But they sounded good and convincing and I hoped they at least put Maleagant’s men on their heels a bit.

  As for Maleagant, he merely laughed. “I’m afraid it’s not going to go down quite in that manner.” He pointed at Charade’s head. “Either you give me the jacket right this very moment or I will shatter her head once and for all. And trust me, there’s no magic strong enough to undo the damage I will wrought on her.”

  “I believe you,” I said. “But she goes free before I hand over the jacket.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  I looked him in his eyes. “The go right ahead and kill her. But know this: as soon as you do, I will kill your men and then make it my life’s mission to make you suffer for as long as the universe allows before I kill you. Your magic is ineffective on me while I wear this jacket. That makes you rather vulnerable.”

  Maleagant stared at me for a moment and then he broke into a grin. “You are quite something, I will give you that.”

  “I’m touched.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t expect you to be. But it was an honest compliment, whether you believe it or not.”

  “All right.”

  “We could do amazing things together, you and I,” he said.

  “I don’t want to do anything with you. I want you to release Charade and then I will hand over the jacket.”

  “She won’t get far enough away from me,” said Maleagant. “She’s beyond exhausted. Her magic can do nothing for her now.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “I don’t want to see her under your foot any longer. Now release her if you want the jacket.”

  “Fine,” said Maleagant. He took his foot from the side of Charade’s head and then nodded at his henchmen. “Help her up.”

  They did so and as she got to her feet, her eyelids fluttered a bit before opening all of the way. Recognition flashed in them when she saw me. I tried to give her a little smile to keep her spirits up.

  But in truth, I didn’t even know what I was doing. Playing for more time? Maybe. Playing for anything was more like it.

  Maleagant’s henchmen helped Charade over to a rock about twenty feet from me. She lay there, breathing as if she had just awoken from a long nap.

  Maleagant pointed at her. “There, you see? She’s awake now. Perfectly fine. Safe? Maybe not so much, but that is no longer your concern.”

  “Her safety is always my concern,” I said.

  Maleagant frowned. “Whatever. We have a bargain. I did my part, now it is your turn to fulfill your part. Give me the jacket.”

  “All right,” I said. I moved closer, unzipping the jacket as I did so. The breeze off the bay blew in across the fields, stronger now and colder, too.

  I slid my right arm out of the jacket, glancing across the way at Charade. She was stirring, but still sitting on the rock.

  “Hurry up already,” said Maleagant.

  I took my left arm out of the jacket now.

  And as I did so, I saw Maleagant’s face twist into the most vicious and evil smile I’d ever seen.

  I knew then-

  And before he could finish casting the spell, I was already moving, throwing the jacket through the air.

  Directly at Charade.

  As I plunged right at Maleagant.

  23

  The jacket landed over Charade just as Maleagant’s death bolt - or whatever he called it - hit her. I didn’t have time to see if she was okay or not, because in the next instant, I barreled into Maleagant and we tumbled to the ground, falling and rolling amid the rock-strewn tall grasses.

  Maleagant grunted as we hit the deck, but I’d done it so many times in the past that my body was exceptionally well-conditioned to the action and I relaxed and exhaled as we hit, absorbing the impact without any harm.

  I took advantage of the shock of hitting the ground by immediately attacking Maleagant with my elbows and knees, jamming them into his body anywhere I could.

  For a sorcerer, though, he had a wiry type of strength that nearly caught me by surprise. Instead of succumbing to my attacks, Maleagant grunted once or twice and then counterattacked, driving his knee up into my lower belly. It was only my experience that clued me into the fact that he was trying to nail my crotch and I adjusted just enough to ward it off.

  I jabbed my elbow down onto the top of his knee and knew I’d scored a good hit when his leg flailed away.

  Maleagant tried to maneuver away from me and I could tell he was trying his best to cast a spell. Instead of letting him get any sort of space, I pressed the attack, moving up his body with more knee and elbow strikes.

  I caught him off the tip of his chin and rocked his head back as he was muttering something. I saw a little bolt of energy grow and then melt away. I’d probably only been seconds away from being on the receiving end of that little fun ball.

  Redoubling my efforts, I drove my knee into his sternum and thought I heard something crack.

  Then I realized that it was a gunshot.

  I ducked as the ground near my head splintered and bits of dirt and rock showered me.

  “Stop shooting you fools!”

  Maleagant’s voice surprised me with its strength. I glanced around and saw that one of his henchmen had a gun leveled on us. But he couldn’t take the shot without risking hitting his boss.

  I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off Maleagant because he shot a punch into my temple that very nearly made me black out. My head swam through molasses and all I could do was clinch and hold onto him, never allowing him to get any sort of precious space to maneuver.

  “You’re going to die, Fury,” he said through gritted teeth.

  In response, I headbutted him underneath his jaw, ramming my forehead up as I did. His head snapped back and I saw a spittle of blood stain his mouth.

  Maleagant spat and bits of tooth flew from his mouth.

  Good, maybe that would slow down his incantations.

  My head started to clear a bit when Maleagant hit me again in the same spot. Blackness rushed at me and I felt all the strength ebb from my limbs. I couldn’t hold on. I couldn’t even breathe. I felt like I was being sucked into a black hole and couldn’t do anything about it at all.

  Somewhere far off, I heard Maleagant laughing and then felt him pulling himself out from underneath me. As soon as he did so, he’d be able to cast a spell that would no doubt kill me.

  And then he’d kill Charade.

  The blackness felt cold. It swallowed me whole. An iciness gripped my soul. Soon enough I would feel death’s embrace.

  And this would all be over.

  Get up, Fury. You’re not done yet. You don’t quit. You don’t ever quit.

  I didn’t know where the words came from. But they echoed across the expanse of my mind and like someone flipped a light switch, something incredible happened.

  Heat poured out of my lower belly, an explosion of fury like I’d never felt before. I wasn’t in control of my body any longer. Some other force inside of me took over and in a nanosecond, my entire being shifted from falling apart to one cohesive unit with one single goal: killing Maleagant and his men.

  A primal roar erupted from my throat and my eyes opened as Maleagant finally got out from underneath me.

  Too late he saw the change in me and tried to rapidly fire a spell at me. I dodged the energy bolt as it struck the ground next to me.

  I was beyond caring now. My vision went red with a laser-like focus. I saw Maleagant before me and the other threats from his men on the periphery of my vision.

  As I rushed toward him, I scooped up the knife I’d taken from one of the guys I’d killed and whipped my hand to the left, knowing without looking that it had sunk into the throat of one of his henchmen standing there, dropping him dead.

  And then I was tackling Maleagant again, driving him down to the ground. But this time, I didn’t waste my energy trying to strike him with my elbows or knees.

  Instead of doing that, I went immediately around his body, wrapping my right arm around his neck and driving my knee into the small of his back. I wrenched my arms one way as I drove my knee directly into his spinal cord.

  The opposing force of my attack snapped his neck and spine at the exact same moment.

  I felt his body go limp.

  He fell away from me as the ground erupted in gunfire. His henchmen must have known he was dead and no longer cared if they hit him or not.

  I dove and rolled, trying to close the distance between us. I felt a searing sensation across my left bicep and knew that I’d been grazed by a bullet.

  But then I was coming up within the kill zone of the closest henchmen. He tried to level his gun on me, but I came up from underneath, used my hands to pop the gun from his grasp, and then sank, pivoted and shot him point blank in the chest.

  As he fell, I turned and shot the other two henchmen without pausing. I thanked all my instructors who had taught me how to fire as well as I do.

  And then a sudden silence fell over the entire scene.

  I was breathing fast, sucking in oxygen as fast as my lungs could process it. I was covered in sweat - soaked through with the stuff. But my training didn’t let up, and I panned across the scene looking for potential threats.

  The bodies of Maleagant’s henchmen laid scattered across the field. Maleagant himself laid still and unmoving where I’d left his body. I stood and walked over to it, keeping the gun fixed on his chest.

  There seemed to be no sign of life in him. And overhead, the clouds finally dissipated with the remnants of the storm he’d created.

  Still…

  I placed the barrel of the gun on his heart and squeezed the trigger twice. I’d seen enough bad movies to know that if you thought the bad guy was dead, you didn’t just assume he was. I wasn’t going to have this guy suddenly come back to life and cause more problems.

  Better safe than sorry.

  The gunshots sounded incredibly loud in the clear night air, and I had no doubt that someone in town would have heard them and called the cops by now.

  That meant that Charade and I had to get the hell out of here.

  I walked over to the rock and froze.

  Charade was gone.

  And so was the jacket.

  24

  I got out of Castine ahead of the flashing blue light armada and made it back to Boston in time for the early morning rush hour. I grabbed a coffee at Dunkin Donuts and then threaded my way through the city crush of cars and parked at the garage near Government Center. It was familiar enough territory for me, having parked in the special government garages for years - those sectioned off areas behind heavy steel cage wiring for extra protection.

  I wasn’t back in Boston to visit the CIA, though. As far as I knew, I was still persona non grata there, anyway.

  Bright sunshine filled the skies as I made my way from Government Center down toward Downtown Crossing. As the streets thronged with the drones of the financial services industry, I slid through them without being noticed.

  I double-backed on myself any number of times. Not because I thought I had surveillance on me, but because it was simply good tradecraft. You never knew what might pop out of the woodwork at just the wrong time. And I’ve survived as long as I have by maintaining good discipline - especially in that area.

  By the time I got down into Chinatown, I knew I didn’t have any ticks. And when I walked into the doorway on Oxford Street, I was already priming myself for another big showdown.

  Unlike the other night, the Golden Lotus was eerily quiet when I entered. Even the doormen seemed subdued and let me pass without even so much as an evil look.

  Hsu-Chi lounged on one of the deep velvet couches in the main club area.

  No one else was there.

  She looked up as I approached and smiled at me. “It is good to see you again.”

  I frowned. “What happened to business? The other night you guys were clogged to the gills. Now, not a soul.”

  She shrugged. “Sometimes, one requires a bit of downtime to recharge the spirit.” She smiled. “I didn’t feel like opening this morning, so I kicked everyone out and the place is mine to enjoy for awhile.”

  She gestured for me to sit, so I did.

  “Are you expecting trouble?” I asked.

  She leaned forward. “I don’t know, Mr. Fury. Are you trouble?”

  “Not unless I have to be,” I said. “Where is she?”

  Hsu-Chi leaned back and turned her head to the ceiling. “Why do you want to know?”

  “She has something that belongs to me. I want it back.”

  Hsu-Chi leveled her gaze on me. “Is that the only reason you want to know?”

  “Maybe.”

  “And are you so sure that this item truly belongs to you?”

  I took a breath and exhaled it smoothly. “Considering that I nearly died several times over trying to obtain it, yes. I think I have the right to say that it belongs to me.”

  “Even though you were hired to obtain it for another?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to sit here and argue semantics or any other sort of bullshit. Charade took the jacket from me and I want it back. Now where is she?”

  Hsu-Chi cocked her head. “And what if I refuse to tell you?”

  It was my turn to lean forward. “You don’t want to know what I’m capable of doing, Hsu-Chi.”

  She laughed. “My darling Rick, it is you who don’t know what you are capable of doing.”

  “I’ve learned a great deal about my abilities over the last several days.”

  Hsu-Chi frowned. “You’ve learned next to nothing.”

  I felt the heat starting to rise in my belly and my face flushed with anger.

  But Hsu-Chi merely waved her hand. “Oh, please don’t insult me with your berserker rage. It’s like using a nuclear bomb to remove a splinter. And I assure you it is quite unnecessary in our current situation.”

  I eased my breathing and felt the heat dissipate slightly. But I wasn’t ready to shelve it just yet. Hsu-Chi could be leading me on somehow and I wanted it ready in case I needed to suddenly fight.

  “You won’t need it,” she said then.

  I stared at her. “Get out of my head.”

  “Darling, I am not in your head. But men like you, accustomed to violence as you are, operate the same ways whether you know it or not. You appear to be calm. You seem to be relaxed. But you are always just a thin hair away from spectacular violence. It is why you are called to be a warrior when so many others are not. Your capacity for violence is profound and yet you are not a violent monster. You are measured, calculating, and rational. But when you must be violent, there is an elegant grace to how you slip the mask and enter the world where you bring about justice to those who require it.”

  I stared at her. “Well, thanks for not thinking I’m some sort of monster.”

  “Only a fool would think that,” said Hsu-Chi. “Fools with no understanding of what it means to stand up for themselves or others. It is always easier to judge than to try and understand. It’s what makes hypocrisy so addictive and it’s why the most vocally religious are usually the worst sinners.”

  “I hate hypocrites,” I said.

  “Of course you do,” said Hsu-Chi. “They are the exact antithesis of what you embody. You have your faults, your vices, and your weaknesses, but at least you honestly accept them and try to work on them. A hypocrite spends all their time judging others and trying to perfect the appearance they vainly sell to the world in the hopes that people think they have their lives together. The simple truth is that they have failed at everything and there is little hope for them unless they can come to grips with the fact that they might be, well... assholes.”

  I laughed then. Something about hearing such a prim Asian woman say ‘asshole,’ made me chuckle. “None of this resolves my current situation.”

  “True, but it does confirm that neither one of us wants this to devolve into violence when we can clear things up another way.”

  “What way?”

  Hsu-Chi clapped her hands and from the back of the club, a door opened.

  And Charade walked out with a box in her hands. She approached the couch without looking at me and sat down.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

  “Why did you steal it?” I asked.

  She looked up at me. “I didn’t steal it.”

  Hsu-Chi smiled at me. “She did what I ordered her to do: safeguard the jacket at all costs.”

  Charade leaned toward me. “You were fighting Maleagant and his men. I didn’t know if you would succeed or not, whether you would live or die. I was too weak to help you fight them, so I did the only thing I could do: take the jacket and escape.”

  I frowned. “You’ve been playing me the whole time?”

  Hsu-Chi sighed. “No one has been playing you, Rick. Charade did what she was supposed to do: help you obtain the jacket. But when faced with staying where she was and potentially allowing Maleagant to take possession of the jacket, she chose to run with it instead. And we should all be glad she did that.”

  “Maleagant is dead,” I said. “I saw to it.”

  Hsu-Chi pursed her lips. “Maleagant’s body is dead.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “I don’t know,” said Hsu-Chi. “But in the world of magic, only an idiot thinks that death is permanent. And Maleagant has been around long enough to know a million ways to avoid dying even if it looked like that is exactly what he did.”

  “Spectacular.” Part of me wanted to go back to my old world where people died for good when you put chunks of lead into their bodies.

  Charade grasped the box. “I hope you understand, Rick.”

  I wanted to be mad at her. But I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. I knew there was a world - a universe - out there full of wonder and magic and danger and romance and everything in between. I had a choice: remain behind in a world of regret, or let it go and take the chance to really make an impact on the universe.

  I knew which way I was going.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17