Casper Nevens looked down at the text he’d just received at his desk in the AT&T cooperate tech support office.
LSP 555-xxx-xx76?
Casper checked the number the text had come from and recognized it as one of the numbers he’d been given by the people who had made this job possible for him. “LSP” meant “Locate Smart Phone.” Casper pulled up the number and inputted an inquiry for a location. Within a minute, he had the information.
Casper pulled out his second cell phone and texted the number that had just texted him.
“36.010260410550515, -114.78463502702051 E144”
Casper closed the phone, took the sim chip out, and put a new one in it. After that, he erased the inquiry he’d just made from the servers and initiated a backup to replace any backup that had happened within the last 60 seconds. Now done with whatever he’d just done for the people who had helped him get the job, Casper returned to his normal duties and answered the next call.
***
“Mr. Pinkerton,” the voice said on the other end of the phone
“Yes,”
“This is Donald.”
“Donald wh…,” Mr. Pinkerton started to say before he recognized the voice. The man's name was not Donald, but he knew exactly who it was, “Yes, Donald, how can I help?”
“Do you have any new guests that arrived today on one of your top floors?”
“One of our regulars won the Jackpot and we comp’ed him the top floor suite. We had another million-dollar winner that had a bit of bad luck turn into some good luck?”
“Bad Luck?”
“Yes, he said that his car was being towed from somewhere south of Hover Dam on I93. In fact, I have Jason, one of our “new” hires, going to pick up his friends. He should almost be to them and back within the next three hours.”
“Do I know this new hire?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good, and the individual that won one million dollars?”
“Conrad Baker, he’s in VIP Suite 2 on the 12th floor.”
“Good. The 12th floor is off-limits for the next, let's say, four hours. I’ll call again if we need longer.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The line died, and Mr. Pinkerton took a deep breath. As this pertained to the Casino, this was good news. After 30 days, the funds that had been put into Mr. Baker's card would be released back to the casino. If he returned within 11 months, the casino would pay out his winnings. Mr. Pinkerton didn’t think he’d need to worry about Mr. Baker returning, though.
***
Jason was heading south to pick up Mr. Baker’s friends when his cell phone rang. He looked at the phone, recognized the number, and answered, “Yes?”
“You’re on your way to pick up two people?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember where we met right before you were hired?”
“I do.”
“Your boss has already been contacted. Bring your guests back to that location.”
“Of course.”
Jason closed the cell phone and put it down on the passenger seat. He was almost to where the two people he was supposed to pick up…There they were. On the opposite side of the highway, he saw a man and a woman walking in the opposite direction he was heading. They saw him and waved. Jason waved back. He went down to the next crossover point in the four-lane split highway and used it to make a U-Turn. A minute later, he caught back up to them and slowed down. He came up to the two and pulled over to park in front of them. They walked up to his car on the passenger side.
That’s when he noticed that the woman was one of the most beautiful creatures he’d ever seen. It was too bad he was taking them to the property where people were disposed of. Someone as pretty as she was probably didn’t deserve the fate her friend had made for her. Not his problem, though. He received the call that these two would be delivered to San Felipe Drive in Boulder City, so that’s where they would be delivered.
Jason waited until they came up to the passenger side window, which he’d rolled down. He unlocked the back doors and said, “Hello, are you waiting for a ride from the Hoover Dam Casino?”
***
Lopez led his team of four up the side stairway to the twelfth floor of the Casino Hotel. The fifth member of their team was bringing an empty cleaning cart that would allow them to move Mr. Baker out of the Casino without issue. All Lopez had to do was get to the target, acquire the target, and deliver the target. Diego, the man who had sent him to do this, was not someone he wanted to disappoint.
There were only two suites on this floor, and Suite 3 was empty, so the four of them met with their fifth at the elevator and moved toward the door to Suite 2. They left the cart by the elevator as the five of them went to the door. Lopez pulled out the master key and stepped up to the door as he heard.
THWIP
THWIP
THWIP
THWIP
This was followed by crashing into the wall on each side of him. Lopez looked left and noticed that the two men on his left seemed to be hanging from their heads against the wall. Anything they had in their hands dropped to the ground, and their fingers twitched or went still. He looked to the right, and the other two were doing the same. What the hell?
Lopez’s mind was pulled from the four hanging dead bodies as a voice behind him said, “If you reach for your weapon, I’ll break your arm; if you do so a second time, I’ll break the other one. Now, Turn around slowly.”
Lopez turned around slowly to find their target standing with his back to the wall across from his door. He didn’t look to be armed, so Lopez went for his gun. Before his fingers even reached the pommel of his weapon, his hand was yanked forward, and a solid CRACK resounded when his forearm was bent and snapped like a twig. The pain froze him for the instant it took the man to reach past the broken arm and touch his weapon and holster. Suddenly, the weight of his weapon and holster disappeared.
Lopez barely caught the change in weight because the pain shooting through his brain had shocked him into silence. Their target waited for him to catch his breath before he said, “You were warned.”
“You idiot, there are security cameras all over this corridor! Security will be here in a moment.
“Honestly, not my concern. Besides, how can the cameras work when the system is off?”
“We didn’t turn it off, Moron!” Lopez said.
“I know. I did.”
“What, you can’t possibly think you’ll get away with this?” Lopez asked.
Instead of answering him immediately, the target walked up to each dead man and touched them. As he touched them, they vanished. When he was done, he looked directly at Lopez, “Get away with what exactly? Oh, there they are,” Connor said absently like he wasn’t even thinking about Lopez for a moment before he focused his gaze on him again, “ I was going to ask you where my friends are, but Jason just drove by with them.”
Before Lopez could even process the information, the world went dark.
***
Connor reached forward and twisted the man's neck and then transferred him into his Mana Composter with the other four people he’d just murdered. Next, he activated Stealth and Flight as he walked back into the suite and over to the balcony. He left the balcony door unlocked in case he needed to return at some point. He couldn’t do anything about the four puncture marks in the wall, which his force daggers made when they pined the attackers to the wall, but that was okay. Mr. Pinkerton and he would talk after he was done tracking down the trash that had come after him.
Once he was outside, he used Eyes of Eris to keep track of Liza and Sam as he flew to catch up to them. In moments, he was about 100 feet above them. He followed the car Jason was driving as he continued along Highway 11 until they reached Business 93 in Boulder City. Jason left the Boulder City Parkway and continued south onto Buchanan Blvd when the parkway turned west. At Adam’s Blvd, Jason turned east and followed the road until he turned right and headed south on San Felipe Drive.
Connor watched and listened as Sam and Liza allowed Jason to bring them to their doom. Doom? Connor laughed. There was going to be doom, alright, but it would not be Liza or Sams.
As Jason pulled into a driveway and then up into the left slot of an open double garage, Connor followed the car in and moved over to the empty right slot. He stayed near the garage door and floated up near the ceiling as he sat and waited. He almost felt sorry for the idiots who were about to step out into the garage.
***
They’d passed the Casino a couple of miles back. Then, their driver, Jason, had come into Boulder City before they pulled into the garage of this large house. Sam and Liza had been sitting in the back seat of the car as it drove along the highway, and she’d taken in the sights. They’d both been quiet because they couldn’t really talk about what was going on. They were both in the past twenty-two years before SYSTEM Integration. What the hell were they not supposed to do? Could something she said change the course of history? Could something she didn’t say? She actually liked Science, and anything about time travel resonated with her, so a lot of different ideas were going through her mind. So she’d sat quietly and enjoyed the ride while Jason drove.
As the car came to a stop and the garage door started to close behind them, Liza asked, “Why are we here? I thought you were taking us to the Casino?”
Jason just looked at her with a blank stare, all hint of warmth gone, like she was a slab of meat.
Sam looked at Liza and then at Jason before he tried to open his door; it was locked. Liza did the same on her side of the back seat and found her door locked as well. Before she could ask a question, the Garage door finished closing. Masked men and women exploded out of the door into the house. What was truly a surprise was that everyone was wearing rubber suits with rubber aprons covered in…blood. Three of them stayed on Sam’s side of the car while the other three rushed around the back of the car to her door.
Liza’s brain worked just a little faster than the most intelligent human on Earth at the moment, besides Connor, of course. In a fraction of a second, she realized they looked like they were dressed to get messy, almost like butchers. She wasn’t even surprised at his point. Angry, though. Oh yes, she was starting to get really angry as rage began to simmer within her core. The girl that Liza had been just days before would have probably frozen at the naked hostility displayed by the team and the fear of what they were going to do to her. Now, though? Liza sighed and then said softly so that only Sam could hear, “You take your three, and I’ll take mine; Jason is last.
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Sam nodded and vanished as he activated Stealth.
Liza activated Stealth and then Shadow Step to appear behind the three people in front of her door on the opposite side of the garage. A moment later, she felt the pressure beside her shift and knew that Sam appeared beside her. The two people closest to each door shot their pistols through the rolled-up windows where Liza and Sam had just been sitting.
“What the Fuck!” Jason cried out as he looked into the empty back seats, “Where did they go?”
“Unlock the doors, the man closest to the door into the house called out. “
“What’s happening?” a voice called from the cell phone in the leader's hand.
***
Connor’s attention was drawn from the voice coming over the phone to the matching voice almost a half mile away in the parking area of an apartment complex on the corner of Capri Drive and Georgia Ave. One thing he was still getting used to was the range of his Eyes of Eris. How it used magic to show him everything within range was amazing. The ability to sort and categorize information was astounding as well. Still, even with his Perk Intellect of Eris, it did strain him a little to keep the Skill at its maximum range.
The man on the other end of that phone call was his true target. Liza and Sam could handle these nine people. Before he left, though, he should set up a Telepathic link with them. Connor opened their Party Chat and sent a message while the morons in the garage looked for the two invisible people standing on the opposite side of the garage. Damn. Magical Stealth was overpowered.
Connor: Hey, you two, I’m in the garage with you.
Sam: What?
Liza: What he said.
Connor: I can see you, and I picked up the skill of Telepathy while you two were walking. The connection has to be voluntary, and no, I can’t read your minds…Okay, by definition, that’s what it does, but this version I created is supposed to allow us to communicate like we’re talking. Do you two want to try it?
Liza: Sure.
Sam: I guess.
Connor targeted Liza and activated Telepathy. A moment later, Liza’s voice entered Connor’s Mind.
That wasn’t so bad, Liza sent. The skill even gave me the ability to decline communication. Holy hell, I can even hear my voice talking even though I’m not saying a word.
Connor smiled, which she couldn’t see, so he said, I can see that. Sorry you can’t see me, but I can see the two of you just fine. Let me get Sam in here.
Connor focused on Sam and activated Telepathy again.
This is so cool, Sam sent.
I know, right, Liza agreed.
Okay, you two focus, Connor said as the six people in the double-car garage moved around looking for them. With Stealth active, Liza and Sam easily dodged them. Connor even rotated so he was floating horizontally near the garage door so he wouldn’t have to move. Once he knew he had their attention, he continued, The basement of this house looks to be a place where they torture and then dispose of people, complete with a set up to film such work. There are also a few hidden rooms and a tunnel that leads down and then to a location outside of my range. That entrance is in the basement behind the washer and dryer. There’s a latch, and it looks like the whole wall rotates. So, be aware that someone could show up from that direction. We’ll explore that tunnel when I get back if you two don’t take care of it first.
Where are you going? Sam asked.
The asshole on the other end of that phone call is within range, and he’s wondering what he should do. Me, I’m going to go visit him while you two clean up this mess. Leave them where they drop. Try not to make too much of a mess; I’ll clean them up after I get back.
Are You Sure? Liza asked.
I am 95% positive that these people are tied to a terrorist organization, the mafia, or the cartels.
So, you deal with the big bad boss, man, and we get the dregs? Sam asked.
Oh no,” Connor said, “you deal with these dregs and the two in the basement that look like they're disposing of something or someone, and I’ll go find us some more targets—one thing. If you two have any of those Tutorial Crystals, pick up the Skill Eyes of Eris. If you have at least 100 in the attributes it lists and you have an upgrade crystal to Uncommon, I’d suggest upgrading the skill immediately so you’ll be able to see each other while you’re stealthed. You’ve had a couple of close calls already. Do the same for the skill Inventory, Common. You’ll only be able to hold 50 pounds of equipment when you first get it, but that will increase to 500 pounds with the upgrade. It comes in extremely handy.”
“About the skills, I have six of those crystals, so we should be able to get those two skills easily enough. As for these scum, they are no better than slavers. Let’s kill them all,” Liza said with barely controlled rage.
I’ll maintain Telepathy while I remain in range. Now that we’ve established contact the first time, I’ll reconnect whenever I come back into range, which is just under 19 miles.
With that statement, Connor activated Shadow Step and appeared 100 feet above the house, still under the effects of Flight and Stealth. With a thought, he was over the leader's car.
***
Sam felt the rage in Liza’s words through telepathy just before there was a soft pop-up near the ceiling by the garage door—two of their attackers near the spot looked around while the back seat and the back of the garage were searched. As the people searching the garage moved around, Sam stayed out of their way until he could see past the man in the door. Then, he activated Shadow Step to appear behind him.
I’m in the hall behind the leader; let's do this, Sam said through Telepathy.
Liza struck. She used her Shadow Claws to rip out the necks of the two attackers closest to her on the opposite side of the car from Sam. Sam kneeled and fired one bullet up through the head of the man holding the phone to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally hit Liza as the exit wound ejected blood, bone, and brains into the ceiling of the garage. Stealth deactivated, but no one had moved yet, so he took careful aim and put a second bullet through Jason’s head, which sprayed blood and brain matter all over the inside of the windshield.
From the level of rage that he could feel emanating from Liza through their telepathic link, he had no…Holy shit! Liza became visible. Before anyone could react, she moved to the door where she’d been sitting. She practically ripped the spine out of the one who’d been leaning into the back seat of the car as he tried to back out of the seat and stand up. As Sam considered what to do, Liza jumped and flipped through the air over the car to land between the woman trying to back out of the driver's side passenger seat and the man trying to come around the back of the car who had seen her and was trying to follow her with his gun.
As the woman backing out of the seat backed up, her head came even with the top of the doorframe. Liza pushed her head into the frame with her left hand as she bent sideways and kicked the man to her right. Two loud “CRACKS” went off in rapid succession. One was caused by the woman’s face caving in against the car doorframe and the metal buckling slightly, and the other was caused by her foot compressing the man's ribs so hard they broke before he flung away from her into the garage door at his back.
From where Sam was inside the house, blood rained from the woman, whose face was lodged into the car. He couldn’t see the man she’d kicked anymore, though.
“Liza, make sure they're dead; I’m going to find the stairs to the basement and wait.
Unfortunately for Sam, the phone was still active.
***
Connor watched as the man listened to his phone. He tapped the driver of the car he was in on the shoulder three times before picking up another phone and calling one of the men in the basement. Connor watched the cell phone in the basement ring twice before the man in the bathroom touched the speaker function of his phone.
“Yes,”
“Gael, You know who this is” You have someone in the house; I think they just killed everyone upstairs.”
“Right,” Gael said as he dropped the body he was holding back to the ground and went over to pick up some serious-looking hardware before he went over to the other man with him and tapped him on the shoulder.
What happened next was anti-climactic. Liza checked to make sure everyone was dead, and then Sam and she went to the basement door. Liza opened the door to see two men waiting to shoot her from cover at the bottom of the stairs. She Shadow-Stepped behind them, grabbed both by the neck, and squeezed. Both necks snapped, and the bodies went limp as Liza dropped them to the ground. As Sam came downstairs, he noticed that one was still struggling to breathe. He pulled a dagger from his inventory and stabbed him through the heart.
“Anyone Else?” Liza roared.
***
Connor listened through the phone and kept his eyes on things in the house as he watched the man in the car below him. Connor had stayed above the vehicle as the driver pulled out onto Georgia Ave and headed South. When they reached the Boulder City Municipal Airport on the South side of town, Connor realized they were still within range of Eyes of Eris because he could still track Liza and Sam as they went through the house. Connor reached out with Telepathy.
Hey, you two, I’m headed back. I’m going to clean those bodies up. Then we’re going to jump in a bubble and get over to the plane these idiots are going to get into, Connor said.
Do you have enough time? Sam asked.
Connor Shadow Stepped into the house and appeared before Sam, “Plenty of time. This won’t take long,” Connor went downstairs and added the two bodies there, plus the wall safe, to his inventory. Then he made his way upstairs, absorbed all of the bodies into Mana Compactor, and tried to add the car to his inventory. It worked. It took up 860 Slots, but it worked. Damn.
His skill, Eyes of Eris, showed him two hidden rooms with nothing in them, with a viewing room between the two. There was also an industrial washroom complete with a grated floor and huge shower heads. This was probably where they’d just leave a body for easy cleanup afterward; these people were just depraved.
When he stepped back into the house, he found Liza and Sam waiting by the back door, “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to Stealth, Step into the backyard, and then I’m going to create an opaque bubble with seats so you two can sit down, and I can strap the forcefields over you. Then I’m going to get us to the airport in quick order. Once we know what plane this asshole is going into, we’re going to board as he walks up. Depending on the size of the plane. Then we just hang out in the plane and remain stealthed for a bit.”
“That’s going to be a problem,” Sam said.
“How’s that going to be a problem?” Connor asked.
“Well, my stamina regeneration can keep up with the Stealth requirement of ten per turn, but my mana regeneration is only five per turn right now, and Stealth requires ten. I could remain Stealthed for about four minutes. That’s not enough time to remain invisible for a whole flight to who knows where.”
“Change of plans then,” Connor said as he pulled two random smartphones from his Inventory. He’d picked up a couple from the people they’d killed. Connor quickly cast his spell Control Technological Device to unlock each smartphone before he handed it on to Liza and then Sam, “Okay, they’re unlocked; lock them to yourselves and text this number with your phone number.” Connor pulled out the phone he was using and showed them his cell phone number.
While they installed their security on the phones they were using, Connor pulled out the one million dollars that had been in the safe and gave half to each of them, “I suggest You two use those crystals you have and then store this in your inventory,” Connor then pulled out four of eight Uncommon Skill Upgrade Crystals he’d picked up and handed them over, “These should help you upgrade those skills. Remember, do not upgrade Eyes of Eris unless you meet the requirements. You’ll get information overload, and then you’ll be done. Once you're done upgrading your skills, head to Las Vegas and get a room in a good hotel. Preferably a suite. Sam, you have Identification, right?”
“I do.”
“Good. We need some also, “Do whatever you have to do to get us some. “I’m going to follow our asshole, who I’m pretty sure is fleeing the country back to wherever he came from. You two, have fun in Vegas and live it up. Also, try to pick up three new phones as soon as you can and text me your two new numbers. Do not answer any calls from anyone but the number you just texted. I would also store the phones in your Inventory so they can’t be tracked. Just pull them out once in a while to check for messages. Hopefully, I won’t be gone for more than a day, a week tops.
“What’s your plan?” Lisa asked.
“There is no way any of these assholes get to live,” Connor said.
“Does it matter, though? I thought we were heading to the future?” Sam asked.
“We are, but we still need a safe place to work out of. I’m going to go obtain us some of the capital we’ll need to survive until we’re ready to try to get out of here,” Connor said.
“What’s really going on,” Sam asked.
Connor smiled, “Can’t get one past you, can I?”
“Nope,” Liza and Sam said together.
“Alright, so traveling through time is obviously possible, but it may not be something we can do with magic. By that, I mean I might not be able to cast a spell that jumps us through time. What I can probably do is come up with a spell that will put us in Stasis if we don’t want to live through the next 22 years, and we’ll wake up just before or after the SYSTEM Integration starts.” To have a safe place where I know we won't be disturbed, we need capital. Who better to steal from than criminals who no longer need that capital?
“So you’re working on the Backup Plan first?” Liza asked.
“It did kind of fall into our laps, or did you not realize they brought you here to kill you and probably worse.”
“Oh, I knew as soon as those fuckers showed up in those rubber suits. No, I’m completely cool with this; It’s just…I wish I could go with you,” Liza said.
“You probably could, but you two should stay together. I can remain Stealthed for as long as needed, so I’ll be fine,” Connor said.
“Okay,” Sam said. I’ll text you when we're in a city and if we have to change cities, but I’m not going to give you an address. Text messages can be pulled up and searched. Just head to whatever city I last texted you when you're done and ping us with Telepathy when you're in range,” Sam said.
“Sounds Good,” Connor said. “They’re on the plane, and they’ll be taxing soon. Do you two need help out of here?”
“No, we should be good?” Liza said.
“Alright, there’s a church about a half mile north; take a right when you leave the driveway. You should be able to call a taxi from there.”
“Sounds good. Also, thanks and good luck,” Sam said
“Yeah, good luck,” Liza parroted.
Connor nodded, reactivated Flight and Stealth, and then stepped out into the backyard and launched into the sky toward the airport to the southwest. Within a minute, he was at the airport and near the plane his target was in. That’s when he finally heard the leader's name from the Pilot as he walked up to where he was seated and asked.
“Senior Diego, Where are we headed?”
Diego looked up from his phone for a moment and then back down, “Cuernavaca International Airport.”
“Yes, sir. Make yourself comfortable. We’ll be on our way shortly. Our flight should take just over three hours,” The pilot said as he turned and walked back to the cockpit.
Connor reviewed the plane and saw that there was plenty of room in the cargo compartment of Diego’s Learjet for him to settle down. A quick Shadow Step and minor use of Force Barrier, and he had himself in a comfortable location on an invisible bed of force. He reached out with Telepathy one last time.
“All right, you two, I guess I’m on my way to Cuernavaca International Airport. I’m on the plane, and we’re about to take off. On my own, I can make it back in about a half hour, but on this plane, the trip down is going to take about three hours. You two don’t have too much fun,” Connor said.
“You too,” Liza said.
“What she said. Good luck,” Sam said.
“I’m going to save energy and turn off Telepathy now. See you soon,” Connor said, ending Telepathy with Liza and Sam. He had three hours to meditate and create spells or skills. He had 17 free Skill Slots remaining and 248 free spell slots. He knew he needed a spell to maintain an environment for people he put in a bubble to fly with him at altitude or even in space. A spell to Teleport, and…. He had three hours. He had plenty of time to think about all the spells he’d ever heard of in books or games and try to create them with his Malleable Spells skill.