First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) (37 page)

“What the heck?” asked Karl.

“Just you re-read your notes,” said Amber impatiently. “Remember, we’re trying to avoid triggering one of your … ah …”

She glanced uncomfortably toward the phone and Karl nodded.

“Okay. I understand.”

“You talking to me?” asked Davie.

“Davie, I am now,” said Amber, climbing from under a pile of books. “What’s the latest?”

“Well. ‘Albany’ has gone to Washington,” Davie laughed for a few seconds then broke off to catch his breath. “She left yesterday evening, late, on a private plane.”

“Blast it,” said Amber.

“I have an interesting website address to give you about her. Took a bit of finding,” Davie’s voice was a little slower, but even the artificial tones sounded excited. “Our friend Albany, as I told you before, is working on a team to get Senator Thomas elected President. They have an official website, are collecting support, putting out propaganda and such. But there’s a section of the site that is insufficiently password protected.”

“
Insufficiently protected
,” laughed Karl, “Are you admitting to a crime here, Davie?”

“Me? Hell, no! If the encryption is so pathetic that it only takes me two minutes to break it, then it’s morally open to the world. Besides,” Davie broke into ragged coughing.

Amber and Karl waited patiently for him to recover, glancing uneasily at each other.

“Besides,” Davie repeated when he’d gotten his breath back. “If you really want to keep something a secret, you don’t tell anyone, let alone put it out on the web.”

“Good point,” said Amber, booting up her computer. “So where’s the site?”

“I sent you an email with the passwords and I also sent you a set of instructions so you can follow an encrypted path in and out. I don’t want you setting off any alarms and getting traced back. To me.”

“Thank you. I have no desire to commit a crime, either,” Amber searched through her crowded mailbox and found Davie’s email. “Is there anything else?”

“Call me tomorrow. I’m too tired from the chemo to talk tonight. Let me know what you’re planning.”

“‘Kay,” mumbled Amber, her attention already on the complicated instructions for foiling internet security. She made a mental note to ask Davie to check her site’s security then remembered. Davie was one of the people she didn’t want to know about her involvement in magic.

Karl came to stand beside her chair.

“Why didn’t you do something for him?” he demanded. “He’s a friend of yours. Why are you letting him suffer?”

Amber hit three keys together and jumped.

“You mean Davie?”

“Yeah. You keep going on about being a moral and ethical witch. Why haven’t you helped a friend with your magic? What sort of cancer does he have anyway?”

“Spinal. Bone cancer.” Amber sighed and stared at her fingers resting motionless on the keyboard. “There are lots of reasons why I can’t do anything for Davie’s cancer. The rules state I can’t do anything for him or to him without his permission.”

“Yeah. I suppose.” Karl brought his hands up and started massaging her shoulders. Amber’s muscles tightened instead of relaxing.

“The most important reason is that I don’t know what would happen.”

She turned to face Karl, gently brushing his hands off her shoulders.

“Remember, no touch.” She shifted round to face him. “The hard part about magic is framing the spell properly. You have to construct the magic like – like a building. Have to make it so that everything works well together and with the intention of the universe. You can’t do anything that goes directly contrary to the universe’s purpose for itself. We’re so tiny, so unimportant, that most of the time spells make no difference to the greater purpose of the universe. So one person gets a little more money, one person gets the promotion. What the heck? That means little to the Really Big Picture. But suppose I ask the universe to make Davie pain free? What if the universe decides that being dead is the most effective way of making Davie’s pain go away?”

Karl pulled back, his indrawn breath hissing.

“Yes,” she continued, “that might not be what Davie thinks is the best outcome. And if I ask the universe to send him strength? What if that makes his cancer stronger? Do you understand? The hardest part of magic is deciding if you
should
do it. What’s the cost? What are the unintended consequences?”

Karl nodded slowly.

“This is the responsibility that makes anyone with sense hesitate to get involved in magic,” said Amber. “If I could do something for Davie, I would. Way back when we were working together I asked him what he wanted.”

Karl looked deep into Amber’s dark eyes.

“What did he want?” he whispered.

“Chocolate ice cream, sweet Italian sausage, and a DVD player,” Amber replied with a sad smile. Unshed tears glittered. “He has to get help with grocery shopping. So the last time I visited him I got him the stuff he asked for. What else can you do for someone?” She paused, and turned away, resting her hands on the keyboard. “I should visit him again, soon.”

“I’ll come with you.”

Amber didn’t reply. When she’d visited the Ethereal Planes she’d seen pain and sorrow pulsing like bruises. There was a limit to her abilities. She could empty her soul out completely and still the pain of the world would continue. She could make a difference, but only when asked. If she survived this she would try to make the corner of the universe she occupied a better place. The questions of “how better” she would leave to the universe and the individual to sort out between them. She depended on the guidance of the Elementals. Her bracelet glowed and grew warmer and for a moment she wasn’t exhausted or in pain.

Typing rapidly Amber dug through layers of security following Davie’s guidance. Karl sat beside her lost in his own thoughts. Finally she opened the Senator Thomas for President website and followed Davie’s instructions to find the hidden pages.

“Oh, joy,” muttered Amber after she scrolled down a few pages.

“What?” Karl reached for the computer, but Amber flipped the laptop closed. Humming in complaint the computer shut down. Karl’s eyes narrowed.

“What is it?”

“Uh … The Albany witch. Her name is all over the screen. I don’t want to trigger your forget spell.”

“I only have your word for it that I have a forget spell,” Karl said suspiciously.

“Pu-leeze,” Amber closed her eyes and swore under her breath. “The note is in your own damn handwriting. Listen, Karl, I haven’t the time or patience to argue with you about this again. You either trust me or you don’t. Decide. In the meantime let me summarize. That website shows someone that you don’t like and distrust has been working for years to get Senator Thomas elected President.”

“So? I don’t think much of his chances. Thomas is an old guy with no ideas. He’s bald, he stutters and has absolutely no …” Karl waved his hands vaguely in the air. “He has no style. No presence. He talks slowly and doesn’t give good sound bites. The only reason he was elected to the Senate is that no one ran against him.”

Amber raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t you think that’s interesting? The person who was supposed to run against him dropped dead. It’s really funny how reporters who interview him write all these good things about him when there isn’t anything really to say. The media loves him. He’s bald, stutters. He doesn’t
do
anything, yet he’s a front runner. People fall all over themselves trying to give him money for his campaign. What does that sound like to you?”

Karl’s eyes opened wide and he swore comprehensively.

“Magic!”

“Magic,” Amber agreed. “And that person you don’t like and don’t trust, who might be responsible for putting all those spells on you, who might be responsible for the web that is draining the life out of so many people, including you and me … she’s listed on that website as his intended Chief of Staff.”

“Shit,” said Karl, snarling as he guessed the identity of the witch. “Gloria! Senator Thomas is her puppet.”

“Damn. You said her name. Now the forget spell is going to kick in,” Amber opened up her computer again and thrust a pen at Karl. “Quick. This is the internet page. Write the highlights down in your notebook. Remember not to write down Gloria’s name. Try to stay calm. You have half an hour. Go.”

Karl sat staring at the screen for a few moments, then faced Amber, his face implacable.

“We go to Washington in the morning,” he declared. “We have to stop her. I’m
not
going to have her running the government with magic.”

Amber nodded. His face, his manner chilled her through to her bones. She had no idea what Karl would do when and if he confronted Gloria. She had even less idea what she could do herself against all the energy Gloria had misappropriated over the years. So much experience. Gloria had every advantage. But Amber was equally determined that magic wouldn’t be used to control the next President. If Gloria was the center of this her behavior was undeniably pathological. Amber could still feel the suffering of the other people caught in the web. Their pain and fatigue were tearing at her spirit. They were dying. It was taking years to do it, but just as surely as if they had used a gun or knife, those responsible for the drain were murderers. It couldn’t continue. Given her lack of ethics, Gloria had to be prevented from achieving political power to match her magical.

“It may take us two days to get there by car,” said Amber slowly. “I don’t think I can drive the whole distance in one go. Not even with you giving me breaks.”

“We’ll see.” Karl quickly read a few paragraphs of tight web text and started making notes.

Amber read over his shoulder for a while then gave up and crawled into bed. She could barely keep her eyes open. She had the password. The information would still be there in the morning.

* * * * *

Karl stood quietly under the burning sky, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. Fingers clenching and unclenching. He shifted his naked feet on the rocky ground, seeking his center. Balancing on the strength of the stones. His breathing was soft and even. He took a few practice steps, going through the path of a kata for the first time in years.

The moves all came back easily. His hands, his body accepted the gravity. Learned the limitations. He stopped and drew in his breath, feeding his chi.

He could sense the moment the wolves appeared along the skyline. Lifting his head he watched the figures flying toward him, their claws barely touching the ground. Three. Only three attackers today. No. There, the queen, the bitch, running a few steps behind.

Karl flexed his toes, balanced on his heels. The old patterns returned so easily to his mind. As the lead wolf approached he leaned sideways, shifted his weight and swung his leg up high and hard. He snap-thrust his foot hard into the nearest wolf’s chest. The animal yipped in surprise and pain, crashing to the ground. Spinning Karl sagged his knees bringing himself down to chest height with the following wolf. His fists moved smoothly through the heavy air, slamming into her face and chest. She staggered, snarling. Karl glided three steps back, moving lightly over the stones. Without pause he ran forward again, for the first time in all his nightmares not resisting, struggling against the weight of the air, but passing through lightly. He ignored the heat, the aching dryness of his mouth. His mind was clear. Focused.

Right hand, left fist, foot flew at their target impacting solidly in the flesh of his tormentors. The startled wolves howled and dodged, tumbling over each other in their confusion. He got three solid hits on the she-wolf before she retreated snarling from the mêlée. Karl planted another kick to the hip of the nearest wolf as the dreamscape faded.

* * * * *

“Amber. Amber. Wake up. What time is it?”

Amber extended one arm from within her nest of blankets and reached blindly for the clock radio. Blinking rapidly she focused on the glowing numbers.

“Seven forty-seven,” she croaked.

“It worked. It really worked,” crowed Karl, throwing back his blankets and leaping out of bed.

“What worked?” muttered Amber as she struggled free of the sheets that had tangled around her feet in the night.

Karl bounced onto Amber’s bed, threw both arms around her and hugged her tight.

“Your idea worked! You are officially brilliant.”

Amber coughed and tried to draw in a deep breath. Karl’s tangled white curls tickled her nose. She gently brushed them away from her face, letting the strands run through her fingers. The pressure of his fingers on her back and shoulders seemed to burn through the thin fabric of her T-shirt. She wiggled uncomfortably, pushing against the weight of his body. Surprisingly she was unable to make him move away. He seemed more substantial this morning. Stronger. Heavier. And touching him wasn’t making her personal energy flow into him.

“Make sense will you?” her voice was harsher than she intended. She closed her eyes and settled back under the blankets. “It’s too early in the morning for riddles.”

“That’s the whole point,” cried Karl. “It’s late. It’s almost eight. We didn’t wake up at 5:16. They didn’t drain us. I beat their asses, and it was all your idea.”

Amber’s eyes snapped open and she struggled to sit up. Karl rolled off her and sprawled on the other side of her bed, mock punching the air in his glee. Levering herself up onto her elbows she looked again at the clock. For the first time in days she hadn’t been woken by the five a.m. energy drain. Amber turned back to Karl, scanning his aura. It was almost as bright as a healthy, uninfected person. His aura bore some signs of the chronic damage, but otherwise he looked well. She raised her hand and tried to summon her personal power. After a moment she saw a brief flicker. Carrying the weight of so many more threads it would take her more than one night to recover.

“Elements protect us. What did you do?”

Karl’s grin was positively vicious.

“Karate.” he said. “I remember what you said about Tai Chi being slowed down martial arts. I just waited for them. When the wolves arrived I just stood there and let them get good and close. I practiced a few moves after you went to bed last night. I did the punches and kicks really slowly. I used to have a black belt, you know. I may not have the old strength and flexibility, but they weren’t expecting me to be able to fight at all. When the wolves attacked, I gave them a couple of kicks in the butt; that’s only a downpayment on what I owe them. I got the bitch queen a couple of good ones in the chest and the face. I hope she has a good bright shiner today.” Karl rolled to face Amber, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “I couldn’t have done it without you. I didn’t know what was happening. If you hadn’t made me realize that the dream was real – made me remember it when I was awake, then I wouldn’t have been able to plan, to prepare for them. Thank you, Amber.”