Guatemala City, Guatemala – August, 1992
I pulled out my ear plugs and left the target range, heading for my van in the parking lot. The submachine gun was probably my favorite of my new purchases. It was astonishing what kind of weapons you could buy if you had enough cash.
I reloaded all of the weapons before putting them in a carryall in the passenger side footwell so I could reach them on the fly.
Getting into the driver’s seat, I slipped on my sunglasses then tugged on Davi’s jaguar pendant before letting it fall to my chest. I gritted my teeth against the familiar wave of grief and put the van in gear.
The one friend I’d made in the last fifty years was dead. And he’d left me a legacy of so much more than a necklace.
Davi’s gift from the Elves had turned out to be an intuitive understanding of strategy, which made computer hacking and financial investments simple for him.
As a result, he hadn’t had to think very hard to know what I’d be like after he was gone.
“Promise me you won’t be alone. I know you have to travel around, but you can talk to people online.
Get to know them. Let them get to know you. Let them care about you.”
I might not make any online friends, but the chat rooms dedicated to “the campaign” were a good way to find local magic carriers.
In my downtime from searching for the luchd-òl fola, I planned to meet as many as possible.
One of them could be my mate. It’d been long enough since that Seer’s vision.
Surely my mate was out there by now. If I had a mate, I wouldn’t be alone, and I could complete my mission.
In addition to teaching me about computers and how to sneak around online undetected, Davi had helped me rethink how I’d been hunting the luchd-òl fola.
Before, my goal had been to recover Prince Nicol first, then take out as many of the luchd-òl fola as I could.
Davi pointed out that I should be focused on reducing the number of luchd-òl fola so it would be easier to rescue the prince.
And it wasn’t like I wanted to leave any of them alive to kill more Wonders.
That afternoon, as I drove through some nameless little town roughly an hour from where the gossip in the chat rooms said the latest Wonder had gone missing, I idly turned my head and saw Barabal walking along the sidewalk, bold as you please. “Well, fuck. Thank you, Davi.”
I pulled over on the opposite side of the street and watched as she turned into a parking lot and got into the passenger side of a rusty Ford sedan. As the car circled the lot to exit, I caught sight of the driver. Tavish.
I followed the car until we were outside of town on a rural two-lane dirt road.
No one else was around for miles. They might already suspect I was following them, but if they made a turn, I wouldn’t be able to pretend anymore.
No way would they lead me to where they were hiding the Wonders and the prince. Time to implement Davi’s plan.
I reached into the carryall and pulled out what I needed. I waited until the road was as smooth as it was going to get, then I rolled down the window. Bracing my knees against the steering wheel, I propped the barrel of the grenade launcher on the side mirror.
I bared my fangs at the car ahead. “Davi, this is for you.”