Chapter 6 #3
“It can’t be utilized as a weapon.” Ezra sat back in his chair.
Blunt was always better. “Tell whatever bosses you’ve got that having a necromancer on hand to corral it each time someone opens that reliquary isn’t gonna be feasible.
There’s only so many of them, no one works for free, and screwing over a necromancer is the best way to make sure you never do anything ever again. ”
Major Grendel smiled at that last bit.
“Your fee has been paid, along with the contract-mandated healthcare and related expenses. We can get you on a plane this afternoon, but the doctors want you resting, and they’ve got that room set aside for you for the next week.
However, MERS is hoping you will consider an extended contract while we determine how to destroy the skull. ”
“Destroy it for good, and not any attempt at harnessing it for global domination?” Ezra knew he sounded doubting and sarcastic, but that was warranted.
The skull could destroy entire countries, and the stop-gap measure he employed wouldn’t work forever, especially if the skull was separated from the reliquary.
The second someone opened the reliquary the cycle would be unleashed and a blizzard from hell would descend.
His stop-gap measure would have failed the moment the reliquary sealed the skull off from draining into the earth, and it would have returned to the unending maelstrom of life and death magics within the reliquary.
“The scarcity of necromancers has won the argument for destroying the skull. The Director of MERS even dared to put in a call to the Necromancer of Boston, and he threatened to come up here himself to ‘solve the problem’ if MERS didn’t agree to destroy it.”
The Necromancer of Boston was commonly considered one of the the most powerful sorcerers in the world, and one of the fifteen publicly accounted-for necromancers.
Ezra counted himself as the unofficial sixteenth, and there were likely more dual-affinity sorcerers out there hiding their death affinity just like he was.
If the Necromancer of Boston, Angelus Salvatore, got involved, Ezra would leave him to it and go home to San Francisco before the other practitioner arrived.
That man was scary as hell, though by far the most qualified person to handle a death artifact if Ezra didn’t want to take any more chances.
He chuckled quietly to himself, reaching for another sip of his coffee—necromancers, aside from being scarce, were also notorious for refusing to bow to authority of any kind, especially government agencies.
“If the Canadian government can rustle up a nuke, I suggest dropping it in the deepest hole you can find and blowing it up.”
“Canada has no nuclear weapons,” Major Grendel said with a blank face.
“Uh huh. Ask the US, they’ve got plenty to spare.”
“I think you know as well as I do that the US government would demand the skull the instant they learned of its existence, never mind the futility of using it as a weapon. We can’t very well ask for a nuke without saying why we’d need it.
We’ve been ordered to destroy it as soon as possible, before our allies or our enemies learn about it and make things even more difficult. ”
He sighed. “Good point.”
Lilith finished her food and went about grooming herself on the chair. Ezra took a second to think about his very comfortable bed in his apartment in San Fran, then shrugged. There was no one waiting for him to get home, and the bed here wasn’t that bad.
He frowned as a thought came to him. “Simmons?”
Major Grendel shook her head once. “No sign of him or the snowmobile he stole. We’re half convinced he died out there trying to retrieve the artifact, but we’ve also got a warrant out for him, his home and office are under surveillance, and his cellphone and finances are being tracked so if any are used, we’ll know.
We’re combing through his entire life at the moment. ”
Ezra took that in, sat with it for a bit. He wasn’t going to be part of the hunt for Simmons, and he had no desire to be—tracking down people was not in his wheelhouse.
“I’ll stay, do some research into how I can destroy the skull.”
“Excellent, I’ll have Legal email you a new contract to sign,” Major Grendel stood and headed around the table toward the door.
She stopped by his chair and pulled a phone from her pants pocket.
It wasn’t his, but rather a generic smartphone.
“Here’s a phone you can use to contact me.
It’s unlocked, and has my number, and both Sergeants Brown and Owens in as two and three on the contacts list. They’ll be your point of contact if you can’t reach me directly.
Both sergeants are tasked with getting you around Edmonton, helping with whatever you need, and can bring you to the MERS base any time, day or night, to check on the artifact.
I’m the only one who can access it on the base, so they’ll call me regardless.
Try not to wake me up unless things go sideways. ”
He reached out and took the phone, and felt the need to be brutally honest. “Thanks. I’m sure my own phone is dead by now. I always forget to charge it. This won’t be any better.”
“I’ll tell the sergeants to remind you to keep this one charged.” She refilled her travel mug from the carafe on the table. “Staying here? Or we can get you a room on base. Barracks and officer housing only, but it’s not bad.”
“I’ll stay here for now. Maybe the university library has some information I can use.
And Lilith hates moving too much on assignments.
I tend to get a room and keep it for the entire contract.
Not a lot of moving around. Most of my really bad jobs are cursed objects that kill a bunch of people in a small radius, and I shut it down within a day or two of arrival. ”
Major Grendel eyed him like she had no idea if he was joking or not, and then she shrugged. “Take the day to rest from burnout. The sergeants will bring you a MERS laptop with access to our archives to help you out tomorrow morning. Keep me updated daily.”
“Um, okay.” He would do his best to remember to fill her in on his progress. And that laptop would gather dust. Ezra was not tech savvy at all. He preferred books. “Skip the laptop, or give it to the sergeants to use. I won’t touch it.”
She squinted at him, but nodded after a minute, and he took that as agreement.
“Rest up.” She paused on her way out of the room. “You did a good job out there in the forest, Redmayne. Keep it up.”
He really had no idea how to respond to that so he just nodded, eyes wide. She saluted him with her travel mug and left the conference room, the huge space suddenly feeling empty. Lilith merped inquisitively as she set down her paw, done with her bath.
“Daddy is gonna finish eating, then let’s grab a nice, long nap. Can’t save the world again if I stay this tired.”
She slow-blinked in approval, her soft purr warming him as she kept him company while he ate.