Genie and Engineer 1: The Engineer Wizard (38 page)

Paul glanced around at all of her belongings. “I am sure
that when
Errabêlu
gets their act together, this is one of the first
places they will look for me. So we can’t stay here long at all. Only long
enough for you to get your most valuable possessions and even then only if they
are small and lightweight. Mementos, souvenirs, a small selection of clothes
and whatever. And your manual wheelchair, of course, not the electric one.
Start making a mental list right now. Keep it short. We don’t want to be here
when they arrive.”

Capie’s blood drained from her face. “I have to make
choices? Right now? How much time do I have?”

Paul carefully considered her question. “To be on the safe
side, maybe half an hour.”

She was aghast. “But all my books! My videos! There is no
way!”

He turned to her. “I had to leave my entire DVD and Blu-ray
collection along with all my books in California. And I
still
haven’t
finished David Weber’s latest
Honor Harrington
book!”

Horrified, Capie glanced around the room. “A half hour?”

“Hurry, dear,” Paul urged her. “Oh, and you will need to
pack a suitcase or two, like for a long trip. Let me get a box of plastic bags
and your suitcases while you start on your list. Oh, and turn your cell phone
off. We don’t want anyone to track you through it.”

In short order, Capie pointed out a very long list of
clothing, knick-knacks, souvenirs, and other personal belongings, including
Patches. At first, Paul argued with her, trying to explain that for one thing
he didn’t have the power to move all her personal belongings.

“We just can’t take all this stuff right now! It’s just too
much mass!”

She shot him a long look.

Trying to jostle her into a better mood, he tried a quote on
her. “‘But not having enough power to reach far places! Yes, Zathras
understand. Everyone always coming to Zathras with problems. Big responsibility
but Zathras does not mind. Zathras trained in crisis management.’”

In spite of herself, Capie grinned. “
Babylon 5
, ‘Conflicts
of Interest.’ Great episode. But this isn’t the time to tease me about my
luggage!”

In desperation, Paul turned to Jaret. “I’m going to need
your help.”

The other wizard smiled. “In this situation, you have it. My
mother was the same way about her things too.”

“Thanks, Jaret,” Paul nodded with a grateful smile. “I know
a place where you can help me temporarily put all this stuff for safe-keeping
and it’s only a couple of miles from here. Even Patches will be safe.”

They worked like mad. An hour and a half later, after making
a fairly sizeable dent in her belongings, Capie finally relented to pleas for
her to stop.

She gave Paul a sad smile. “Is there time to go see my
father next? Do we have time to explain to him what is going on?”

Considering her question took only a few seconds. “We can’t
tell him any of the details of The Plan,” Paul told her. “The less he knows the
less that they can worm out of him later. And you’re right. If we go to see him
at all, now is the time, before the Army, FBI and whoever else recovers from
the surprise of my escape. After that, your father will be closely watched, in
case we try to contact him again.”

“What plan is this?” Jaret asked. “Am I missing something?”

“Yes,” Paul replied. “It’s all part of that long story I can’t
explain yet.”

“He’s not in Wisconsin right now,” Capie explained. “He’s at
the Adler Planetarium in Chicago helping a group of grad students prepare a
display.”

“I have done a little checking,” Jaret said to Paul. “As
best I can tell, there are no other wizards in detectable range. So, if we are
careful with our spells, we should be able to go see her father in this city as
long as our portal jumps are short ones.”

“Let’s go then,” Paul urged them, feeling the urgency of the
situation. With a wave of his hand, Capie’s three suitcases lined up and stood
at attention. “We’ve spent way too much time here.”

Jaret held up a hand. “Before we go, there is something else
I must tell you.”

Paul took a calming breath. “Please make it fast.”

“The same rules apply, as before,” the ex-genie said, with a
half-smile. “Everything you do must appear to have been done by you without any
help from me. The other wizards of the world must not know I am here. If things
get dangerous, if it looks like they are closing in on you, I won’t be able to
help you. Do you understand?”

Capie blinked several times. “Why can’t you help?”

“Long story,” the two men told her in unison.

Paul created a new portal.

• • • •

With three people involved and three heavy suitcases, Paul was
anxious to keep his portal energies low. Therefore he limited the jumps to a
mile or so at a time. After several such jumps in as many minutes, they
navigated from Wheaton down to the lake front. They emerged from the last
portal at the foot of the sweep of concrete steps leading up to the front
entrance of the domed structure of the Adler Planetarium.

Paul took a moment to visually sweep the area. The sun was
setting to the west, daylight failing fast. The parking lot was nearly empty
and only a handful of people could be seen at all. None of them were even
remotely near the Planetarium.

Paul glanced over at Capie. “We must make this visit with
your father as short as possible. Our lives are at stake here.”

She quickly nodded, her eyes also studying the area around
them. “I understand.”

It was obvious to all three of them that the Planetarium was
closed for the day. But Capie quickly spotted a lone figure more than two
hundred feet away, off towards the west and down the parking median. Framed
against the setting sun to the west, the silhouette was facing away from the Planetarium,
one arm to his right ear.

“That’s him!” she said, a little surprised to see that her
father wasn’t inside the building.

She turned her wheelchair around and started moving in that
direction, crossing the U shaped asphalt road to the concrete median on the
other side. Paul and Jaret had to step lively to keep up with her. The luggage
followed along smartly in their wake.

“Let me do all the talking, okay?” she said in that matter
of fact tone that said she meant business. “This is going to take a lot of
explaining, even with a few magic spells from both of you to prove you are really
wizards.”

But the movement of the figure on the sidewalk suggested to
Paul that the professor was having a very energetic phone conversation with
someone. The professor was hunched forward, making wild sweeping arm gestures
and practically stomping his feet. And even though they could not hear what was
being said at that distance, they could hear him shouting. His anger was
self-evident. So, with only a moment’s hesitation, Paul cast a spell to open a
small audio portal to the man.

“…it’s my daughter that’s in danger here, Connor!” snarled
Chris Kingsley’s voice clearly and with great vehemence.

Capie froze, her wheelchair coming to a sudden stop. Her
eyes opened wide in surprise.

“You need to tell your contacts in Washington that I expect
immediate action!” Kingsley roared. There was a pause. “I won’t have that
murdering lunatic anywhere near my daughter, do you hear me? Catch him! Do
whatever it takes! Use deadly force, if need be, but I want my daughter
protected!” Another pause. “You tell me that the Feds successfully caught Paul Armstead
but then they let him escape! So help me, Connor, I swear if anything happens
to my daughter, I will wring your scrawny little neck!”

And then he slapped his phone hard, hanging up.

Paul quickly glanced at Capie, to see how she was taking this
sudden revelation. And it wasn’t hard to see the storm clouds building in her
expression.

“Capie?” he said softly. “Don’t say or do anything….”

But she was focused on her father and with deft control of
the wheelchair, she was shooting forward at high speed, quickly closing the gap
with him.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Capie screamed and snarled in the
same voice. Paul was instantly impressed. Her tone scared him spitless and he
wasn’t even the object of her wrath!

Chris spun around, blinked several times and moved toward
Capie but stopped when he saw how angry she was.

“Capie!” he cried. “When did you get here? Why haven’t you
answered your phone? I was just on my way to find you!” And then he saw Paul
and Jaret jogging along behind her and his expression changed from puzzlement
at Capie’s sudden presence to one of uneasiness and dread.

“You answer my question first, Dad!” she hotly demanded, the
wheelchair screeching to a sudden halt in front of him. “Did you have something
to do with Paul’s arrest?”

Her father frowned in puzzlement and glanced over first at
Paul and then at Jaret.

“Don’t mind him,” Paul informed the man. “Jaret’s a friend
of mine. But please, do answer Capie’s question. I too would like to know the
answer.”

“Connor told me that the FBI arrested him earlier today,”
Chris admitted. He took a quick look at his daughter. “Honey, I have some bad
news about this man. He’s no good. He’s one of the most wanted fugitives in the
country. The FBI has been looking for him for nearly a year for murder, extortion
and grand theft.” He took Capie’s hand and held it tight, looking down into her
frowning face. “I’m going to call the police to arrest him. Honest, honey, I
know it hurts but it is the right thing to do. It’s in your best interests, I
promise. You don’t want to be married to a man who is going to rot in some
Federal prison somewhere.”

Paul saw the light dawn in Capie’s eyes.

“You called the FBI didn’t you, Dad?” she asked accusingly.

Chris’s jaw dropped open but he recovered quickly enough.
“Honey, didn’t you hear what I said? He’s a murderer!”

“Did you or did you not call the FBI?” she snapped.

“What
difference
does it make who called the Feds?”
Chris loudly protested. “The man is a murderer! I am
glad
I called
Conner and asked to have this fiend checked out! It’s much better that you know
all of this now instead of later! I did that to
protect you!
And I would
do it again in a heartbeat! Don’t you understand?! He’s bad, honey! He’s not
the right man for you! I’m saving you from being murdered by this fiend….”

It was obvious that the Professor wasn’t going to let his
daughter get another word in edgewise until he had said his piece and convinced
her that he was right and she wrong.

But Capie wasn’t going to put up with it. Her face was
almost beet red, she was so mad. And with an abrupt jerk forward, she swung her
feet free of the footplates and onto the ground and then yanked herself
forward.

“…killed two Mexican police officers in cold… Hey, be
careful, honey, you’ll fall!”

But she easily managed to get to her feet. “No, I won’t,” she
hissed back at him, as she wavered a little back and forth but managed to keep
herself vertically stable.

Chris gulped twice, took a small step backward and stared
speechlessly at his daughter in total shock.

“Yes, Dad, I can stand now! I can even slowly walk a couple
of steps. And do you know who did this for me?! Well, Mr. Smart guy who knows
all the answers?! Do you have any idea who gave me my legs back so that I could
stand and walk again? No? You don’t have a clue, do you? Well, I’ll tell you!
Paul Armstead is that person! My husband to be! He did it! And I’ll love him
forever for what he has done for me and for the kind of man he is. So I don’t
want to
hear
you trashing him!
DO YOU HEAR ME
? If you want to
keep me as your daughter, YOU WILL STOP BAD-MOUTHING HIM THIS SECOND!
Am I
clear on that score
?”

Open mouthed, Chris stared at Paul then back to his
daughter.

“Honey, I….” he slowly whispered before he lost his voice.

“Yes, Henry Kaufman was an alias!” she charged on. “As you
found out. And the government does want him but not because he has committed
any crimes. But because he is a wizard. Dad, they have tried to
kill
him
because he has magical powers! Paul, show him what you can do!”

Caught on the spot, Paul blinked several times and gasped.

And just what spell should I use to convince a scientist
that I’m a wizard
? he silently challenged himself.

Jaret leaned forward and whispered, “I have always found
flying pink elephants to be effective in this situation.”

Paul set his jaw and held out both hands a little over a
foot apart. With a silent spell, lightning flashed between his fingertips
creating a ball of white hot plasma, crackling with energy.

“Not bad,” shrugged Jaret. “But even though we can’t afford
to use spells that are too powerful, lest we attract the wrong sort of
attention from you know who, we can do better than that. Like this.”

Throwing his arms into a sweeping motion, Jaret turned to
his right and uttered a few quiet words. A small ball of mist formed, growing
quickly, solidifying into a silver-colored, crafted  oil lamp straight out of
Arabian Nights, complete with embossed Arabic symbols. A cloud of smoke gushed
forth from the spout, rising into the air and forming a fantastically beautiful
woman in a rather skimpy costume. Her flaming red hair was done in ponytail
fashion, the ponytail flowing around her waist and down one leg.

In the back of his head, Paul could distantly hear the theme
song of
I Dream of Jennie
playing softly in the background. He shook his
head at Jaret.

“You’ve got to do better than that, guys!” scoffed Capie in
derision. “I’ve seen better magic acts at traveling carnival shows!”

Jaret snorted. “A tough crowd, heh? Very well.” And he swung
his arms wider, this time turning to the left.