge.’ However, they all work just fine as grounds for probable cause, if provided by a reliable source. The DA assures me that Dr. Cornelius, never having issued a false or disproven claim of knowledge, passes the warrant court’s test.

“So we have a no-knock arrest warrant to serve, people. For the arrest of Dr. Charlotte
Millebrand
, whom Dr. Cornelius recognized from her grad-student days, and search warrants for her premises, properties, and place of business. We also have detectives ready to serve warrant for her financial, phone, and internet records. We need to nail her down for the murder of Mr. Moffat and tie her directly to the Outfit.”

He returned the warrants to his pocket and sat back. Blackstone nodded to Lei
Zi
.

“Can we expect a repeat performance of your fight tonight?” she asked Dr. Cornelius. He shook his head.

“I doubt it.
Qlippoth
are not entities you want to invoke anywhere near you except under extremely controlled conditions—they’re the occult equivalent of a few tons of high-grade explosives. Want to kill everyone in the target area? Fine. Kill everyone but
you
in the target area? Not fine.”

“So what
can
we expect?”

Another shrug.

“Maybe nothing.
Supernaturals
that can do what she did aren’t usually fireball-throwing Dungeons-and-Dragons wizards, or super-powered stage magicians like Blackstone. They’re old-school: a magic circle, lots of paraphernalia, rituals, more like setting up a computer program than pulling a trigger. She may have a few prepared charms and talismans, but if she’s waiting for us she’s more likely to have bodyguards or associates.”

“And her associates could be the rest of Villains Inc.,” Rush said sourly.

“Indeed,” Blackstone agreed. “This is not, however, the comic-books. I doubt that they have conveniently gathered in their secret headquarters to await our arrival. If they have, it is unlikely their headquarters is in a nice residential neighborhood.”

“In any case,” Lei
Zi
said, “our task tonight is to serve the warrant at her residence. CPD street cameras have confirmed that she arrived home tonight, and don’t show any camera hits on her vehicle since seven o’clock. Patrol cars have been moved into the neighborhood, though not onto her street. Since they haven’t reported any unusual activity to Dispatch, I doubt she is forting up—she may not be aware of what happened last night.

“However,” she looked around the table, “since we are going up against a supernatural breakthrough of unknown capabilities, we are going in hot.
 
Riptide, The Harlequin, and Galatea are acting as field reserve, Rush, Astra, Seven, Artemis and I are taking point. Doctor Cornelius, will you accompany us?”

He nodded.

“Good.” Lei
Zi
brought up a projection of the house we were hitting, a mini-mansion in Norridge, and went over our approach. “We move out in ten minutes,” she finished. “As a last order of business, since we are engaging an unknown who seems to be dealing with the dark arts, I have taken the liberty of calling on Father Nolan. He intends to conduct a brief service in the chapel, and I recommend attendance by anyone who believes a higher power may be of help tonight.”

I lit three candles, for Atlas, Nimbus, and Ajax, and prayed for the peace of their souls. Mary of the Pagans stood watch over the memorial crypt in the east wall of the chapel, infant Jesus in one hand and love-struck parrot in the other. Responding to her rapt smile, I added a prayer of thanks for whatever had happened to us, and almost imagined a wink, the gentle closing of a white-jade eye, a deepening dimple.
Think nothing of it
, she seemed to say.

“
Shaliah
,” Dr. Cornelius said behind me, making me jump. He nodded to the Lady in her shrine.

“The
aethyr
of
Phthenoth
, the
decan
of cleansing, healing, and restoration of body and spirit. The personification of the second Word I spoke, tonight.” He smiled thinly. “If your theology is sufficiently liberal, you could call her one of the aspects of the Mother of God.”

He lit a fourth candle. “Gone now, along with the first. Ten years carrying the Words around, and now only one is left. At least now I’m pretty sure the last one won’t kill me.”

“You didn’t know what would happen?”

“No. I’m an
Agrippan
magus; preparation is everything and I wasn’t prepared for
that
. When you’re about to die, you take chances.”

“I felt…”

“I know.”

“He wouldn’t have given them to you for no reason,” I blurted. He gave me a patronizing smile, like I’d just declared my belief in Santa Clause.

“Children.”

I turned again and found that Father Nolan had joined us. The little round priest smiled benignly. Barely taller than I, the pastor of St. Christopher (and Team Chaplain, and hadn’t
that
come as a shock?) stood surrounded by the rest of the team. In the face of Father Nolan’s gentle smile, Dr. Cornelius slowly lost his.

“
Brrr
,” Shelly said, popping in beside me. His being able to see her still freaked her out, but she obviously felt safe with Father Nolan present. I didn’t dare laugh—nobody would understand.

The whole team doesn’t usually muster before going into action—normally any trouble involving everybody together starts with Dispatch calling us in from all over (Lei
Zi
calls them “meeting engagements” and purely hates them). Donning his stole, Father Nolan led us in a brief service, what he half-jokingly called a “hymn before action.” He kept it non-denominational, except for the ending when he led us in the Hero’s Prayer.

“St. Michael, defender of man, stand with us in the day of battle.

St. Jude, giver of hope, be with us in our desperate hour.

St. Christopher, bearer of burdens, lift us when we fall!”

I crossed myself, remembering iron claws and veils of rotting skin, and added a quick prayer of my own.

Supernatural (
plural:
supernaturals
): literally, a phenomena
departing from what is usual or normal, especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature. Modern connotation: a breakthrough patterned after elements of myth, folklore, and fantasy rather than fitting the superhero mold. Documented
supernaturals
include vampires, witches, fairies, ghosts, angels, devils, etc. It is often difficult to determine which
supernaturals
are breakthroughs and which are the projections of unknown breakthroughs.

Barlow’s Guide to
Superhumans

Dr. Charlotte
Millebrand
, antiquarian, folklorist, and wicked witch, lived in a stone tower. Surrounded by nice but single-story subdivision homes, her house was all stone-faced angles and sharp peaks, with the front door set into a tower-like entryway. I imagined Disney on a tight budget; with no outside lights on, it looked spooky enough—kids probably dared each other to ring the doorbell on Halloween—but it wasn’t exactly a master-villain’s volcano lair.

Judges understand that approaching a hostile superhuman with unknown abilities can get interesting, and we’d been issued a no-knock warrant for Dr.
Millebrand
; if I’d wanted to, I could have gone in through the roof. Instead, Lei
Zi
decided on subtlety.

Landing, I took the point position. Lei
Zi
floated down as Artemis condensed out of mist, and the others arrived in the floater Vulcan hadn’t quite finished in time for the
godzilla
attack.
Quin
, Riptide, and Galatea remained with the floater.
 
I waited until Rush, Lei
Zi
, Seven, Artemis, and Dr. Cornelius were properly stacked up behind me (Artemis minding the doctor), then put my hand on the doorknob and pushed, popping the lock. The door open, Rush disappeared inside while we waited.

“No heat-signatures,” I whispered, and then Rush was back with us.

“Nobody home, either,” he reported. “At least not anywhere I could get into.”

“
I’m not sensing anything on the psychic plane,
” Chakra reported through Dispatch.

“Teleportation?” Lei
Zi
asked Dr. Cornelius. “Has she bugged out?” She hadn’t
walked
away; Vulcan had a drone circling and would have alerted us if someone headed out the back way. The magus shrugged and Lei
Zi
nodded. “In.”

We advanced, me in the lead, across a marble floor. No alarms, though I saw a system blinking green beside the door, and the house was dark. Shelly popped into virtual existence beside me.

“I hacked her bank accounts,” she whispered needlessly. “She employs a daytime cleaning service and meal caterer. The place needs an Igor.” I snickered before I could stop myself. Heavy drapes, lots of dark oak furniture, Shelly was right: the place screamed the need for a sinister minion. Down the entry hall and on the right past the circling staircase, an open door led into what had to be her study.