Yoselin frowned, likely not even knowing who that was, but I’d told everyone else long ago—except maybe Izzy and Tara. At that moment, I couldn’t think if there’d been any reason to bring him up.
Vaughn, Cassie, Daniel, and Haley all knew the name, however, and Master Martian had their full attention.
Since I was the only one who’d talked to the man, I jumped in, “Martin Magnus? Do you know much about him?”
Master Martian’s face tightened, “Beyond being kidnapped by him, kept captive in his house, and probably killed at his command? No. I couldn’t sense him, not to any great degree. When I could touch his mind, all I got was pain, static, and a hint of something weird. I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t right.”
“Wasn’t right, how?” Daniel leaned forward in Master Martian’s direction. “Do you mean that he felt insane or that his thoughts don’t feel human?”
With a sigh, Master Martian shook his head, “I don’t know. It was more than 80 years ago. If I had to guess, I’d lean toward inhuman, but whatever he is, trying to enter his mind makes you feel like yours is being torn apart. From one telepath to another? I don’t think he’s a telepath at all. I didn’t sense any kind of mental defenses, just a howling scream, and infinite static. If he’s got a power, I don’t know what it is, but he’s got something.”
I thought back to the reason we knew about him in the first place, “Why did Martin Magnus want you dead then? I’m assuming that it was him who gave the Amethyst Archer (or whatever her name was) her orders.”
Pursing his lips, Master Martian paused for a few seconds, “I don’t know for sure. I’ve been wondering ever since she started to try to kill me. I knew where he lived in Chicago, but he left there long ago. I don’t know anybody else’s names anymore. The only thing I can think that they might want to hide that still might matter is what I did for them. They had me tracking down and stealing old books and archeological finds—cuneiform tablets, old scrolls, and sometimes Abominator artifacts.”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Oh man,” Vaughn stared at the alien. “Abominator artifacts? That’s got to be it.”
Master Martian frowned, “Not the ones we stole. He was always disappointed. The books and one of the tablets made him excited. I never saw what was in them, but some of them had Abominator writing.”
Yoselin looked from Vaughn to Master Martian, “Do you know where any of the books or other things you brought back to Magnus are?”
Master Martian shook his head, “We brought them back to Magnus’ house in Chicago. I read that he disappeared about five years ago after a big fight with the Cabal in Chicago. I don’t know what happened to the house.”
“I do,” I said, taking a glance around the jet. “After the Cabal attacked Magnus’ branch of the Cabal, Magnus disappeared, but I brought in the FBI and they grabbed pretty much everything in that lab. I don’t know what happened to it after that, but we’ve got a contact in the FBI who might know.”
Vaughn laughed, “Oh, you mean—“
Cassie interrupted him, “Storm King!”
Looking over at her, Vaughn’s jaw dropped and he looked over at Master Martian, “Right. Sorry.”
Master Martian glanced from Vaughn over to me, “The FBI? The Nine probably have them by now.”
I nodded, “Maybe. I wasn’t thinking about them too much back then, but I’m hoping our contact managed to keep them safe.”
Tara turned her chair toward Cassie, “I think we should start heading back to Grand Lake now.”
I looked away from Master Martian and asked, “Why?”
Turning her chair toward the weapons console, Tara said, “I don’t know where it is, but there’s some kind of connection between Magnus, Master Martian, and the attack on Master Martian’s apartment. There might be a counterattack at home soon.”
Daniel leaned back in his chair, his eyes staring out into space, “I don’t see that. I don’t see anything that prevents it from being true, but I can’t find anything pointing to it either. I may not be asking the right questions.”
As Cassie turned the jet and accelerated, the humming of the engines rising, Daniel said, “There’s one thing I did notice, though. The Cabal troops weren’t acting of their own free will. I didn’t have time to say it during the fight, but they showed signs of Dominator influence. It wasn’t anything I had time to fix.”
Thinking back to how Magnus had called my personal cell phone when we were fighting the mayor and how I’d expected to find that something terrible had happened to my parents after one of his calls, I looked over at Tara, “You’re saying that Magnus and the Nine are connected, right? And maybe the Dominators too?”
Giving me a look, she frowned, “I think it’s possible, but I don’t know how.”