Authors: Elizabeth Lapthorne
“So what happens now?” he
asked.
“We four sign and seal
the affidavit once Flame and Isobel hammer out the wording, and we keep
moving,” Blade replied.
“Don’t you need a
notary?”
Jarred questioned.
Blade shook his head.
“We’re Enforcers—our seal
will be enough.”
“We infuse the contract
with a piece of our essence,” Elias explained, “which is more serious than
swearing an oath. With a piece of our essence you can’t bitch and claim you
were ensnared or pressured, bullied or browbeaten into it. Also any tracker
worth their salt can hunt you down any time the Tribunal wishes to question
you. Anyone willing to leave their essence as proof of legitimacy isn’t going
to lie.”
“Ah,” Jarred commented,
though he still looked a little lost.
“Watch,” Blade suggested,
“you’ll see.”
“And then if we add the
clause down the bottom as well, that this is true and correct to our current
knowledge…” Blade could hear Flame saying. He didn’t think anyone else would be
able to hear the impatience in her tone. Having spent almost every moment awake
or asleep with her these last few days, he could tell she all but itched to get
moving.
Blade couldn’t blame her
either. They had come close a number of times—exceedingly so—to wrapping this
up.
Sarke
had slipped through their fingers at the
club and again at the annex. Sheer luck had been on his side and Blade felt it
might finally be ready to turn back in their favor.
The main factor that had
changed was that a weak, circumstantial case now had solid, irrefutable
evidence backing it up. They still had a very good idea of what had been
occurring, but now they had tangible links between Malone and Martine.
Add those connections to
the slightly more circumstantial links between Malone and
Sarke
,
and while they still didn’t have enough evidence to walk in and arrest Malone
outright, their position was a damn sight better than it had been a few hours
earlier. Their crew might not know where
Sarke
was at
that very moment, but Blade had no doubt that would change as soon as he and
Flame got back out there and quit diddling around with words. If Flame’s
slightly sharper tone was any indication, she felt similarly.
Used to the ebb and flow
of a case, Blade could restrain his impatience, but he couldn’t fault Flame and
her desire to see real forward momentum. The affidavit held vital importance
for them and would be significant in linking the chains together to show the
big picture.
Finally, multiple copies
of the statement were printed on thick cream-colored paper. Isobel looked up,
her eyes tired.
“Okay, I think we’re
ready. You better read over it first, guys, and let me know if there’s any
amendments you think are necessary.”
Blade and Elias placed a
copy between them on the desk,
Jarred
reading
curiously over their shoulders. A concise summary of what they had found in
relation to Martine
Ormstron
and how she connected
with Malone coupled with referenced phone calls and emails clearly laid out the
trail.
“That’s really concise,”
Blade complimented Isobel and Flame. “Hopefully anyone will be able to follow
the connections you made.”
Placing his hand over the
paper, Blade closed his eyes for a second to center himself and draw on his
magic. When he felt the ball of powerful essence grow within him, he reached
into it and drew it forth so his hand tingled with the magical energy.
“I, Bradley McKinnon
Worthington IV, do hereby swear that to the extent of my knowledge this
document is true and correct.”
Blade let the energy grow
in his hand until a silver-red ball circled above his palm. Exerting the force
of his will, Blade stretched his fingers, releasing the ball from his hand
directly into the thick cream-colored document. He heard Jarred gasp and he couldn’t
blame him a bit. The first few times Blade had witnessed this himself he had
been sure the paper would ignite. It never did.
The thick vellum absorbed
the energy and pulsed silver-red for a moment, as if it had been hungry for the
power and now glowed with satisfaction. When the paper returned to looking like
a regular piece of stationery, Blade let his open palm hover over the sheet and
he opened his magical senses.
His essence pulsed from
the document as if he had branded it. Anyone who knew how and had the talent to
read it could feel his will
embedded
in the papers.
Satisfied, Blade stepped
back and stood next to Jarred as Elias stepped up and repeated the ritual with
near-identical words. Silence weighed heavily between the two men as Jarred
watched every detail of Elias repeating almost step-for-step what Blade had
done. As the wizard paused, clearly also checking his magical essence resided inside
the document, Jarred finally turned his head a tiny amount so he could whisper
to Blade.
“Bradley McKinnon
Worthington IV?” he mocked gently.
Blade didn’t dignify the
man’s comment with a glare. “Go fuck yourself, Jarred,” he retorted instead.
The blond chuckled and a tiny smile twitched at the corner of Blade’s mouth.
“Is this a common
practice?” Jarred finally asked as Isobel came forward and repeated the ritual.
Blade shrugged
negligently. “It’s certainly not rare, though usually it’s not necessary unless
someone is going deep undercover or is knowingly going away somewhere and can’t
testify. Circumstances like that. Now in the legal profession, half the time
this is their bread and butter,” Blade explained.
“So what happens with the
document? Does it stay like this forever?”
“The paper is a special
brand. Ruinously expensive, of course, but it’s a specific blend and can hold
onto the essence for at least six months,” Blade said. “If it looks like the
essence will be needed for longer,” he continued, anticipating the next
question, “then a court appointed representative can witness the seals and they
can actually type up a duplicate—on more expensive stationery—and create their
own affidavit explaining what this one stated. That’s less common. The paper
itself doesn’t lose its
writing,
it’s the seal that
finally dissipates. Six months is usually enough time for the wheels to grind
and the document to be witnessed and used in the Tribunal.”
“So the words, then, are
what
is
kept on record, as well as your signatures,
and it doesn’t matter that your essence has gone,” Jarred concluded.
“Pretty much,” Blade
agreed as Flame finally added her seal. Isobel picked up the sheet of paper,
checked it over one last time with a swift glance,
then
handed it to Flame.
“Martine will be brought
before the Tribunal hopefully within the month,” Isobel said. “I’ll keep you
and Blade informed of dates and arrangements, but this should cover most of
what you need. I am presuming she’ll end up locked in maximum security—that’s
where Shane is currently being held.”
Isobel and Elias shook
hands with Jarred, Flame and Blade, then left. With a heavy sigh, Blade sat
down and scrubbed his hand over his face. Mentally he debated whether he wanted
a shower or some food more, and finally decided he’d much prefer both if
possible. Flame, on the other hand, appeared to have a different idea.
“We should call the rest
of the team,” she suggested. “If we update them on the affidavit, then they can
discuss where they’re at and we can hopefully finally start working on an
endgame plan to wrap this all up neatly.”
Jarred and Blade looked
at each other and shrugged. Blade stood up and went over to close the door so
they had a semblance of privacy as Flame punched in the numbers for Will’s cell
phone and put him on speaker.
“
Allcott
,”
he answered after a few rings.
“Will,” Jarred jumped in,
“how’s responsibility treating you, man?”
“Jarred,” Will greeted
his old friend, “it’s been longer than I care to admit.
You
taking care of my people?”
“Always.
I’m covering your ass, handing you
answers and criminals all wrapped up with a pretty bow. Hell, it’s just like
old times.”
Jarred laughed.
Will released a brief
bark of laughter. “What’s happening?”
Jarred looked at Blade
and gestured for him to go ahead.
“We have a magically
sealed sworn affidavit linking Martine to Malone,” he said, “which is probably
going to be the closest we’ll get to her in the short term. There was a
crossover between two cases and the other group has slimmer pickings than us.
If we can bag
Sarke
and Malone, with Martine linked
solidly between them and already out of action from this other case, we made
the decision it was going to be good enough for us. Martine will definitely
prove to have a much greater impact on the other group’s charges and she will
still spend significant time locked in a cage. It seemed like a fair trade.”
“That’s a pity, but I can
see where you’re coming from,” Will admitted. “Shame, but we do have to play
nice with others on our side. Nothing we can do about that.”
“We were hoping more had
unraveled on your end,” Flame pressed. “Jarred, Blade and I are pretty much
done here for now and things seemed to be heating on with your side of the
fence.”
“We’re managing to carry
our weight
,.
” Will laughed. They could hear him
walking down a corridor until a door opened and closed. “Okay, got us some
privacy. Sage mentioned she told you Julian and Matt were headed out to cover
Malone. They’ve traced him to his very ritzy forty-fourth-floor high-rise
office and discreetly shown around a few pictures of
Sarke
.
No nibbles there. No one recognized him or said they’d seen him around. So that
was a bust. We have, however, managed to get ears on his private line and the
guys are monitoring it in the hopes of getting lucky.”
“That all sounds good. So
when can we kick some heads in?” Blade asked when Will paused.
“I’m going to be
gathering the team later this afternoon,” Will said. “I’m hoping that we can
use Malone to get to
Sarke
.”
“But if
Sarke
has a brain,” Flame interjected, “he’ll lay low. Why
can’t we go and get Malone? Chances are Malone will know where
Sarke
is, or at least how to get in contact with him.”
“Not necessarily,” Will
argued
. “If it was
Sarke
who went
to Malone with the idea of the drugs and asking for backing, then while Malone
is still the power and money behind this, it’s
Sarke
who is the brains and who we ultimately want before the Tribunal.”
“I have to agree with
Flame,” Blade said. “I can’t imagine Malone wouldn’t know how to contact
Sarke
. While I’m not sure we will ever know exactly who
instigated what, Malone is well-known in criminal circles. Getting him out of
circulation can only be a good thing. Now I
could
very easily believe
Malone would tie us up in lawyers and dodgy bullshit until the world collapses
and ends.”
Blade paused for a moment
while he drew in a deep breath and prepared to launch into a hard sell.
“But if we spring a
surprise raid on him,” he continued passionately, “I’m thinking something big
and public with the whole crew in body armor and each of us looking our most
intimidating. We can launch it in front of all his colleagues and clients and
shame the hell out of him. Not only will we then be able to arrest him, we
should be able to search his home and office areas. It would be a two-pronged
approach. Some of us would talk to Malone, get him to roll over and give us
Sarke
, while the rest of us sift through all his files and
try to nail the bastard’s address down ourselves. One of the two should lead to
Sarke
.”
“Assuming he hasn’t rabbited
again, like he did back at the club,” Will pointed out.
“He’s lost his lab,”
Flame said. “He’s lost his workers, his face will be plastered over every news
station and paper in the state the second we go public and release his details.
He’s probably halfway to the Caribbean by now. What we don’t want is to sit
around listening in on Malone hoping to find something and let him slip through
the cracks as well.”
“Take it easy, Flame,”
Will growled, “Malone isn’t going anywhere no matter how long we sit on our
hands. With Martine and what we have already gathered against
Sarke
, Malone is not going to wriggle on this.”
“Malone always wriggles
out of things,” Flame insisted. “He has a silver tongue and the luck of the
devil. Not to mention the most expensive lawyers known to
wizardkind
on retainer. I really think we should move on this right now.
Tonight.
We have Matthias and Julian watching him but while
we know where he is shouldn’t we move on it?”
“I disagree,” Will
replied
firmly. “It’s not like I’m saying I want months of
surveillance on the man.
A day, perhaps two.
If
Sarke
hasn’t got in contact by then, chances are he will
have run off and gone to ground and we’ll launch an independent search for him
and scoop up Malone. What we don’t want is to act all impatient, grab Malone
and go public with all this when we could very well get
Sarke
as a two-for-one.”