“What the hell you are playing at, Ray?” Liz stood next to a chair but didn’t sit, looking down at me with a frown.
“You got my note, I take it?”
“The one that said: ‘Make sure everyone gets a good night’s sleep?’ That note? Because that explained basically nothing. Why would you even bother slipping that to me?”
“It wasn’t meant to explain. Anyone could have seen it. It was just meant to make you come find me. After checking that Tom was asleep, of course. He was, I assume?”
“Absolutely dead to the world,” she confirmed. “Which is a bit odd. I know I’m not the expert here, but I could have sworn neither of them really drank that much.”
“No, but when you mix whiskey and sedatives like that, it can really kick your ass. Trust me, I tried it on myself a few times just to make sure. Sit, have some tea.”
I pushed a cup across the table towards her. She studied it suspiciously for a moment before finally dropping into the chair. She pointedly did not drink.
“You know,” Liz idly ran a finger along the rim of her cup. “I never thought I would ask you this question in precisely this way, but you’re sober, aren’t you?”
I chuckled,
“Of course I am, we’re working, aren’t we?” I winked. “It’s a shame, though, I was really enjoying my retirement.”
“Like hell you were,” Liz scoffed.
“Well, you’re the shrink,” I shrugged. “Anyway, we have a lot to discuss and not much time to do it in, so we had better get to…”
“Oh no,” Liz interrupted. “We aren’t just moving on without you explaining how the hell you pulled that off.”
“What? I don’t get to have secrets? I never pry into yours.”
“What secrets do I have?”
I raised an eyebrow,
“Really, Liz? I said I wouldn’t pry, but at least do me the courtesy of not treating me like an idiot.”
“You’re right, I apologize,” Liz raised her hands in surrender, but did not elaborate any further. “But seriously, you aren’t going to tell me? I watched very carefully. I saw you all drink tea from the same pot. You drank more than they did, and I know there was nothing else in those mugs when you brought them out. I checked. So, how?”
“Did you ever do magic as a kid?” I asked, lifting an empty cup and idly turning it over in my hands as I spoke.
“I can’t say I did.”
“Well, I loved it. I bought books and practiced all the tricks, you know cards, cup and ball, a few with scarves and coins. Honestly, I wasn’t especially good at it, but people humor you when you’re 10, you know?”
“Ray, does this story have a point?”
“Of course it does. I am answering your question. It was magic.”
“Look if you don’t want to tell me…”
“No, really. It was a magic trick. Have you ever heard of an assassin’s teapot?”
Liz shook her head.
“It’s a classic trick. Some people even say it was really used to assassinate people, but I don’t know if that is true or not. Either way, magicians have certainly used it. See, this teapot looks perfectly ordinary, but it actually has two chambers inside of it, which means I can dispense two different liquids, depending on which of these holes in the handle I cover, when I pour. If I was a magician, I could pour different drinks, like coffee and milk, from the same pot to the delight of my audience. An assassin might use the same drink in both but add poison to one and not the other. This is… closer to the latter. My two drinks are ordinary tea, and tea spiked with whiskey and sedatives. Here, I’ll show you,” I placed the empty cup down and poured the small amount of liquid that remained in one chamber, then pushed it across the table. “Smell that, don’t drink it.”
Liz raised the cup and sniffed briefly before recoiling,
“Jesus, Ray, is there any tea in that at all?”
“Not much,” I admitted, retrieving her empty cup from earlier and filling it up again. “Now try that one.”
Liz sniffed it again before taking a tentative sip,
“Ok, that’s kind of cool.”
“I know, right? Magic is fun.”
“So, when you gave me that sip of plain tea before, that was you showing off the trick? Why risk that?”
“I was trying to keep you in the game. I could tell that you were losing patience with me.”
“Well, you weren’t entirely wrong,” Liz pushed the adulterated cup away before taking another sip of her tea. “You did, admittedly, have me worried for a minute there.”
“Good. Tom knows me way better than you do. If I couldn’t fool you, there is no way he would have bought it. Now, does that satisfy your curiosity?”
“Almost. What about the flask you’ve been drinking from all day?”
I chuckled and pulled it from my pocket, tossing it over to her. Liz unscrewed the cap and studied the contents.
“This is water,” she concluded.
“Yeah, it turns out you can put whatever you want in those things,” I smirked.
“And the mimosas?”
“I admit, I did in fact, drink the equivalent of a glass of champagne, about,” I checked my watch, “12 hours ago. I think I am good, now.”
“Why, though?”
“That was…” I searched for the best way to explain it, “setting expectations. Controlling what the audience expects is key to a good magic trick. I wanted everyone to make certain assumptions, so I needed to prime the pump a bit. After that, everything went exactly how you all expected it to. The boys may wake up tomorrow a bit embarrassed that they overindulged, but nothing will seem unusual about it. It’s just a shame I’m the only human who didn’t get to have any real fun tonight.”
“Bullshit,” Liz laughed. “You loved every second of it. You pulled off that scam like a pro, and you are going to ride the high for days.”
“You’ve got me there, Doc,” I grinned. “And it was nice to get to finally use that teapot for its intended purpose. I bought it in an antique shop years ago, found the gimmick amusing, but I never thought I would actually get to try it.”
“It didn’t bother you, to surreptitiously drug a friend like that?”
“Why? He started it,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Long story. Let’s just say Tom is a lot more committed to this than I had initially hoped. I am sure you noticed.”
Liz nodded,
“I did sense some… hostility.”
“Yeah, you could say that,” I sighed. “I’ve tried talking with him, but there is only so much I can do without tipping my hand. At this point, if he has to rethink things from inside a prison cell, so be it. We might have better luck with some of the younger recruits, though. Many of them are only doing this because they have been spoon-fed nothing but Wallace’s bullshit for months. I think some of them are salvageable if they get some exposure to… reality.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“But do we really want them? After what they’ve done, what they were willing to do?” Liz snorted.
“I understand your concerns, but we don’t have enough people on our side to be that picky, do we?”
Liz frowned,
“Would you work with even a repentant member of the Domini?”
I raised my eyebrows and studied her for a moment, waiting for her to realize how ridiculous that question was.
“Really, Liz?” I prompted.
“Right, Simon,” she remembered. “Ok, you have a point. It still doesn’t sit well with me.”
“I get it. Really. But they aren’t all as bad as you are imagining. What do you think of the kid?”
“Luke? I don’t know, Ray. He seems nice enough, if I ignore the fact that he hates everyone like me and wants us all dead.”
“I’ll admit, that is a hurdle, but I am working on it. Just be nice to him, I think it will help.”
“Haven’t I been so far?”
“Yes, and I really appreciate it. I doubt it has been easy.”
“No,” Liz sighed. “But you are right. His ‘choice’ was clearly made out of ignorance, not malice. The Council has discussed this situation already, and while I am not yet sure I agree, for those like him that can be persuaded, our official position is that we would rather convince them to join us, than the alternative.”
“I think that is the right call, at least for some. I have a list of people who I think will be amenable to reason, I will give it to you to take back to Gail and the others.”
“I’ll pass it along. But I hope that you didn’t just call me here for that.”
“Of course I didn’t. We are getting to that. But first I have to ask, have you seen Jess?”
“I was wondering when you would get to that,” Liz laughed. “Yeah, she made quite a splash when she showed up with her friend.”
“Thank god,” I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Worried about her, or worried that you were wrong about her?” Liz raised an eyebrow.
“Both,” I replied. “I wanted to believe her, but I was, admittedly, concerned.”
“Yeah, I could tell. She told me about how you hugged her before she left, she was worried something was wrong with you,” Liz chuckled. “I didn’t explain to her why you did that, I thought it might hurt her feelings.”
“It probably would. But you understand that I had to be sure, right? Well, as sure as I could be.”
“Awfully risky, if you had been wrong.”
“But at least the only one at risk was me.”
“Well, you can relax. She and Shawn both kept their word. They’ve stuck around and have been testing some of their techniques with Cramer’s victims.”
“How is that going?”
“Slowly. But Jess has some good ideas. We’ll see.”
“Good. And they gave you my notes?”
“Yup. Gail wasn’t exactly surprised that Wallace was behind this, but she was pretty furious that you chose to do…” Liz gestured vaguely around us, “this. I believe her exact words were ‘what the fuck does she think she’s doing?’”
“If she ever figures that out, tell her to let me know, huh?”
Liz rolled her eyes,
“You could have at least warned us. No one knew where you’d disappeared to. Until Jess turned up, we thought you might be dead.”
“I didn’t exactly have a chance to make a call. Besides, I did tell you this was what I had planned, more or less.”
The succubus shook her head,
“It’s the ‘less’ that is the problem, Ray. Simon is especially pissed at you.”
“He would be. But this wasn’t his choice to make. I told him that.”
“Be that as it may, he is still pretty upset. He wanted me to tell you that you are an asshole. And that he finished winterizing your rose bush. He thought you might be concerned.”
I chuckled ruefully,
“Honestly, of all the things to worry about,” still, I couldn’t help but smile. “If we both survive tomorrow, you’ll have to thank him for me.”
“So, you are worried, then? Despite what you said.”
“About the heist? No. That is pretty much exactly as I said. It’s what comes after that I am concerned about. And speaking of, we should get down to business. We have a lot to go over in a very short amount of time. Tom and Luke are probably out for the night, but to be safe I’d say we have about 4 hours to figure this out, and then I should get to bed, in case one of them starts to wake up. If they find me absent, all of this was pointless.”
“Right. Ok, so what is the real plan?”
“Well, there are two options. The first is the one I would recommend. I tell you everything I know, and you leave tonight, before they wake up. Get the information to the others, then lay low for a while. It is the safest, smartest way to handle this.”
“How is that supposed to work? I thought you needed me for tomorrow. And won’t they wonder why I just vanished?”
“I do, and they will, but I think I can make it work. I’ll deduce that you got cold feet and dipped, which wouldn’t be that surprising. I lose some face for recommending you, but we just go ahead with Tom’s plan.”
“Which is?”
“Storm in, rob the place at gunpoint.”
“That is barely a plan at all.”
“Trust me, I know. But this is the safest way for you. I am sure you have figured this out by now, but you are in real danger, here. I took a risk on your behalf by calling you, and I am sorry for dragging you into this. I didn’t want to, but I needed some way to pass along what I have learned, without Wallace finding out, and this was the best way I could think of. But I couldn’t possibly ask you to stick it out any further.”
“It’s that bad?”
“Yeah. I am reasonably certain that, whether we succeed tomorrow or not, they aren’t letting you walk away from this alive. It would be too risky for them. So, Tom is either planning to kill you himself, or they are planning to make me do it. If you stay beyond tonight, there is a very real chance you will end up dead.”
“And would you be coming with me, if I left?”
“No,” I shook my head slowly.
“Why not? This might be your only chance, Ray.”
“I know. I considered it, of course, but I can’t. Not yet. They are planning something big, Liz. The chemical we are stealing? I am sure it is no surprise to you that it won’t really be used to treat the Domini’s victims. Wallace has plans to use it for something much worse, and those plans are imminent. That is why we are in such a rush.”
“So, we tell Gail and Oliver, have him and his little group arrested.”
“Won’t work. I don’t know where he is housing the team working on this project, but they aren’t with the others, and there is no chance Wallace will tell you, even under interrogation. We were trained for that. You wouldn’t be able to find them before they put their plan into action. And who knows how many they might kill, even with just one attack.”
“What are we really talking about here, Ray? What kind of attack are you expecting?”
“Well, keep in mind that I am reading between the lines a bit, Wallace is smart enough not to trust me too far, but the chemical we are stealing tomorrow is a fentanyl derivative, said to be safer for humans. I can only think of one thing he would be doing with something like that,” I took a breath before finally stating my suspicions aloud for the first time. “He is creating a chemical weapon, Liz.”
“Using an anesthetic?”
I nodded,
“Yeah. Remember the Moscow theatre hostage crisis in 2002? They released a gas, believed to be some type of fentanyl derivative, or possibly a mix of more than one, to neutralize the hostage takers. And it did that, but over a hundred hostages died, too. It can be extremely dangerous if used in that way, it’s even been compared to nerve gas.”
“And if it is that dangerous to humans, to ubarae it would probably be universally deadly.”
“Exactly. I had wondered how they could possibly target ubarae without painstakingly identifying each one using Partials. I think they are going to exploit the ubarae’s heightened sensitivity to drugs, hoping to kill any in range of their weapon, while only temporarily incapacitating the humans.”
“Jesus, Ray. Would that work?”
“Hard to say for certain. I obviously don’t know exactly how it would affect ubarae, but I am betting Wallace does. He’s doing something with all those prisoners, after all. So, if he has decided to move on this, I am guessing that it works pretty well. Of course, the collateral damage from the human side is likely to be… significant. No matter how safe this new drug is, you can’t just dose thousands? Maybe tens of thousands? of people with a powerful opioid without any unintended casualties. There will be people who are already taking pain medication that will be more affected, people with conflicting medical conditions, hell, people who hit their heads when they fall unconscious. This is going to be a massacre, on both sides.”
“Can you not convince Wallace of that?”
“He isn’t stupid. He already knows. Based on the vague things he and Tom have already told me, I’m guessing he has decided these are ‘acceptable sacrifices’. If we allow Wallace to go ahead with this test, a lot of people are going to die, human and ubarae both. And I can’t let that happen. Not if there is anything I can do to stop it.”
“And is there?”
“Maybe. I need to get in deeper. If I can pull off this heist, I think he will bring me in on the big show. And then, hopefully, I will be able to gather enough information to put a stop to it before it really starts.”
“Well, that sounds great. Just one problem,” Liz drained her teacup and placed it back onto the table.
“What’s that?”
“He isn’t going to trust you if I vanish in the night. Even if they can’t prove you told me everything and then let me run, they will suspect it. You’ll go back there, they’ll lock you up or kill you, and that will be the end of it.”
“Maybe, but I still have to try. And at least if I fail, you’ll know enough to act, after the fact. We won’t be any worse off than we are now.”
“Except that you will be dead, right?” Liz sighed. “You have a much better chance if I stick around and finish the heist.”
“Of course. But like I said, they will be planning to kill you afterwards.”
“And I am assuming your ‘second option’ is a plan to work around that?” Liz raised an eyebrow.
“Yes… but it isn’t exactly safe.”
“No part of this is. You think you are the only one willing to risk your life?”
“No. But I am certainly not willing to volunteer anyone else.”
“You aren’t volunteering me. These are my people, Ray. Tell me the plan.”
I sighed. She was right, it wouldn’t have worked any other way. But I still didn’t have to like it.
“Alright, keep in mind that you can still back out any time. Here’s the second option.”