Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

JASON

" T here they are!" I yanked open the door to our motel room as Dale pulled into the parking space out front. I'd been pacing a groove in the carpet waiting for them.

Sunny zipped out of the car past Dale's head, his green and yellow plumage bright in the sunshine, and winged toward our unit, muttering, "Hey, everyone," as he swooped in past me.

Dale locked the car and hurried our way. "I didn't see anyone following me," they said as they came into the room. "I did a bit of a detour to make sure."

I shut the door and made sure the deadbolt was locked, throwing the night latch for good measure. Erin said, "Glad you're back safely."

Sunny perched on the edge of the dresser. "Smart idea to send the kid to get me. Forville's close enough to that NSEP facility for them to have eyes on the roads, and you make a memorable group."

"Dale's idea," I said, giving credit where it was due. I'd been all in favor of charging up to the gates and demanding to see Alan, but Erin talked me down, and Dale added waiting one town back to our sneaky approach. "How's Alan? Did they hurt him?"

"Not when I was there. He seemed okay. But it's going to be one hell of a place to get him out of. The main building— prison or whatever— is made of concrete and the whole compound is surrounded by a razor-wire-topped fence. There's a code lock on the gate and a pair of heavily armed guards patrolling."

"What if we told… I don't know, the cops, the FBI, someone who's not NSEP that they kidnapped Alan? Demand an official meeting, bring a bunch of lawyers." And not the chickenshit guy who'd run off on vacation.

Erin gave me a tired look. "You think small-town cops would stand up to Homeland Security? Or even the FBI would, for that matter? Human NSEP said they have Homeland behind them. Anyone less powerful would be squished like a bug." She added a long-suffering sigh.

Okay, maybe I'd suggested that plan a time or two on the drive here, with the same reply. She was probably right, but something inside me didn't want to accept that there wasn't a legitimate option. Working around first responders, I had to believe we mostly tried to help others and do right by people. The idea of being on the opposite side of a fight from law enforcement, beyond NSEP, didn't sit well in my belly.

I'd brought the guns, but I hoped we wouldn't ever need them. Can I shoot at a guard? At a cop, even just to warn them, even if they're NSEP? The rolling nausea in my gut wasn't promising. And then what? Be on the run ever after? I prayed we'd find a better answer.

Sunny said, "I went back up there to the prison and looked around for a couple of hours while you were on the road. While I was there, two SUVs arrived and pulled into the compound, around to the prison building. They hustled an older woman inside, then the guards headed back out. She was clearly a prisoner and something about her made me think sorcerer."

"Anyone you recognized?" Erin asked.

"No, but Alan doesn't exactly socialize with the magic community."

"Do you think they're arresting more sorcerers?" Dale asked.

"I'm not positive she had power, but they are NSEP. It's a good bet magic is at the heart of this. Plus, something new is happening. I ducked into a couple of the small residence cabins in the compound, and the guards each had heavily packed duffels at the foot of their bunks. Not much personal stuff sitting out, and one guy was packing his books away. The compound's been there for years, clearly, but they seem to be on the edge of moving out."

"What do we do?" I asked Sunny. "Ideas?"

"Well, we don't go in with guns blazing." He turned a beady black stare on me.

I raised my hands. "Of course not."

Sylvester chuckled from where he lounged in an armchair. "It'd solve the problem, right? Bazookas on our shoulders, wham, bam, take out all the bad guys. Wham, bam, wham. "

I wasn't sure if he was joking, but I said, "Will's sporting goods inventory didn't include bazookas."

"They're probably outdated anyhow. Rocket launchers, that's what we need." He made phut-phut sounds.

"What we need is stealth," Sunny countered. "Till we know what the hell is going on. Alan was in a furnished cell with a bed and a table and all. Likely they'll leave him there for now. I'll pop back in after dark, see if he's learned anything that might help."

"Tell him we're here." My breath caught. "Tell him…"

"I'll tell him if he doesn't get his ass free somehow, you're going to do something stupid. Motivation."

"Hey," Erin murmured. "Jason's doing his best. We all are."

"Yes. Of course." Sunny wiped his beak on his shoulder. "I don't suppose you brought any food I can eat? I've done a lot of flying in the last few hours."

"I packed a bag of your favorite mix in with my things." I'd set my pack beside the nearer bed, and it only took me a moment to dig out the bird food. Lacking a bowl, I poured a serving of the dried fruits and seeds into my palm and held it out to Sunny.

He cocked his head. "Maybe you're not so bad after all." He snatched a chunk of his favorite mango from my hand and gulped it down, then made quick work of several sunflower seeds. "Ah. Hits the spot."

Erin asked, "How did you get in to see Alan? I thought you said the building was warded."

"It's warded against human magic, but some sorcerers forget that we familiars don't use the same systems. I tried a jump and got through it like a hole in Swiss cheese."

"Do you think you could carry something through to him?" Dale suggested.

Sunny cocked his head to one side, then the other. "I can try. It'd have to be small enough for me to lift. I'm the brains of this outfit, not the brawn."

"This?" Dale set a lip balm tube on the dresser.

"Maybe. Depends what's in it."

"My slippery lotion."

Sunny blinked. "The stuff that let Sylvester slip off his suppressor cuff last summer?"

"Yep." Dale let a smile escape.

I grinned too, because this idea of Dale's was the one hopeful advantage we had. The skin-healing ointment they'd concocted and bespelled turned out to have such magical lubrication properties that Sylvester got out of his cuff twice before Erin found out how.

"Ooooh. Now there's an idea I like." Sunny ate a couple more bites, then said, "Let me try carrying it before my crop gets too full." He walked across the dresser top, gripped the tube in one clawed foot like standing on a fat branch, added the second foot, and flapped into the air. He managed one circle of the room before swooping down, dropping the tube to click on the dresser top, and coming in for a landing.

I caught the tube before it could bounce to the floor. "What do you think?"

"I can do it, but not very far. From outside the fence to the prison building, maybe. Not all the way from town."

"Then someone has to give you and the tube a ride to the fence."

"Or a hike up there. Because I bet they're watching that approach road."

"How far is it from the nearest main road to the compound?" I asked.

"Six miles, maybe?"

"That's nothing." I ran five miles for fun on my days off. Fighting fires in bunker gear demanded physical fitness. "Erin or Dale can let me out along the road?—"

"I can drive too," Sylvester interjected. "Still have my license and everything."

"I know you do." I gentled my tone. "Hell, you saved all our asses driving my truck away from the fire last summer."

"Dale drove your truck. I drove Dale's car. I remember. I'm not senile yet." Before I could be impressed he recalled those details, he added, "We lost Erin's familiar. A pity she didn't want it. Sorcerers should have familiars. Why didn't she want it?"

Because it wasn't a familiar, it was a fire elemental burning up the countryside just for fun.

Erin said, "It didn't want to stay with me. It needed to go home."

"Oh, well, that's disappointing. But maybe we'll find you another one. Like Sunny, here. D'you know any unattached familiars, Sunny? They couldn't find better than my Erin."

Sunny's voice sounded kinder than usual. "If I meet a familiar looking for a new partner, I'll definitely tell them so."

Erin cleared her throat. "Thanks. So, Jase, if we drop you and Sunny off, then what?"

"I carry the tube and hike up to the compound, staying away from the road. See what I can see. Sunny goes in to talk to Alan and delivers the lotion."

"You trust yourself to stay out of trouble around the compound, knowing they have Alan locked up there?"

"I'm not some kind of fool," I snapped. "Or egomaniac, thinking I can take on a prison and a bunch of armed men all by myself."

Erin raised her hands placatingly. "As long as you know it. You were talking some wild shit on the drive."

"Venting. Brainstorming."

"Maybe I should be the one to carry the tube up to the compound," Dale suggested.

I glared at them. "Have you started running? It doesn't show."

Their pale skin flushed red, and I didn't need Erin's backhand to my chest to know I'd screwed up. Dale was sensitive about their weight.

"Sorry, sorry. Dammit." I scrubbed my face with my hands. "That was seriously uncalled for. It's making me crazy, knowing Alan's locked away over there, and I took it out on you."

"It's okay," they murmured. "I sure can't argue with you being better able to cover six miles there and six back in the dark."

"Still, sorry."

Erin said, "That's just the beginning of the start of the idea of a plan."

"It's all we've got for now," I pointed out. And I'd feel a hell of a lot better if I thought Alan could get free of his suppressor cuff if he needed to. He didn't have full control of his power, although he told me he'd improved a lot since his burned-out magic rebuilt over the winter. But if he was fighting for his life or his freedom, control wasn't the top priority. If magic was the only weapon Alan had, I wanted him to have access to it.

"What about Zahira?" Dale asked.

Sunny looked up from pecking at the food I'd held out again. "Who's Zahira?"

Erin told him, "A sorcerer from L.A. that Darien and Silas recommended. They said she's smart, she has power, and she hates NSEP. She's agreed to drive up here and help us, but it's a full day on the road, plus breaks. No chance she'll be here until late tomorrow."

"So slippery delivery tonight, Zahira tomorrow, and we'll go from there," I said.

"Eat, take a nap," Sunny directed. "You need to be sharp tonight. I didn't see guards or surveillance cameras outside the compound fence, but that doesn't mean they're not there."

"I'm not hungry." We'd grabbed drive-through food on the way here, which I'd forced down past the tightness of my gut.

"It's almost five," Erin said. "I'll find a grocery store, stock up on some staples, see if they have soup to go. You're going to eat, because Alan needs you to run twelve miles tonight. Now pick a bed. You'll share with me."

Sylvester nudged Dale. "I guess you get to put up with my farts, huh, kiddo?"

I looked around the two-queens motel room. "We could get another room."

Erin shook her head. "More money and… I'm probably just being paranoid, but I want us all together."

I couldn't argue with that. I looked at the small, thin woman with straight brown hair, her hands in motion as she talked; at the tall, big-bodied teen whose face held the kindest eyes in the universe; at the silver-haired old man muttering to himself as he searched through his duffel bag; at the brilliant-colored bird pecking at the seeds in my palm. Not people I'd ever have noticed, or even met, without Alan, and yet now, as close as any family I shared blood with. "I think that's a good idea too," I said.

"Good luck," Dale whispered as they brought Erin's car to a stop on the shoulder of a two-lane blacktop.

"See you at five a.m." I opened the door and jumped out, scurrying over the lip of the road into the ditch below. As I hunkered down, Dale's tires crunched across gravel, then the engine faded into the distance.

Farther toward the coast, this ditch would've been a muddy mess, but here on the dry side of the Cascades, sand and burrs crackled underfoot. I had a tiny LED light in my pocket, but the moon was half full, giving me enough light to see the scraggly brush and open terrain I'd be running through. "Which way?" I murmured to Sunny, perched on my shoulder.

"Head to the right of that peak on the horizon, the double-pointed one."

"Not seeing the mountains very well. Which one?"

Sunny clicked his beak. "I forget you humans have inferior vision. Turn your head slowly and I'll let you know when you're aiming the right way."

I scanned right to left. At about sixty degrees over, Sunny tapped my ear. "There, that way."

If I squinted at the horizon, I could maybe make out the shape of a pair of snow-capped summits. "Got it." I scuttled up the far side of the ditch and cut across the field beyond, then settled into a jog. At my shoulder, an empty space echoed where Alan should be, keeping up with me while complaining about my idea of exercise as entertainment. Next time.

Sunny and I would have to be careful with noise when we got close, but six miles away from the compound, conversation should be safe. I asked, "Why didn't NSEP pick you up too, when they grabbed Alan?"

"Best guess? They either don't know about familiars or don't think much of us. That'll be the Great Spell's doing. The magic imbued in the Spell not only makes humans think sorcerers are all rather feeble and amusing and not worth their time, it also makes them forget all about familiars and Healers, if the idea ever dawns. That part of the Spell is even more high-powered than the rest."

"Protecting the most vulnerable," I reasoned. "Makes sense. But if the Great Spell is so powerful, how can NSEP and that Underhill guy be so focused on Alan, or any sorcerer? Wouldn't the NSEP humans forget about magical power all the time?"

"The Great Spell whispers and suggests, but it can't force minds. One way to overcome it is to have enough day-to-day experience with sorcerers to keep remembering. That's what happened during the Upheavals, the reason we ended up with the damned NSEP in the first place. It's hard to minimize the role of sorcerers when you have the Cabal out there on everyone's TV set daily, doing magic and threatening to end the world."

"So if Underhill, say, didn't interact with sorcerers for a week on vacation, would he come back saying this was all a mistake?" I harbored a ridiculous fantasy of kidnapping the kidnapper and holding him in isolation for a week or so, until he gave up chasing Alan as a waste of effort.

"Probably not. Long-term exposure's hard to erase."

"Oh. Too bad." But also reassuring that I wasn't about to forget important details about magic myself, if I ever took a break.

I stumbled over a dry washout and Sunny grumbled under his breath. "Hard to get good ponies these days."

My shrug wasn't hard enough to dislodge Sunny's claws, but he swore and nipped my ear.

Dust rose from under my feet as I ran. The fire danger was already climbing here in the rain shadow. Even at home, fire season moved earlier every year. I prayed I wouldn't be needed back there. I told myself the part-timers were experienced and capable, if there was trouble. I hadn't taken time off in a year. A break was probably even healthy— I choked a laugh.

"What?" Sunny demanded.

"Just trying to tell myself this is a vacation."

Sunny clicked his beak. "Right. My idea of a good time. Bobbing vigorously through the dark inhaling dust while Alan…" He fell silent.

While Alan's a prisoner, out of reach.

I increased my pace and Sunny said nothing about the heavier dust I stirred up.

We ran on in silence. The land had a beauty of its own under the moonlight, but I'd have taken a few more trees to hide us. Nothing I could do about it, but I did follow a more winding route, keeping to the areas of rises and rocks and the occasional clumps of pines. After about forty-five minutes, Sunny said, "Slow down. Getting close. I'm going to go look." He launched off my shoulder.

I stopped and wiped my arm across my forehead. The tight band around my chest said I'd pushed harder than usual and the black henley I'd worn was soaked under the arms. My ankles ached from tripping over ruts and weeds in the uncertain light. I paced in a circle, keeping my muscles warm, while Sunny winged up into the sky and disappeared. A hint of brightness ahead suggested artificial lights. Alan's just ahead. I stretched my hamstrings, swung my arms, and rolled out my shoulders, stiff from trying to keep Sunny stable on the run. Patience. Not something I was great at.

He was back in a few minutes, dropping out of the sky to land on my left shoulder. "All seems quiet, but there's a lot of lights on for this late at night, especially by the gate. We need to come at the place from the backside. Slow and easy. I'll guide you."

I started off at a silent walk, trying not to stir up dirt, working my way around some boulders and clumps of scrub under Sunny's whispered directions. After five minutes, he murmured, "Just over that rise. Keep low now. There's some rocks at the top."

When we reached the summit of the ridge, I went to all fours and crept down behind a boulder. In the small valley below, a bunch of bright lights topped poles, creating stark black shadows across a fenced compound. The whole area was maybe five acres, a bit bigger than three football fields laid end to end. The prison building stood out, ringed by floodlights, long and low and blocky with tiny windows high in the two walls that I could see. A road approached the other side of the compound from us, ending at a set of gates, and more floodlights shone around the gate area and for a hundred feet down the road. On the open ground upslope from the prison, half a dozen smaller buildings, perhaps staff cabins, sat dark under the night sky. Only one showed light through the windows.

Motion in the compound caught my eye. I unstrapped the binoculars I'd worn across my chest and raised them. Two uniformed men with rifles slung over their shoulders passed through the bright pool of light around the gate and down along the fence, then turned back. I couldn't see the front of the prison building, but a third man without a visible weapon approached them from that direction and stopped, conferring with the guards. Barely a hint of sound reached us as the solo man gestured.

"Fuck," I breathed. "We won't be springing Alan from that place with a forgetful sorcerer, two Healers, and the contents of Will's gun cabinet."

Before Sunny could reply, the sound of more than one vehicle reached our ears, and headlights flickered a hundred yards down the approach road.

"It's almost midnight," Sunny noted. "I wonder who that is."

Too much to hope it's some kind of other authority, looking for kidnapped people. I swung my binoculars toward the lights.

The two dark SUVs that came into view had no comforting "Police" markings. When they stopped at the gate, the barrier rolled back, letting them in without confrontation, then closed behind them. They parked in front of the prison, barely visible from our vantage point. Two uniformed figures got out of the front of the first car and a third exited the back, saying something that didn't carry to my ears except as a faint garble. They reached in and guided out a woman in civilian clothes, her long hair silver in the floodlights. Two steps and they were out of my sight behind the building, but the way they'd gripped her arms hadn't looked friendly. The solo man without a gun followed them out of view.

"More kidnapping?" I muttered.

"Disguised as arresting? Could be." Sunny clicked his beak. "This is probably a good time for me to go to Alan, while they're busy with whoever that was. Hold out the tube."

I dug in my pocket and held out the ChapStick tube at arm's length. Sunny walked down my arm, set one clawed foot on the tube, spread his wings, and grabbed with the second foot as he launched. Winging high enough to clear the fence, he swooped toward the prison building with his prize. I lost him against the night sky and didn't spot him again in a slow sweep of the foundation under those high windows through my binoculars. Hopefully, that meant whatever surveillance they were running had missed him too.

Alan's somewhere in there. I took a firm hold on the anger and panic that wanted to send me running to find him, and shifted my focus to the windows, moving my field of view from one to another. The cells beyond the narrow, barred openings were all dimly lit, but I could see only flat ceilings and a bit of walls. At least the prison didn't blast bright light at their prisoners twenty-four seven. I wondered which cell was Alan's and what he was doing. He liked to keep busy, particularly mentally, reading and listening to music and doing online research on whatever topic fascinated him. I'd bet they didn't let the prisoners have internet. Is he going nuts in there? Alan was tough, though.

How can we get him free? As a firefighter, the first thing that occurred to me was to use fire as a tool. If I could generate smoke inside the facility, enough to set off their alarms and get people running out, that would be ideal. I couldn't see a way, though. I wasn't going to ask Sunny to carry in a burning rag to try to trigger alarms. Far too risky for him, and to the others if he dropped it. I didn't want a structure fire starting around Alan, trapped in his cell. But a smoke grenade would outweigh Sunny.

Perhaps a brush fire outside the fence…

If I could create a scary-looking blaze roaring down on them, they'd have to evacuate. But fire was unpredictable, as I knew far better than most. Conditions in the area were already tinder-dry— I'd seen that firsthand from all the crispy weeds and shrubs I'd tangled with on my run. The NSEP goons could end up surrounded without any escape route, or have too little time to evacuate everyone, or simply cut their losses. Wouldn't that be ironic, if I killed Alan with a wildfire? Not to mention, I'd be responsible for all the death and destruction that followed if the local firehouses couldn't contain the blaze. Last, last, last resort.

Out in front of the prison, the men from the first SUV reappeared, got back in, and drove toward the gate. The second SUV followed. The patrolling guards wearing rifles checked each vehicle before allowing them through the barrier and double-checked the gate closure as the two SUVs headed off down the road.

Fuck. I'm sorry, Alan. I'm trying.

I pulled out my phone and began taking all the photos I could of the layout and the buildings, for whatever good they'd do us. We'd make a plan. We'd figure something out. Somehow.