Chapter 17
A Sweet Picnic Where Nothing Happens
By late afternoon the sun had dried the meadowy grass covering the hill, prompting the group to move from their stakeout bench to a spot a bit closer to the tower.
The new spot was atop a different hill, slightly up the way from Taran’s house, which afforded them a perfect view of the entire grounds; unfortunately, most of the house was about or within the hill, so they mostly stared at the tower and made note of anyone who entered and exited the premises.
On any other day, Mal would have considered a stakeout mind-numbingly dull, but today it was exactly what he needed.
The group took shifts using a pair of binoculars Des had “borrowed” from her job, and they attempted to be as inconspicuous as possible.
Between his shifts Mal perused his book, making sure to obscure the cover from anyone walking by.
The group chatted and laughed, passing the time at a leisurely pace; Mal enjoyed the calm of it all.
Mal thought that he would choose a simpler case next time, something he could solve with a simple resurrection, wouldn’t that be nice.
This case seemed to get more confusing by the second, especially if you add in Des’s thoughts on the matter.
She was convinced the zombie attacks and murders were related.
She made some good points; the lightning killer and the zombies had both tried to kill them specifically, and it would be a strange coincidence if two separate nutters had decided to attack them in the same week. But how were they related?
Their suspect pool was tiny and impossible: Mazino seemed both obvious and ludicrous, with him being both dead and imprisoned at the time of the killings; Taran fit the bill for the lightning murders but had no motive and no knowledge of the Order.
That was that, end of list. What other suspects did they have?
For the zombies, none at all. It wasn’t Mal, and Kosh was dead and spiked two days before it happened, so who else could it be?
A mystery necromancer who can teleport, shoot lightning, and knew about the Order?
Taran knew about necromancy, he all but pointed to Mal and said as much—could he be a secret necromancer?
Mal imagined the Order would know of such things, but they weren’t infallible, as proven by the incident with Erik.
Mal flashed back to the most recent murder scene, then the lamp chase.
At least we caught one killer? he thought.
Solving one out of their two cases wasn’t bad.
If you counted Erik as being “caught” you could even say it was two out of three, though Erik did kill those criminals on their watch.
Mal struggled to wrap his head around how it all fit together.
So many pieces, so many dead, what was it all for?
Was it a spree? Why attack the Order? Was it a serial killer who just enjoyed the crimes?
Was it all a plan to break out Mazino? Was the plan even complete?
How many more bodies would drop before they solved this?
Mal had been staring at a page of his book but not actually reading it, too busy in thought to concentrate on anything that might be helpful. He closed the book and looked up to see whose shift it was, and Hala promptly handed him the binoculars. Looks like it was his turn.
He spent the next twenty minutes staring at the old tower atop the grassy hill.
Very little, if anything, happened in this time.
Several people walked past the tower—bird watchers, dog walkers, strange people who enjoy moving their legs as a pastime—but nothing from the house.
Mal guessed Taran must be like any other old man, living peacefully, enjoying a head full of memories and the relaxation of retirement.
Mal always thought retirement sounded awfully dull.
What would you do with all that time? Maybe he would understand when he got there; if the rest of Mal’s life continued as this week had, he would relish a long, final break.
Taran would’ve had more adventures than most people, so he was probably enjoying the calm like Mal was.
Mal remembered how their interview with Taran had gone, with Elaine getting upset as they were leaving.
Mal wondered what kind of illness Taran was struggling with.
What had Elaine said? “He’s only really lucid in the mornings.
” Maybe some kind of dementia or Alzheimer’s?
Mal remembered how his granddad had suffered the same, those final years where he didn’t recognize Mal at all. Not a fate he wished on anyone.
Mal pushed the bad memories to one side and checked the time; it was time for someone else’s shift.
He passed the binoculars to Des and smiled as she reached out from under her ridiculous hat to use them.
She kept having to bat away the edges as they folded down in front of the binoculars, causing the group to giggle.
Mal reached into his pocket and produced the egg-timer-hourglass-thingy.
He marveled at it, trying to comprehend how it actually worked.
Its time was still set to forty-eight hours, but it needed resetting as the sand parts were full; clearly the time part didn’t rotate back to zero like a regular egg timer.
The fact it was bright pink also baffled Mal.
Who could have designed such a strange thing?
None of this mattered, of course; Mal would use it and then he would be free.
His parents could live their lives—well, deaths—without any intervention from Mal. It would be glorious, he—
“Something’s happening,” Des said, ushering the group to look down the hill toward the tower.
“What is it? I can’t see …” Hala said, straining her eyes.
“Taran just appeared outside,” Des said, “from out of nowhere. Now Elaine’s out there with him. She seems to be trying to coax him back inside.”
“What happened?” Yu asked.
“He just appeared in a flash. He scared the arse out of some hikers,” Des said, handing Mal the binoculars for him to have a look.
Mal looked down and saw Elaine wrapping a blanket around a hobbling Taran as she slowly got him moving back inside. It was getting late in the day now; Taran would be struggling if what Elaine said was true. Caring for a dementia patient is hard, let alone one who can teleport at will.
“He must have warped out by accident,” Mal said, passing the binoculars to Hala.
“Blinked,” Yu said, correctively.
“What?” Mal said.
“Warping and blinking are two different things,” Yu said. “Taran would have blinked out.”
“Aren’t they just the same thing?” Mal said.
“Warping is when one person teleports another person, blinking is when you teleport yourself.” Yu was happy to have everyone’s ear.
“They look different too. If you’re warped you appear and disappear as if in smoke, like a haze, but if you blink you just zap into existence.
It’s normally accompanied by a pop. The two feel quite different as well, I’ve been told. ”
“Yeah, I’ve warped a bunch of times with work.” Des paused; Mal could see the painful realization slowly settling in. “When I … you know. Anyways, it makes your brain feel like it’s on fire. It’s awful.”
Mal remembered the recent times when he’d been “warped”: twice by Kosh, and once by one of those vampires.
He remembered how awful he’d felt the second time.
It sounded like Mal was getting off lightly by comparison.
Mal checked the time again. The Order’s big meeting would have already started; luckily he would only be catching the end of it, so he didn’t need to leave right this instant.
Mal looked back down at the egg-timer-hourglass-thingy as the others continued discussing warping and blinking.
Something about it tugged on his mind. The same way the lamp had.
Well, the man hiding as a lamp had. Forty-eight.
Why forty-eight? Something else pushed its way into his mind.
Something Vlad had said. “An old guy warped in … then he blinked away.”
He’d only heard one pop.
Someone was warped in, then blinked away.
Murray died first, so no one could be turned to stone.
Forty-eight hours to get past the other checks.
The big meeting, bringing together the whole Order.
Who would kill a dying man?
Like the tumblers of a lock, everything fell into place. A suspect. A motive. A hideous plan. This last realization struck Mal the hardest. If Mal was right, everyone in that meeting was doomed; they’d be walking into a massacre. Walters was walking into a massacre.
Mal jumped to his feet, startling the group.
“We have to go, right now, or else everyone’s gonna die.”
The group jumped up with him, concern and confusion marking their faces.
“What?” Hala and Yu said almost in unison.
“Mal, slow down,” Des said, putting a hand on his arm. “What’s happening?”
“I’ve solved the thing.” Mal’s mind was a jumble of panic and dread. “We need to stop Walters. It’s a trap, it’s all a—” Mal turned to Yu with more speed than he meant to, making Yu jump. “Can you stop someone from being warped?”
“What? Me? Personally? Probably not. Why?” Yu replied.
“How? How can it be done?” Mal said, pushing the words out his mouth with such force they barely formed sentences.
“A binding spell could work. Sometimes people make a sort of magical Faraday cage.”
“How long would that take?” Mal said. He turned back to Des. “You need to call Walters and warn him, the meeting’s a trap.”
Des nodded, pulling out her phone, while Hala packed up all their things ready for them to leave.
“About an hour if you know what you’re doing?” Yu said, a look of uncertainty punctuating their sentence.
“Fuck. We have to go,” Mal said.
“Where?” Yu said, picking up a bag.
“To that tower.”
The group hurried down the hill after Mal with a breathtaking speed. Not breathtaking in the sense of shock and awe, but breathtaking in the quite literal sense that very quickly, barring Des of course, they all lost their breath.
“I can’t get hold of Walters,” Des said, scrambling around with her phone. “I’ve sent him a text, but nothing. That stupid headquarters must not have any signal. You sure it’s a trap?”
“As sure as I can be without being there,” Mal said, wheezing through the pain of a stitch.
They trundled down the path, leaving their stakeout hill and starting up onto the hill with the tower. Quickly, they crested its peak and got to the tower’s front doorstep. As they got there a concerned-looking Elaine opened it, seeming confused and surprised by their presence.
“How long has he been disappearing?” Mal said, folding in half, out of breath from the run.
“What?” Elaine said.
“Just this last month or so, right?” Mal said. He found his tone to be more combative than usual. Des began to protest, but stopped as Hala put a hand on her. They watched Elaine’s face change from confusion to shame.
“Six times in total?” Mal said. “Well, you were with him for one of them, weren’t you?” Tears crept into her eyes. Tears that told the group Mal was right.
“Is he still here?” Mal huffed out. “Has he already gone?”
“He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Elaine said, stifling the tears. “He’s just confused.”
“IS HE STILL HERE?” Mal yelled.
“He just disappeared,” Elaine said with a sob.
“Did you see him go?” Mal said. “Was it like smoke? Or did he pop away?”
“Like smoke,” Elaine said, confused.
Mal turned away from Elaine to the group. “We’re too late. We need to get to that meeting now.”
“Mal, explain what’s happening,” Des said, planting her feet. Mal knew how stubborn she was; he got a flash of her stomping right up to the door of that vampire commune. Hala and Yu moved forward in anticipation.
“We’ve been staring at the murder weapon’s house all day,” Mal said. “Remember what you said to my parents about your first year on the job?”
“Yeah, drunks and old people,” Des said.
“You made that joke about how it’s harder to help old people when they can shoot fireballs at you.” Des nodded. “Well, what happens when that old person is one of the most powerful wizards alive?”
“That’s a big fireball,” Hala said.
“But with Taran it would be …” Mal said.
“Lightning,” Des and Yu said at once.
“Big enough to blast a hole in your chest.” Mal mimed the area Murray was missing from his stomach. “Now imagine someone ‘warped’ that person against their will. Taran arrives in an unknown place, dazed and confused, in agony from the warping. What happens then?”
“Oh shit,” Des said.
“We need to get to that meeting,” Mal said.
“It’s not his fault,” Elaine said from behind them.
“You need to come with us,” Hala said, looking at Elaine. The others turned to her, confused. “We’ll need someone to calm Taran down.”
“Good thinking,” Des said.
“But why the meeting?” Yu said, as Elaine and the group started off down the hill toward Avalon.
“Because someone wants the Order gone,” Mal said. “I just hope we’re not too late.”