Doorways to Infinity (11 page)

“Who would do that?”

“We’re not sure. He has worked for lots of people. Whoever can afford him. We believe that his fee has gone up considerably since he changed his methods.”

Nova twisted the end of one dreadlock between her thumb and finger and said, “How many people has he targeted so far with the witch’s potion?”

“Twenty or more. We’re looking over some other cases to see if there’s a connection.”

“So, your job is to stop this guy?”

“Right,” Terry said. “Apprehend him if we can. Kill him if we can’t.”

“Kill?” Rachel said. “Is that really necessary?”

“Those are our orders. But our other field agents have had no luck at all. They can’t even get close to him, and a few have been killed. When the agency found out about the possible link to witchcraft, they turned the assignment over to us.”

“But we need to determine if he’s really using magic, first,” Eric said, “and we need another witch to help us figure that out.”

“Witches don’t exactly advertise their services,” Terry said. “At least the real ones don’t, if there even is such a thing.”

Eric slumped back in his chair and let his arms hang loosely by his sides. “I don’t know why we’re telling you all of this.” He glanced at Terry again and frowned.

“Don’t look at me!” she said. “I’m talking as much as you are.”

“We could get fired, Terry.”

“Nobody will know that you told us anything,” Jamie said reassuringly. “We give you our word on that.”

“It’s just….” Eric scrubbed the side of his face with one hand, and he suddenly seemed much older, and tired. “It’s just that we’re running out of leads on where to find a real witch. After that week in Salem, I was ready to give up. But then we got a tip about the two witches from Thibodaux, and that looked really promising.” He rolled his head back and stared at the ceiling. “We just can’t find them. Their house looks like it’s abandoned and none of their friends know where they went. That’s why we decided to contact you.” He looked across the table at Fred, who tucked her lips into her mouth but said nothing.

“Didn’t you spend over a week with them?” Terry asked.

“Yes,” Fred said quietly and turned her gaze to her lap.

“Do you know where they are?”

Fred closed her eyes and nodded.

“Can you help us?”

Fred turned to Jamie and said, “What do you think we should do?”

Jamie looked at her for a long time, then he asked Carl, “What do you think?”

“I think we should help them. Phillip Cage sounds like a serious threat.”

“They’ll have do the oath.”

“What oath?” Eric said.

“It’s an oath that keeps you from telling anyone what we’re going to tell you, especially anyone at the CIA or NSA or whatever.”

“I don’t know if we can honor that promise.”

“It’s much more than a promise, it’s a binding vow. But if you don’t do it, we won’t help you.”

“Can you really help us?” Terry said.

“Yes. More than anyone else can, I believe.”

“Jamie, this probably isn’t a coincidence, is it?” Nova said. “These two guys coming here?”

“I doubt it.”

Eric and Terry stared at each other for several seconds before Terry finally shrugged. “I don’t know about you, Eric, but I’d like to get to the bottom of this. I don’t see any other way to move this case forward. We’ve struck out on all of our other leads, and Cage is probably working on another hit right now.”

Eric turned to Jamie and said, “All right. We’ll do it.”

The two agents swore the magic oath, and then gaped at their hands until the glow wore off. But the shock didn’t seem to last long, even when Jamie showed them some simple magic, like levitating furniture and making himself invisible.

“Now
that’s
a great talent to have,” Eric said with a tight smile. “Invisibility. Wouldn’t mind being able to do that.”

Carl crossed his arms and angled his head to one side as he looked at Eric. “You don’t seem to be as flabbergasted as most people after they see that. Jamie just flew a chair around the room and you hardly seem surprised at all.”

Eric scratched his chin and nodded. “I have to admit, it’s more amazing than anything I’ve ever seen, but you don’t know how hard Terry and I have been looking for something like this. I’m glad to finally know that magic is real.”

“Me too,” Terry said. “I feel…I dunno…validated, I guess is the word. Like my career isn’t a joke after all.”

“But you can’t tell anybody about it,” Jamie said, “especially your fellow agents.”

“Still, it’s good to know that magic is real,” Terry said. “For my sense of self-worth.”

“I feel the same way,” Eric said.

Sammi, who had been sitting quietly on the couch up until then, pointed at Eric. “He’s the man who said
Follow red target
.”

“Are you sure?” Jamie said.

“Unh hunh. It’s him.”

“He must’ve been referring to Fred,” Carl said, “because of her hair.”

“What?” Eric stared at Sammi in disbelief. “I did say that. How did you know? I was inside the van.”

“She’s a Shadow Witch.” Jamie quickly explained about her power, and then Nova’s and Fred’s.

“What terrific talents.” Eric turned to face Nova. “Especially you, being able to tell when someone is lying. That would really help interrogations. You girls should work for the CIA when you graduate.”

“I don’t think so,” Fred said.

“Don’t you want to help your country?”

“We do our share.”

Then they told them about the other crises they’d dealt with, and after they finished, Terry gave a low whistle and said, “A real demon. I’m glad we didn’t have to deal with that. Sounds awful.”

“I don’t think you could’ve have handled it,” Jamie said. “Nobody could, without magic and a lot of luck.”

“What if you used heavy weapons on it, like missiles?”

“It probably would’ve just made him mad. I don’t even know if a direct strike from a nuclear weapon could kill it.”

“Hmm,” Eric raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. “So your neighbor, the guy the demon chased, he has magical powers, too?”

“Rollie’s supernaturally fast. We’d show you if we could, but he’s off playing basketball with some friends right now.”

Eric began counting on his fingers. “So that makes three witches and two wizards?”

“Three wizards, if you count Aiven,” Jamie said. “But like Sammi, he’s too young to do much magic right now.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s on Eddan’s world, which is where he lives. Mr. Winston lives there, too, but his magic is too weak to matter.”

“What is Eddan’s world?” Terry said.

“It’s another planet. It’s where Eddan the Sorcerer came from, and that’s how I know about it. We go there a lot.”

“Show ’em, Jamie!” Sammi said.

Jamie went to the middle of the room, traced the glowing outlines of a doorway, and pushed it open, revealing the front of the Rivershire School.

Eric and Terry stared at it, dumbfounded. Then Eric pointed one finger at it and said in a small voice, “That’s…is that really another world?”

“Yep. Wanna have a look?”

Eric held both hands in front of him, palms out, as if he were trying to push it away. “Uh…the flying chair was impressive, but…no.”

Rachel laughed and said, “Go ahead. It won’t hurt, and it’s a really wonderful place.”

Terry looked at Sammi and said, “You’ve been there?”

“Unh hunh. Lots of times. My best friend lives there.”

“Then I want to see it. Come on, Eric. Just a quick peek.”

The two agents went to the edge of the portal and peered through it briefly, then they stepped back and Eric said, “Maybe we can go some other day when we have more time.” He shook his head as if he were trying to rattle something out of it. “Wow.”

“So,” Fred said, “do you think we can help you?”

“Oh my God, yes!” Terry said. “I’m
so
glad. But what about Rita and Cassandra? Whatever happened to them?”

“Jamie banished them to another world. Not the one you just saw, though.”

“Fred wanted me to shoot them,” Carl said. “But we settled on banishment instead.”

Terry knitted her brow. “Why didn’t you arrest them and try them for kidnapping? You’re sworn to uphold the law, aren’t you?”

“No jail could hold them,” Fred answered. “They’d use their magic to escape.”

“Phillip Cage may pose a similar problem,” Jamie said, “if he has access to witch’s magic.”

“That’s probably why he’s been so hard to catch,” Terry said. “I feel like our chances are better now since we met you guys.”

Fred looked at the young woman for a long moment and said, “Terry, I’m sorry I was so rude to you when we first met. I thought you were trying to hit on Jamie.”

Terry laughed lightly and flipped one hand. “No problem. I’ve been treated much worse in the line of duty. You didn’t try to kill me, at least.” Terry’s face became thoughtful and she said, “I don’t see why you’d ever worry about it. You’re so pretty. All of you are. Nova, and your friend Melanie.” She turned to Sammi and smiled. “And you’re just absolutely adorable. I have a little girl, but she’s younger than you. She’s only four.”

“Who looks after her when you’re on an assignment?” Rachel asked.

“My mom.” She smiled at Sammi again and said, “Are you going to help us catch this bad guy?”

“Unh hunh.” Sammi bobbed her head earnestly. “I have to. That’s what Momma Sue and Mrs. Malley said. Witches have to help people.”

“I have a question,” Jamie said. “Where is this guy, Mr. Cage?”

“He moves around a lot. But he bases out of Eastern Europe, in one of three different strongholds. He rotates among them randomly so it’s hard to pin him down.”

“I don’t know how much Sammi will be able to help. It’ll mostly be dark over in Eastern Europe when Sammi’s awake, and it affects how well her power works, so she might not be able to overhear him much.” He shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

“It all sounds complicated, this magic business.” Terry shook her head. “Um, who are Momma Sue and Mrs. Malley?”

“They’re a couple of old, very powerful witches that we know,” Fred said. “In fact, we should tell them about Phillip Cage if he’s using witch’s magic. Momma Sue and Mrs. Malley don’t like it when witches abuse their power, and they may offer to help us.”

“Two more witches.” Terry flashed a big smile. “I’d say this was a productive day, wouldn’t you, Eric?”

“Yes, but they obviously did something to us to make us talk. We would
never
do this, ordinarily. We’d lose our jobs.”

“Fred slipped a truth potion in your coffee,” Carl said. “I’m sorry, but we felt like we had to. We were afraid that you’d found out about our big secret, and we had to know for sure.”

“Well, we know now, and boy, that’s some secret.” Eric nodded firmly. “Magic.”

“I can see why you wouldn’t want anybody to know,” Terry said. “If word got out, you’d have government spooks here in a flash, and they’d try to recruit you, and if you didn’t sign up, they might try to kill you because they’d be scared of you.”

“You guys have an awful lot of magical power amongst you,” Eric said. “It is a little bit frightening.”

“We’re the good guys,” Jamie said.

“They call themselves the Crew,” Rachel added. “They even have their own chant.”

“Please,” Nova said with a shake of her head, “don’t do that dorky chant.”

Terry looked at Nova with a bemused smile and fingered her chin. “The Crew, huh? Do you have your own badges and decoder rings?”

“I want a badge,” Sammi said, her little face earnest.

“I’ll make you one sometime.” Terry turned to Jamie. “So it’s agreed, then? You’ll help us catch Phillip Cage?”

“Yes, depending on what you expect of us,” Jamie said. “We can’t very well drop out of school and go running around Eastern Europe looking for this guy. And we need to know more about him before we can say what we can do.”

“We’ll give you a full briefing next time we meet. When’s good for you?”

“Can it wait ’till Sunday?” Nova said. “I’m going out of town tomorrow with my dad, and I don’t want to miss anything important.”

“All right.” Eric nodded again. “Sunday it is. We’ll bring everything we have on Mr. Cage.”

“Fred and Rollie’s parents need to see this, too,” Carl said. “They’re part of the equation.” Eric started to object, but Carl held up a hand to stop him. “Trust me on this. It’s all or nothing with us.”

Their impromptu meeting broke up, and Terry turned her attention to Sammi and began chatting with her. Rachel, Fred, and Nova joined her.

Carl and Jamie started clearing the table of dishes, and Eric followed them into the kitchen. Carl set his load in the sink and said, “Eric, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. What are you and Terry doing for dinner?”

“We’re supposed to continue our surveillance of Fred, but now that we’ve made contact, that doesn’t seem necessary.”

“You should eat with us,” Jamie said. “We’ll have plenty, and I’m sure Mom won’t mind, though it’ll be crazy around here.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Are you sure? What are you going to do, then?” Carl said.

“We’d like to go home, but I don’t know if we can get there. That cold front that just came through dumped a lot of snow on the highways north of here, and it caught the road crews unprepared. They’ve temporarily closed the interstates in parts of Virginia.”

“I bet traffic is backed up for miles.”

“And it’s one of the busiest driving days of the year.”

“Do you have family up that way?”

“Got a wife and two young boys.”

“You’re not wearing a ring. Is that part of your cover?”

Eric glanced at his hand. “We…uh…we were separated for a while, but we’re trying to work things out.”

Shouldn’t have asked him that,
Carl thought.
I think the truth potion is still affecting him
. “Missing Thanksgiving dinner won’t help, will it?”

Eric looked away for a moment, then said quietly, “I know. But there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Sure there is. Jamie can make you a doorway.”

“Like that thing he made a while ago?”

Jamie set his dishes down on the counter and nodded. “Yeah, only bigger. I’ll make one big enough for your van.”