Hunters in the Night (22 page)

“Where’s
the meeting location?” Kellar said.

I
looked down. We were still pretty high and I’d never seen the place from an
overhead perspective before. But I was able to spot the colorful playground in
an open plot of land and use that as a guide to find the lamppost. I tried to
point to it but my arms were tightly constricted by invisible forces so I just
nodded in the general direction and said, “Right there.”

I’d
barely gotten the words out before we plummeted towards the ground. I looked
over to Newton. His hair was all over the place and his eyes looked twice as
big as normal, but he still appeared to have his wits about him. A cushion of
air softened our landing and our feet hit soil. Some small part of me was sad
the ride was over. That remorse was brief though. I had work to do.

“We’d
better back up a bit,” I said. “The guys making the drop are the anxious type.”

Kellar
laughed. “Why would I want to back away from them?”

“God
dammit Kellar,” I said. “You scare people, okay? I don’t want some
trigger-happy idiot turning this whole thing to shit. So let’s back up a bit,
please
.”

Appealing
to Kellar’s ego always worked, so I wasn’t surprised when he turned and took
about a dozen steps away from the lamppost. He still had Newton and I firmly
bound to him through the Rift, so with every step he took we were tugged along.
Then we waited.

And
waited.

Ten
minutes passed. We’d hit our deadline and no one had showed up. There wasn’t a
single car to be seen, and no one was in the park. Kellar checked my phone to
see if I’d missed a call. There was nothing.

Kellar
looked at me with fury in his eyes. “Where are they?”

“I
actually have no idea,” I said. “They should be here. Maybe there was a
problem.”

“Or
maybe your friends are testing my resolve.”

I
felt Kellar reach out into the Rift. His presence was a like a tsunami, crashing
over me, almost overwhelming. I worried that he might be trying to cast a spell
that would bring a very violent and painful end for Newton and I. But when that
didn’t happen I realized he was doing something else. He was
searching.
He was looking for Madison, expanding his senses for miles, and for one crucial
moment all of his attention was devoted on the task. I felt my magical
restraints weaken. I used just a tiny bit of my own magic to push them away. I
could move. I looked to Newton, and saw him still bound by Kellar’s spell. This
was my only chance to save us.

So
I ran up to Kellar and tackled him.

It
took all the strength in my legs to lift him off his feet and my momentum did
the rest, carrying him a good three yards before we landed in a heap of tangled
limbs. But Kellar was quick to recover, and in a flash he wrestled me onto my
back.

“You’re
insane,” he said.

I
smiled. “And you are out of bounds.”

I
wished I had a camera with me so I could capture the look on his face. His
expression was a mix of shock, anger, and even a little bit of fear as he
realized I had carried him ten feet away from the edge of the Rift. He had no
magic here.

I
didn’t either, of course. But I still had an advantage. You see, Kellar hadn’t
grown up fighting dirty in the streets of the Bronx. I had.

I
threw a clump of dirt in his face. He flinched and took a few steps backwards.
He was heading back towards the lamppost and the safety of the Rift. I
certainly couldn’t let that happen, so I slid forward and kicked his shins.
Kellar howled and fell backwards, but he twisted his torso, extended his arms
and landed on his hands. In a second he was back on his feet with a wild look
on his face. I scrambled off the ground and took a swing at his left temple. He
blocked, spun, and delivered an elbow to my chest. That hurt. But I kept my
focus. I had to keep Kellar close. If he got back into the Rift, I was a dead
man.

His
last attack sent me reeling backwards, but I reached out and grabbed a handful
of his hair and yanked. His body lurched along with mine, but he was able to
keep his footing. I needed him on the ground, not on his feet. So, once I
regained my balance, I kicked him in the knee.

He
cursed, and I heard him utter a quick pain relief spell out of reflex. But the
Rift was still just out of reach. Kellar bent down to take weight off of his
injured knee, giving me the opportunity I needed. I hit him right in the jaw
with a left cross.

That
really
hurt. You see it in
the movies all the time, but actually hitting a guy in the jaw with your bare
knuckles hurts like a son of a bitch. But Kellar went down like the Titanic. As
soon as he was out, I ran back to the cover of the Rift. Kellar wasn’t moving,
but I wasn’t taking any chances. I used my magic to scoop up a massive clump of
earth. It hung in the air for a second, then I floated it over to Kellar. I
slowly dumped it over his unconscious body, leaving his head free so he could
breathe. Once that was done, I fell to the ground. My breaths came in short,
wheezy gulps. I felt sick, excited, and tired, all at once.

“Little
help over here?” Newton said, breaking me out of my stupor. I turned and saw he
was still bound by Kellar’s spell even though he was knocked out. A warmth
spread throughout my body, calming me. He was safe, and that meant the world to
me.

I
walked up to him and paused for a moment. It’s always tricky to dispel another
nightcrafter’s magic, especially one better than you.
Especially
when
you only know a limited number of spells. So, instead of trying to break
Kellar’s binds with brute force, I carefully pushed each one back through the
Rift.

“Where’s
our backup?” I asked him as I got rid of the last bind. “What happened to the
exchange?”

Newton
looked at me with sad eyes. “There was never going to be any exchange, Kal.”

I
was puzzled, and I’d just opened my mouth to question further when Newton just
closed his eyes and shook his head. Then I finally realized what he meant. “So
that’s how it is, huh? We just had to fend for ourselves.”

Newton
shrugged. “That’s the job. Speaking of jobs . . . we still have one left.”

“And
what would that be?” I asked.

Newton
pointed at Kellar and said, “Delivering him to Dominique.”

“He
will kill us all. You know that, right?”

I
said the words to Dominique as we stood on the dark side of the two-way mirror
separating us from the brightly lit transparent chamber that Kellar sat in. He
was perfectly calm and seated in a Zen meditation position. He breathed freely.
He looked completely relaxed, except for his eyes. Those eyes were burning with
hatred.

“He
will try,” Dominique said. “But it’s not him we have to worry about at the
moment. How long do you think it will be before the other nightcrafters come
looking for him?”

“It
may take a while for them to realize he’s missing,” I said. “He was known to
disappear on a whim. Nobody checked up on him.”

“That’s
good news,” Dominique said. “We should have all the time we need to get the
info we’re looking for.”

“I
don’t know about that,” I said. “He will be difficult to handle. As long he’s
conscious, he’s dangerous.”

Dominique
gave me a humorless smile. “I’m sure you can handle whatever he throws at us.
After all, you’re the one with that special brain.”

“Uh
huh,” I mumbled. As part of the debriefing, Newton and I had been compelled to
give the details of the whole encounter that night. I’d wanted to keep that
part about Kellar not being able to void my memory a secret, but Newton spilled
the beans. I wasn’t mad though. He was doing his job, and he was trying to
protect me. The more valuable NATO thought I was, the less likely I was to end
up in one of these white cells if things turned sour.

“We’ll
make sure he and Madison are kept as far apart as possible,” Dominique said.
“That way if we do have a breakout, we won’t lose both of them.”

“And
where is Madison?” I asked.

“Someplace
safe,” Dominique said. “Just like your parents.”

There
it was again. Her little dig to remind me who was really in control here; a
little barb to throw me off my line of questioning. But I wasn’t going to take
her bait. I needed answers.

“What
happened with the hostage exchange?”

Dominique
sighed. “We didn’t have enough time.”

“How
much time would you have needed?” I asked. “An hour? A day? I just want to know
for future reference.”

She
turned to me, slowly. She looked tired. Bloodshot eyes, sagging shoulders.
“What do you want from me, Kal?”

“I
want you to tell me the truth,” I said. “I want you to tell me that you left me
and Newton out there to die.”

“Yes,”
she said plainly. “I did. You got captured by the most powerful nightcrafter
alive and demanded we make a hostage exchange in thirty minutes. That would
have meant exposing agents to Kellar, and it would have meant taking a very
dangerous and very valuable asset out of a controlled environment and putting
her in the wild with little preparation. Madison probably would have escaped
before we even got to your location. Maybe that was Kellar’s plan all along.”

“You
could have done
something.
You could have tried.”

“I
could have, yes. And I could have gotten agents killed and lost a valuable
enemy asset in the process. All for a deal from a man I had no reason to trust.
I made the choice I had to make, Kal. It was hard, don’t think for a second
that it wasn’t, but it was the right choice and you better hope that you’ll
always have someone like me around to make that kind of choice so you don’t
have to.”

She
was right, of course. But just because she was right, that didn’t mean I was
wrong. “I did it for Newton,” I said.

Dominique
sighed. “I know you did. You figured he was worth more than your life and the
strategic value of Madison. You didn’t do all the math, though. You didn’t
account for all the variables. I can’t fault you for that. That kind of thing
is not your job. It’s mine.”

“No
regrets, huh?”

“Not
a one,” Dominique said.

I
just nodded. There was nothing I could say to that. I turned and headed for the
door.

“Wait,”
Dominique said. “Before you go and get some well-deserved rest, stop by my
office in a couple of days. I have something I want to give you.”

“What
is it?” I asked.

“I’m
not sure if I can get it yet,” she said. “But if I can, it’s something you’ll
want.”

“Well
now I’m intrigued,” I said. “Can you give me a hint?”

“No,”
Dominique said. “As you know, I hold my cards close to the chest. And I don’t
want to disappoint you if it can’t happen. Just come by in a couple of days. In
the meantime, I have something else for you that I
can
tell you about.”

* * *

Since
my apartment was still compromised, Dominique had to find other accommodations
for me. I spent one night in a hotel then moved into my new digs: a rooftop
house. It’s one of those unique New York City things. With Manhattan land so
rare and valuable, it’s often easier to just plop a little house on top of a
building. It also helps keep things nice and secret. No neighbors, and the
building was the tallest on its block so nobody could peep in. The cozy four
room house used an A-frame shape, creating a triangle that even a keen observer
would easily mistake for the peak of the narrow office building it had been
built on top of. It even had a private staircase which, while a definite plus,
would have been a pain for most people carrying groceries and furniture. But a
few smashed light bulbs and a featherweight spell made it all easy for me. It
was like my own little secret pyramid above all of Manhattan.

Dominique
hadn’t been kidding when she told me about rewards for a job well done.

But
I knew this wasn’t what she had been talking about the last time I saw her. The
house was just a necessity — a way to keep me isolated but close and
comfortable. She had something of more importance to give me. I was sure of
that.

After
getting used to my new home, I went down to our new office. We had never found
the nightcrafter who Newton had detected snooping around the United Nations
building, so Dominique had no choice but to move the whole operation while
Newton and I had been in Newfoundland. The new department headquarters was in
the same inconspicuous government building that housed Newton’s secret basement
lab. It was a downgrade, for sure, but it was also a lot less likely to be a
place of interest for spies.

I
met Dominique in her new private office on a slightly overcast day. The city
was dappled in alternating light and dark as the clouds lazily shifted, casting
shadow over some parts and revealing light over others. As soon as Dominique
saw me she gave me a tight smile, and a nod. Then she opened a drawer in her
desk and retrieved a gold box a little bigger than a hardcover book. She held
it out to me and said, “This is for you.”

I
opened the box. There was a shiny medal inside. It was a circle of five golden
eagles surrounding a five-pointed white star trimmed in gold, with a blue
center full of gold stars. It wasn’t the prettiest thing I’d ever laid eyes on,
but it was impeccably crafted. The velvet-lined presentation box also contained
a miniature replica of the medal on a little ribbon, a blue lapel pin with a
silver eagle in the center, and one of those horizontal ribbon pins that
military personnel use to show awards. The top of the box held a note which
read, “
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is hereby awarded to Kalani Kai for
especially meritorious contributions to the security and national interests of
the United States.”