Chapter 40

Beaufont Residence, West Hollywood, California, United States

"And why do you think that?" Clark asked, but there was no doubt in his voice, he simply sounded like he was helping Gen to lay things out so that she understood them better.

"It's the law enforcement changes mostly that bring me to that conclusion," Gen stated. "Someone has orchestrated this so that good police officers didn't discover the plans and get in the way. Then neutral officers were moved out of the way. And from our surveillance, it appears that the morally corrupt officers are surrounding the perimeter of the downtown area and the Federal Reserve."

"It definitely is no coincidence," Rose remarked, flipping through a catalogue and browsing the images. "It would take someone high up to orchestrate all this."

"And there's a new Commissioner of Los Angeles, who I'm already skeptical of," Gen stated. "His name is Charlie Sloan and since he's come into office, immediately after the murder of the old leader, he's made a lot of personnel changes, not just to head the police force reorganization."

"So what are you planning to do next?" Clark asked, giving Gen a thoughtful expression. "Are you going to give this information to Dwayne Stone?"

Gen lowered her chin. "Do you think I should?"

"Oh, can I answer that?" Liv asked, popping a cookie into her mouth and chewing, crumbs sprinkling down onto her magazine.

"Of course," Gen answered. "What should I do?"

"Here's the answer," Liv said. "Do you trust your boss?"

Gen didn't have to think. She simply blurted out the answer. "No. Not at all, although I don't have any concrete reason for why."

"Then don't tell him." Surprisingly it was Clark who offered that advice, although he was usually a rule follower. "Do more investigating of this bank robbery and confirm that's what's happening. If you give your suspicion to the rogue police officers, they should be able to look into it more for you. Then you have to find out when it's happening and how to stop it."

"But give yourself an alibi," Liv advised. "Even if Dwayne isn't corrupt, he's a power-hungry, control freak who is looking for a reason to fire you from the Rogue Riders. So you can't be caught intervening in this since you haven't been cleared to work cases yet. So ensure that whenever this is going down, that you aren't linked to stopping the robbery."

Gen thought for a moment and then smiled when an idea popped into her head. "I think I have the perfect way to cover my tracks."

"Good," Clark said proudly. "Now is there any way that we can help with resources or investigating?"

Gen thought for a moment, looking around at all the information she had. "What I really need is to get an idea of what the Federal Reserve Bank looks like on the inside. They are doing construction, which I think is just a ruse for setting up the robbery. There's a bunch of underground activity in that area, according to my rogue officers."

Clark frowned. "You can't be seen anywhere around that building. If Dwayne's involved or even if he's not, you can't be associated with a place that's about to be robbed."

"Besides, you need more than information on the bank, you need city maps," Liv suggested. "And not just any ones. You need the detailed ones they keep locked up in city government offices. Those will tell you all about the underground, the road access points and the Federal Reserve Bank."

"How do I get those?" Gen asked.

"The ones that would be most beneficial to you are…" Clark trailed away, a nervous expression on his face.

"What is it?" Gen asked, sensing his hesitation.

"They are in the Los Angeles Police Headquarters," he went on slowly. "Next to the Commissioner's Office."

Gen sighed. "That's risky business. I don't think a disguise would even get me in, like when I snuck into the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for investigation."

"No, you'd be recognized," Liv agreed. "And they'll have that place on lockdown, especially if the Commissioner is corrupt and hiding something."

"But if you aren't seen…" Rose stated, popping up with sudden excitement. "What if you are pretty much invisible and can get into the building and get the maps and information without anyone seeing you?"

"How's that?" Liv asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Well, when I was hunting witches," Rose began, taking her seat again, her eyes distant as she thought, working out what she wanted to say, "they hid from me in plain sight. They could walk by me and I wouldn't see them due to a strange and powerful artifact they were using known as the Lantern of Truth."

Clark shook his head. "And that was dark magic. Gen can't use witchcraft and besides, you destroyed all of those artifacts."

"I know, it's just the idea that I'm suggesting," Rose said. "There might be something similar that Gen can use. A spell or a charm or something."

"Maybe," he said, drawing the word out. "But where could she look for such a thing? Are you thinking maybe Bep can make a potion?"

Rose shook her head. "I went to this new defense store on Roya Lane recently. It's called the Fortified Theater. The shop owner is pretty kooky, but in a good way. His name is Rusty and he might have something that would work."

"It's worth checking out," Clark said, giving Gen a hopeful expression. "What do you think? Do you want one of us to check it out for you?"

"Thanks," Gen said, pushing up to her feet. "But that's okay. You all have enough to deal with and I'm just grateful for the help coming up with a plan. I think this could work. If I can get more information then I'll know what's going on and if there's a big bank robbery about to happen, well, I'm going to stop it."

"If it is the Federal Reserve Bank, then it will be huge," Clark stated. "That's the largest bank in the city."

Liv nodded. "Which would explain why someone needs a bunch of supercharged vehicles to carry all that loot and fast enough to get away."

"And if this robbery is really in the works, then I want to know why once again, Dwayne doesn't know about it," Gen said, chewing on her lip.

Clark gave her a discerning expression. "I think you might already know the answer to that. If he knew about it, as a good leader of the Rogue Riders, he'd intervene. Something of that magnitude is big theft and that's not allowed. If he doesn't know about it, then he's incompetent. And if he does know and isn't doing anything, well, he's corrupt."

"Which is what I have to figure out next," Gen replied. "But first, I'm going to find out if there's in fact a bank robbery about to happen in this city."

Liv grinned proudly. "And I'm going to pick out a sword for my nephew to carry around."

Clark shook his head, giving his sister a stern expression. "No you're not. My grandson gets to be a baby first before he has a lifetime of carrying around a sword."

Rose laughed, affectionately rubbing her stomach. They knew that she was pregnant with a boy because Mama Jamba had informed them. The child was important for several reasons. For starters, a new baby was always an amazing reason to celebrate. Secondly, growing the Beaufont family was important. Also, there weren't a lot of boys in the family.

And most critically for the world of magic, Rose and London's children would create balance in the world. Their blood would be the antidote that allowed all races to breed finally. For all of history, only magicians could have children with other magicians. Only elves with elves and gnomes with gnomes and so forth and so on. That had created a lot of division on the planet, especially with mortals who were the only ones without magic.

Not only that, but it kept the races separate, discouraging romantic relationships among them. It wasn't until King Rudolf and then Liv's daughter Paris and then Rose and London that halflings were born. Now, Rose and London's children would make it so that there weren't divides and only opportunities for love.

"Fine, let the baby chew on blocks for a little while," Liv said with a sigh. "But I'm getting little William his first sword."

Gen smiled, the notion that the child who would create balance in the world of magic between the races was being named after her father, the first Founder of the House of Fourteen. She missed her father, William, every second of every day, but she knew that he was watching over her from the Land of Chimeras. Family, after all, was forever, no matter what—Familia Est Sempiternum.

Gen only hoped that she made him proud. She felt his guidance silently steering her every day and currently it told her to follow the leads and stop whatever was about to happen in Los Angeles.