I was attempting to sleep in on a weekend – I’d been told to take it slow, after all – when my phone began to buzz. I picked it up and squinted at the phone. It was eight in the morning. I would have ignored it if the number hadn’t said Justin’s Office.
That woke me up real quick. I sat up, wiping some drool from the corner of my mouth, and answered. “Alek Fitz.”
“Alek,” came Justin’s response. “It’s Justin. Long time no talk. You doing well?”
“Justin, it’s fucking eight in the morning on a Sunday. I might work these kind of hours, but I know you don’t. What’s going on?”
There was a long pause. “No small talk then, huh?”
I was worried now, and I rolled over to sit on the edge of my bed. Maggie, wake up.
I’m up. What’s going on?
I didn’t answer her. “No,” I told Justin. “No small talk. Is everything okay?” I felt a spike of fear as I wondered if OtherOps had found out that I was using that stolen login info to search their database. I reasoned with myself that even Justin probably wouldn’t give me a heads up if I was in really deep shit. He’d be knocking on my door with a couple of arresting officers, not calling me at this hour.
“Yeah, everything is okay,” Justin said slowly. “Hey, do you remember all that stuff with Kimberly Donavon?”
It was hard not to, between the necromancer that tried to kill me for Maggie’s ring and the whole situation with Ferryman happening at the same time. I switched gears mentally, but that fear didn’t go away. “I do.”
“You’re not ready to talk about that yet, are you?”
I felt Maggie tense up in the back of my head. I rubbed the gunk out of my eyes. There was no way he was calling just because of that. I hadn’t heard from him for six or seven weeks after I told one of his nosier colleagues to go fuck himself. “Not really,” I told him.
“That’s … not great.”
“Why?”
Another long pause. “Look, I’m not supposed to tell you any of this. My boss was pretty pissed that you wouldn’t testify beyond acknowledging that Nick the Necromancer attacked you. But here’s the deaclass="underline" we’ve been investigating Kimberly Donavon’s involvement in all of that for the last couple of months while she sits in a holding cell in Canton. She hasn’t said a word since we arrested her, but we finally worked out a deal with her lawyer. In exchange for witness protection, she’s going to tell us about the whole situation.”
Maggie inhaled sharply. If Kimberly spilled her guts to OtherOps, they would know that I was holding Maggie’s ring. They might keep a lid on it and treat her privacy with respect … or the whole thing might go public and everyone would know that I’m carrying around a jinn. In the short term, that would destroy the ace-in-the-hole that gave me an edge in my job. In the long term, it meant that all of Maggie’s old enemies – or any human or Other who decided to try to capture the power of an enslaved jinn – would come looking to kill me and get her ring.
So. Not great news.
“Okay,” I replied lamely.
“Thing is,” Justin said, “we made that deal on Friday. Last night, someone shanked Kimberly in her cell. It was messy too. A corrupt guard made sure the cell door was open and two of the other prisoners tried to kill her. She’s still holding on, but she’s in critical condition. We’re moving her to a supermax hospital wing.”
I digested this news. I kinda hoped Kimberly didn’t make it but immediately felt ashamed at the hope. She was not a bad person, after all. I didn’t have to ask to know that Maggie was cheering for that untimely death. I considered the implications and wondered if OtherOps was going to try to finger me for the attack. “Is she going to make it?”
“The staff thinks so. The reason I’m calling you is this: we’re pretty sure someone put Kimberly up to the whole thing – hiring Nick to kill you and all that. It doesn’t make sense, otherwise. She’s an intermediary. I’m worried that whoever did this – well, they’re trying to shut her up now. And if they have the juice to get someone shanked inside an OtherOps prison, they’re probably a serious badass. I’m worried they might come after you directly, and I wanted to give you a heads up.”
“And?”
“Aaaaaand offer you protection if you’re willing to talk about it.” He kept talking quickly, before I could answer. “If you know something, we can put a couple of specialists on your tail, watching your back for a couple of months while we sort it all out. Even if it’s one of your clients, if they mean you harm, they’re going outside the Rules and it won’t affect your reputation to put a stop to the whole thing.”
I ran a hand through my hair, still trying to shake the last of the sleep from my head. Mags? I could feel her pacing around, the nervous energy trickling through the back of my head. It’s Matthias, isn’t it?
It has to be. The fucker let OtherOps get too close and is trying to clean up his mess now. Once he takes care of Kimberly and Nick, he’ll work out another way to get at me. At us.
Us. Maggie was his old enemy, but I was the bearer of her ring, so by default I was a target too. I was annoyed more than angry. Maggie was my friend. I would do what I could to protect her. How long do we have until Matthias decides to try again?
No idea. He’s patient as hell. I hope it’s not for a while, but …
But what?
I’m making my own plans. I still hope we can lure him in at some point and force him to let me out of here.
It was an option that we’d talked about off and on since I found out about Matthias. It put both of us at extreme risk, but it did so on our terms.
Do we tell OtherOps the whole thing and hope they can find Matthias before he decides to take another crack at us? Maybe they can convince him to let you out.
She considered this for a few moments. If I thought OtherOps could help, I would have said so long ago. But I don’t trust any of their magicians with my ring any more than I do Matthias.
Understood. If Kimberly pulls through and tells OtherOps what she knows, we might not have a choice. For now I’m gonna keep it quiet.
Agreed, Maggie replied.
“Alek?” Justin asked. “You still there?”
“I’m here. Look, I’ve got nothing to add. Sorry. Thanks for giving me the heads up about Kimberly. I’ll watch my back and let you know if anything else happens.”
Justin sighed unhappily. “You’re sure?”
“Definitely.”
“All right. I don’t mind saying I’m worried about you. Let’s get a beer soon.”
“Will do. Have a good one.” I hung up and blinked down at my bare feet for a couple of minutes, considering the conversation. “This is the last thing I need right now.”
Justin is a good guy, Maggie replied.
“Yeah, he is. Shit.” I looked at the calendar on my phone, then scrolled through the notes I’d taken over the last few days. I wondered if I was taking things too slow. It was time, I decided, to get back to work.
I waited a few hours before calling my client. He was answered on the fifth ring.
“Who the fuck is this?” a gruff voice asked.
“Boris, it’s Alek Fitz.”