Ren opened his eyes to a voice asking if he was all right, and sand rubbing

everywhere. He should have stayed home. He could be eating flapjacks with Corona

and Bond instead of being trapped wherever he was at the moment.

He was in a cylinder of light. Signs had been engraved in a platform under him

and in the ceiling above him. He touched the transparent wall with the sleeve of

his coat. Smoke rolled off the cuff as he watched it.

“If you try to jump through the cage wall, you will be burned badly,” said the voice

again.

Ren examined the rest of the room he was trapped in.

His cylinder stood in a triangle facing two other cylinders. An old man dressed in the

style of ancient China and a man dressed in what the detective thought of as butler

tuxedo took up one of the cylinders. The old man was bald, wrinkled beyond belief,

and calm about being trapped. His servant stood at parade rest behind him, as

impassive as any butler born.

Ren wasn’t sure the butler was human.

The other cylinder held a woman with dark hair and green eyes. She wore a t-shirt,

shorts, and sandals. A rune covered the back of her hand.

“How do you do?,” asked Ren. He looked down and didn’t see his bag. He looked

around the room and spotted it on the floor next to his cell.

“Caught by the storm?,” asked the woman.

“Yes,” said Ren. “My friend and I were looking at the cloud when it expanded.

I think I took a hit. My name is Ren.”

“I’m Al-a-Din,” said the old man. He gestured at his servant. “This is Hakim.”

“I’m Rachel Rosenbaum,” said the woman. “The cells prevent the use of magic.”

“That is unfortunate,” said Ren. He checked the pockets of his coat. He smiled when

he felt his tool kit in his jacket. “Is that why we’re in these magical cells?”

“We think the person who put us in these is draining our ability to cast magic to

do whatever he is doing,” said Rachel.

“He’s in control of a giant sandstorm,” said Ren. He pulled out his tool kit. “We

were examining it when it caught me. My friend was not taken, so he might be

working on a way to get here and do something to stop the cloud.”

“Is he a magician?,” asked Rachel.

“No,” said Ren. He smiled. “He’s an adventurer.”

“What good is that going to do us?,” said Rachel.

“He will act as a distraction while I think of a way to get us out of here,” said Ren.

“I would love to see that,” said Rachel. She threw up her hands.

“How will you get us out of here?,” asked Al-a-Din. He leaned forward as much as

he could to watch Ren work.

“I plan to open my cylinder, and then yours,” said Ren. He looked through his tool

kit until he found a pair of pliers. “Then we shall look around to see what we can do

about the man behind the giant cloud.”

He dug at the material in the floor of his holding tank. He found a loose stone and

worried it until it popped loose. He placed the stone out of the way. He needed to

pull a few more before he could make the burning light wall fail.

He worked on the stones as carefully as he could. The last thing he needed was

to trigger an alarm. Any capable mage would see what he was doing at a glance.

Then reinforcement would happen and his chance would be gone.

He frowned at the way the floor tried to grow over his attempt to fracture it. He

pulled out a rod from his tool kit. He yanked one of the stones from the sign. He

sank the rod into the floor to keep it from closing the wound he had made.

“That’s interesting,” said Ren. He took out two more of the rods. He would have

enchanted them, but his reserve of magical energy had been eaten by his cell.

“What’s interesting?,” asked the old man.

“The enchantment on the bottom of our tanks heals when we do things to them,” said

Ren. He pulled another piece of stone out of the way. He drove a rod down inside of

the wound. “I wonder how much I have to destroy before the wall cuts off.”

“Perhaps as much as half,” said Hakim. “The wall is fading. You should perhaps

hurry. I don’t think we’ll be alone long. The storm king will want to question you

about your capabilities soon enough.”

“I don’t think what I have will be that useful to him,” said Ren. He extracted one

more piece of the floor and saw the beams stop above the bottom of the cylinder.

“I was taught things to help me solve mysteries.”

“Anything is useful in more than one way,” said the old man. “There are two exits

that I have seen. One is behind you. The other is to your right. I don’t know if either

leads outside.”

Ren put away his tool kit and covered his head as he rolled through the gap in his

cell. He stood up. That worked better than he thought it would. He looked around for

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

a switch to turn off the other cylinders.

“You might want to leave,” said the old man. “That will cause some trouble for

the enemy.”

“Let me think of a way to cut your cylinders off first,” said Ren. He picked up

his bag and draped it over his shoulder. “If I can get you three out of those things,

that will cut the cloud off. Marty will have an easier time breaching this place to

help us.”

“All of this was formed from a magic command of the sand,” said Rachel. “You

would need something to punch through both of the caps.”

“I don’t really have anything that can do that,” said Ren. “I do have a pocket knife

that I can pass one of you so you can work on freeing yourselves while I look

around.”

“Give it to Al-a-Din,” said Rachel. “Hakim is more powerful than I am in the right

circumstances.”

Ren took out his tool kit and picked out the pliers, a chisel, and a small hammer. He

pushed them through the wall of the cell. The metal smoked as the magical laser wall

ate at them. Hakim waved his hand over the metal to cool the tools off.

“I’m going to look around and see if there is a way to let Marty in,” said Ren. “I

will come back and get you people out of this.”

“Take your time,” said Rachel.

“We’ll be able to free ourselves soon enough,” said the old man. He waved Ren

away as Hakim dug into the bottom of their cell. He shoved the rocks out on the floor

with his feet.

Ren decided to take the door to the right. It seemed to lead deeper into the facility.

Maybe he could talk their captor down. He thought his chances were poor to do that.

He had come to some conclusions with the information he had, and things looked bad

at the moment.

He was obviously dealing with a magician capable of shaping stone. He had seized

a spot in Southern Israel that gave him control of the local area. The captured

magicians had been drained to help power his sandstorm.

The only question was what was he trying do with his magical storm.

Ren had a few ideas and none of them were conducive to a peaceful resolution.

And he would have to do something to hold the magician in place until the others

were free, or Marty arrived to save the day.

And he was sure that Marty would track him down. The Animal had waited ten

years, but had finally hunted down the killers of his former family and freed his

adopted father. He would try to find Ren, one way or the other.

The detective skulked along until he found what looked like a wide open space

turned into living quarters. He looked around for another exit in case he had to retreat.

He didn’t have a lot of magical power, but he should be able to distract the brain

behind this long enough for others to take a hand.

How long would he have to hold? He doubted he would be able to do that for long.

Still, he had a few tricks that should be useful.

“How did you get out of your battery?,” said a voice to Ren’s right.

Ren raised an eyebrow at the man confronting him. The man had wrapped himself

in a cotton tunic, with sandals and a pharaoh’s wimple. Gold bracelets covered his

arms. He held a hooked staff in one hand.

“How do you do?,” asked Ren. “My name is Ren. I am here to talk to you about

my accommodations. There is a need to improve them if you want me to stay here.”

“I’m afraid my plan doesn’t call for your comfort,” said the sand king. “I have been

designated by Amenophis to gather as much of the sand to me as I can and hold

this position until he orders me to action. You will have to go back to your cell until

I receive that word.”

“I expect that you will trouble long before Amenophis will be able to order you

into action,” said Ren. “You’ve attracted too much attention. The Israelis know

you are here and plan to root you out.”

“Do you really think that is possible?,” said the sand king. He made a gesture with

his staff. “I have control over a wide expanse of the desert. They will not be able to

do anything to stop me once I start the cloud moving.”

Ren didn’t like that. As long as the cloud was in the desert, it was mostly harmless.

People and animals could avoid it, buildings were out of the way, water was confined

to oasis that could be dug out after a storm.

If the storm was diverted into a metropolis, the toll would be outstanding. Anything

living caught on the street would be flayed alive. Anything loose would be turned

into dangerous projectiles. Even cars could be thrown around in a high enough wind.

“I see you understand the implications,” said the sand king. “And there is nothing

anyone can do to stop me.”

“I’m willing to try,” said Ren.

“Do you really think you can stop me?,” said the sand king. “I don’t think you have

any spells that can touch me.”

“I have one thing,” said Ren. He raised a hand. Light blasted across the room,

blinding his opponent. He fled the room back toward the cell room.

That didn’t go as well as I thought it would.

He paused in the cell room. He looked around and spotted the other exit. He dashed

toward that, waving at the others. He didn’t take the time to explain what was going

on. He was sure they would understand as soon as the other man appeared.

He just had to buy time so Marty could find him, or the others to escape and shake off

the drain. He didn’t know how long that would take and knew his own power was at

low ebb. He didn’t have enough to hypnotize a door yet.

He found a long tunnel on the other side of the exit door. He ran down its length. If

there was a door leading outside, he might be able to do enough to get through the

storm.

On the other hand, if he didn’t have enough power, this might be his last stand and

being thrown outside could flay him alive.

At least he wouldn’t have to deal with Corona being angry at him for being trapped

like a rat.

The sides of the tunnel narrowed. Dust fell to the floor. The roof shook.

“I don’t have time to do this,” said the sand king. He advanced down the tunnel

from the other end. “You are going to be contained, then I will make sure that you

can’t escape again.”

“I don’t think so,” said Ren. “I think as long as I am free, I am a stick in the spokes

of whatever Amenophis planned. So I think I will remain free to do whatever I want.”

“You don’t have the power to do that,” said the sand king. He pointed his staff at Ren.

The end of the exit tunnel wrapped around the detective. “Get out of that.”

“Give me a second, and I will,” said Ren. He smiled to show his good cheer.

“I think I won’t give you that chance,” said the sand king. He gestured with his staff

and the hand moved down the wall, dragging Ren with it.

He dragged the detective back into the cell room. He paused. His captives glared

at him, but they seemed to be hiding something. He gestured the hand to carry his

captive to the third space. He ejected the rods and urged the platform to heal

completely.

“I don’t know what you three think is going to happen, but Amenophis will be here

soon,” said the sand king. “Your position will be worse then.”

“What makes you think you will still be here?,” asked Rachel. “Your plan is

crumbling around you.”

“Whatever happens, I will use you to power my creation,” said the sand king. “Not

even the Mark will be able to stop the destruction ahead.”

“I think you are wrong,” said Ren. He smiled again. “I think you are overestimating

what you can do.”

“What makes you say that?,” asked the sand king. He looked up. “What is going on

up there?”

He placed Ren in his cell and fled toward his living quarters. He couldn’t hide his

alarm.

“What do you think is going on?,” asked Rachel.

Ala-a-Din and Hakim stepped out of their cell.

“My friend is back to help us out,” said Ren.