I rushed to my partner’s side and eased him onto his back. He was unresponsive, but I detected shallow breathing. I started fishing through his pockets, looking for another one of his magic handkerchiefs, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see the Farfalla. She was looking quite a bit worse for the wear. Parts of her leather suit had burned away revealing angry red skin underneath. Some bits were still smoldering and parts of her blonde mane were scorched.

“The others are in a cage behind there,” she pointed at a huge vinyl curtain hanging from the ceiling. “Set them free, I will see to your amico.” She offered me a wane smile as I hurried away. I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do for Teddy. I wasn’t a doctor, I was going to have to get the agency involved.

I pushed through the curtain into another section of the warehouse. It was dominated by a hastily built metal cage. Inside the cage, packed in like cattle, were the migrants the Black Mesa pack had brought over the border. Next to the cage were several old dentist chairs. Each chair was set up with a smattering of tattoo gear and what looked like needles and tubing to draw blood. I noticed several refrigerators against the wall, probably filled with doped up human blood. I figured if I looked hard enough, I would find a large stash of drugs around here someplace.

As soon as the caged migrants saw me, they began to call out. I didn’t need to rely on my tenth grade Spanish to understand that they wanted me to get them the fuck out of there. I ran over to the makeshift holding cell. There was a door that was secured with a rusty chain and a new padlock. I looked around for a key but didn’t see any. I didn’t have time for a search. I reached for a pistol to blast the lock off but found my holster empty. Shit. The chain had some slack, but not enough to squeeze anyone bigger than a small child through the gap it created. The cell also had a solid metal top on it. I looked around for ideas and the yelling from inside the cell intensified as the vinyl curtain began to smolder and melt.

Throwing a Hail Mary, I pulled out the bowie knife that Ben had given me. It’s smaller size made it less than ideal for chopping, but I was fresh out of options. I pulled the chain taught and hacked at it with the knife. The men nearest the door were gibbering a steady stream of Spanish at me and one man was pulling at his hair. My first strike glanced off the chain, but the second strike bit deeply into the rusty chain. The runes on the knife glowed faintly as I continued to work and the prisoner looked on in wonder. It took only five blows to sever completely through and the chain fell to the floor. The cell door exploded outward as the migrants ran to freedom. I wished I could do more for them, but it was every man for himself at this point. Panic had set in. I grabbed a woman carrying an infant by the arm as she was shoved from behind. I was able to keep her from falling to the floor and her child began to cry. The woman looked at me with watery eyes and mouthed “gracias”.

I pulled back on part of the curtain that away from the spreading fire and opened a path. I could see a clear path through the spreading fire to one of the loading bays, but I wasn’t sure how long it would last. The frantic migrants saw the same path and started a stampede to the exit. I hurried back to a frowning Farfalla.

“You have to get him out of here. He’s still breathing, but he needs medical attenzione,” the blonde cat burglar told me.

“I know,” I hissed. “Help me get him over my shoulder.” The smoke was becoming intense and I started to cough. It has only been a few minutes since it started, there was no way this was a natural blaze. I wondered if this was the same magic the Sleeper has used to burn my home and kill my family. I stared hatefully at Adler’s corpse as the Farfalla helped me get Teddy over my shoulder. He hadn’t deserved a quick, but that’s all I had been able to give him. The revenge tasted like ash in my mouth, but that could have been literal ashes at this point. I was lucky to be alive and we weren’t safe yet.

I hoisted Teddy up and was careful not to disturb the saw blade too much. If that thing came out, he would probably bleed to death in seconds. The migrants had all made it out and I started toward the loading bay door furthest from where the fire was. It was slow going, Teddy was heavier than he looked.

“Cash!” the Farfalla exclaimed. I looked to where she was pointed and saw Tina lying on the floor. She was just starting to stir, holding a hand against the side of her head. I changed course while the Farfalla helped Tina to her feet.

“Can you walk?” I asked the newly minted sorceress.

Tina took a testing step and cried out when she tried to put weight on her left leg. The Farfalla held her up from falling back to the floor.

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“Damn it,” I exclaimed. “Get her under the arm.” Tina was not a large woman, but she was solidly built. The Farfalla on the other hand maybe weighed a hundred and fifteen pounds. I wasn’t sure she could support Tina. I angled over and offered Tina my other arm. Between the two of us, we were able to support her weight and slowly started our way to the exit again. We were about twenty meters from freedom when my brain caught up on the behind the scenes math. We weren’t going to make it. The smoke had grown worse. All three of us were coughing now and my eyes were stinging and bleary. I could barely make out the bay door and the fire was all around us.

“Hurry!” I encouraged, but I knew we were already moving as fast as we could. I began to fear that the Farfalla would bolt as it became clear we would have to abandon Tina or Teddy or both to make our escape. I noticed Tina had removed her arm from around my neck. I was about to tell her to put it back when I noticed the flaming tattoo on her hip was glowing. Tina’s eyes were closed; she was clearly concentrating. I felt the heat and flames recede from around us, just a bit. The shift was subtle, but my reptile brain was pounding a fist on the blackboard. We could make it. All of us. I put my head down and shuffled forward. After an indeterminable distance was made our way through the yawning bay doors and into the cool Texas evening. The chilled, dry air had never smelled so sweet.

We stumbled what I considered to be a safe distance away just as an explosion rocked the building. I set Teddy gently on the ground as the roof collapsed. Tina had gone unconscious as well at some point during our escape. She must have burned up whatever juice she had left holding the flames at bay. I set her down as well. The warehouse was now a raging inferno. The fire has spread to some of the outbuildings, the flames greedily consuming everything they could. I fished my agency phone out of my pocket and activated a medical emergency. It was me to confirm and then a timer appeared counting backward from five minutes.

The Farfalla cleared her throat to get my attention. “Thank you, Cash. I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

I could see her clearly now in the waning daylight. Part of her mask had been either torn or burned away, exposing her delicate cheekbones. For a moment, I didn’t understand what she meant, and then my mind flashed back to Adler’s body as we passed it on the way out. The Dagger of Jilayia had been missing. “This was all about the dagger, wasn’t it. You came here for the dagger.”

She smiled mischievously. “Ah, Cash. You are so handsome that I forget that you are also intelligente.” She produced the dagger from someplace behind her back and glared at it. “This is an evil thing. It needs to be kept away from men like Adler and Northcutt.”

It was an ugly, wicked thing. The blade was a jagged curve and the ruby in the hilt was set in the mouth of a horrible looking demon. There were no good intentions here. My Weird Feeling was sending cold shocks down my spine just being this close to it.

“You stole it to keep it safe,” I posited.

She returned the knife to it’s hiding place and her sly smile returned, “As I said, intelligente. I have many such things.”

“Why?” I asked, genuinely curious. While the Farfalla seemed criminal, she didn’t seem evil.

She sighed wistfully. “Cash, I have stolen more than I could spend in a thousand lives. But I am the cat burglar, yes? So, I burgle.” She gave me a wink and her smile turned genuine. “But, I help too, when I can.”

She had closed the distance between us and was now removing a hand from a pocket on my tactical vest. She moved so fast I hadn’t even seen it, and probably wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t wanted.

“You helped me today, Contante, I own you one.” She began to back away from me.

I pulled a card from the pocket. It was the same calling card the Farfalla had left at the scene of the Reliable Reliquary. I recognized the iridescent butterfly script. On the back of the card was a phone number with an international prefix. I personally reckoned we were square after she helped me pull Teddy and Tina out, but I was in no hurry to fix her misconception.

“But only one!” the Farfalla yelled over her shoulder as she turned and started to walk purposefully toward a section of the fencing surrounding the warehouse. The fire had burned away a substantial portion of the rear of her suit. Most of the bottom of her left butt cheek was hanging out and it was one of the finer ones I had ever seen. She gave her exposed rear a playful smack before breaking into a sprint. She cleared the fence in a single, graceful leap and was gone from view. She did not look back.

I heard the distant wail of sirens. The hose draggers finally finished their basketball game and were en route. My phone buzzed, happily notifying me that Director Barnum was calling. Awesome.

“Agent Renshaw,” I answered.

“What the fuck is going on? Where is agent Ruthersford, he’s not answering his phone.” She sounded more angry than concerned.

“I need medical evac for two. Agent Ruthersford and Tina Goodwin are both down, Agent Ruthersford is critically injured.” I have her a brief rundown of events, including Chief Northcutt’s involvement and eventual betrayal.

“Fuck! I knew that son of a bitch was dirty, but I didn’t think he was in league with psychopaths. Are you sure the fire is going to destroy all the evidence?”

I smiled grimly, remembering the outcome of my own house fire. “There won’t be anything left, not even bones.”

“Ok,” the Director said. “Wait for the med boys to get your team and then unass the area before FD shows. Come directly back to the office for a full debriefing. Do you understand Agent Renshaw? Don’t stop for a fucking donut, right back here.”

“Understood, ma’am. Renshaw out.” I hung up the phone just as the now-familiar glowing door opened out of nothingness. Four men in white tyvek suits stepped through and wordlessly collected Teddy and Tina. One man sprinkled something where Teddy had been bleeding and gave me a thumbs up. Moments later they were gone as if they had never been there and I stood alone in the parking lot. I gave a final look at the warehouse inferno before heading toward my car. It was going to be a long night.