Opening the front door, I could see Marie and a pair of other residents of the apartments behind her. I vaguely knew the pair, neither were summoned beings, but both were ex-military and knew how to handle themselves. One, the driver Julio who had driven me to the apartment after escaping the cultists, was planning to teach me how to shoot the pistol I’d liberated from one of the cultist goons. It was too bad we haven’t had the time to do so yet, and given the grim looks on everyone’s faces, we might be in for trouble.
“Just let me grab a couple things,” I said, getting my phone and trying to find a better place to stash my pistols. Julio came through and tossed me a holster for the 1911, it was a weird design that was kind of sticky on the outside and would stay put inside the waistband of my pants if I had my belt snugged in. For the magic missile pistol, the best I could do was a small gym bag that I threw over my shoulder.
It only took me a few seconds to get ready and then we piled into a battered Ford Explorer and tore out of the parking lot. Julio was the driver again, he apparently had some kind of training for driving in hostile situations, another leftover from his military days. The other former military member with us was a middle-aged woman named Samantha. She had been part of base security for the Air Force and apparently knew her stuff.
“We’ve been trying to track down a summoned being in Huntington Beach for a while now. He’s a bit like you, and didn’t want to come in and join us, but now he’s being stalked by what we think are the same cultists that nabbed you. He’s being followed and we’re going to try and get to him before the cult does,” Marie explained.
“Tran Nguyen,” I muttered, my brain somehow remembering who Marie and Randy had been looking for the night they found me.
“Yes, I’m surprised you remembered,” Marie said.
“This is my first ‘rescue of a summoned being in trouble run’, what should I expect?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, we’re not sure. Tran said there were several people tailing him and he was going to head toward somewhere public. He had no idea how many were after him, but given how the cult operates, it’s usually around a half-dozen,” Marie advised.
“That many, even after the losses they took the other night,” I said, feeling a pang of sadness as I remembered our losses as well.
“You might be right, they took a beating from your efforts, and I know the Grimslade Group has been working them over as well. Maybe we’ll catch a break, but don’t plan on it,” Marie warned.
“What do we do? Go in with guns blazing? Won’t the police have something to say about that?” I asked. This was the middle of the city. Sure, shootouts happened on occasion, but gunfire brought down lots of cops and far too much attention.
“Jeanette has burned a bunch of her mana to cast a spell on the car. It won’t last long, but while we’re near it, others will tend to not notice us. Once we get out, we need to work quickly and get Tran into the car so we can make a run for it. We’re not here for a battle, just to rescue Tran,” Marie advised.
“If things go south, won’t the police be after us?’ I asked.
“No, not for long. We have a contact at one of the other Refuge locations that can use her power to alter information on us that the police might be lucky enough to get,” Marie said as her phone rang interrupting any other conversation.
“Tran, are you okay?” Marie asked. She hit the speaker button so we could listen in on the conversation.
“No, the guys following me are coming across the parking lot. I’m in the Jack in the Box on Brookhurst, but they seem to be holding back because the place is crowded,” Tran said. Marie looked over at Julio.
“We’re five minutes out, almost there. Look for a silver Ford Explorer with a damaged driver’s side fender, that’s us,” Julio told Tran.
“Got it, I can defend myself if I have to, but my class isn’t exactly combat focused. I can make out two of them, and old woman in a black skirt and white blouse, and a big guy in cargo shorts wearing a blue t-shirt,” Tran said. With help on the way, I could hear a bit of confidence return to his voice. He was like me, a summoned being, and if he was high enough tier and rank to have a class, he’d have faced situations worse than this many times. The only difference was that this time, we were playing for keeps and lives were on the line.
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The normally annoying California traffic was made even worse by the fact that time was of the essence. Julio wove in and out of lanes to avoid what he could, but the fact that our vehicle was less noticeable due to Jeanette’s spell made getting in a crash a distinct possibility. Maybe that was why the fender was smashed in on the vehicle.
I double checked my summoning figurines, planning to drop the most powerful of my class creatures first. The ghoul would cause a bit of commotion, but people might just chalk it up to some stupid influencer stunt. Shooting the regular pistol was something I still wasn’t confident in, so I’d try to use the magic missile version if I could. At least those shots were guided and wouldn’t slam into an innocent victim if I missed.
My true power was still in my summoned creatures, and they would do the lion’s share of the work if things turned into a fight. Marie pulled up a street view of the restaurant, so we had an idea of where we were headed. It was inside a large shopping center on a busy street. Even the cultists might pause at causing a fight here. I couldn’t help but crave a pair of the 99-cent tacos that the restaurant always offered. They looked like they were stuffed with dog food, and used nasty American Cheese in them, but man, they were good.
Embarrassed that I was craving lunch, I focused on the task at hand. Julio pulled into the parking lot at the far side of the shopping complex. He told us to look for whoever might be hunting Tran. We had a description of two of them, and they were wearing normal clothes which would blend in well with the other people out and about.
We parked across from the restaurant near an auto repair place. Julio and Samantha would stay with the car where they could come get us quickly and Samantha would provide overwatch with the rifle she’d brought. The Explorer was backed in, so the rear hatch of the SUV covered the restaurant. Samantha had a good, unobstructed field of fire as she folded down the rear seats and set up a mobile sniper’s nest.
I was more than a bit nervous as I held the ghoul figurine in one hand as we crossed the parking lot. The bag over my shoulder was unzipped and I could spot the grip of the magic missile pistol waiting for me. I tried and failed to spot the cultists until we got close, and I could see the ones that Tran had described were inside the restaurant with him.
“You see that?” I asked Marie.
“Yes, we go in and pull him out. They haven’t started anything yet, so there’s a good chance we can do this without any trouble. I’ll lead, you find a spot to cover me,” Marie said.
“Got it,” I replied, trying to sound like I was more confident than I was. Despite the reluctance of the cult to cause problems in public, I was pretty convinced that my ghoul was going to get a workout today. The familiar scent of fried food assaulted me as we walked in the door of the restaurant.
Tran was sweating and shaking as he sat in a booth toward the back corner of the restaurant. I could see one of the cultists, an older woman that must have been in her 70s, talking nicely to him. She was seated across from him, and another cultist had slid into the booth on the same side as Tran, boxing him in. There were probably others in the restaurant, or out in the parking lot, but I hadn’t spotted them. I could only hope that my partners were on the ball and ready to deal with them.
“Tran, it’s been a long time, how have you been,” Marie said, putting on a pleasant and carefree demeanor.
“I’m sorry, I don’t recognize you,” Tran muttered out, confused.
“It’s me, Marie Valentine, your English Lit teacher. You were one of the best students I ever taught. Tell me, what have you been doing with your life?” Marie lied, trying to catch the attention and distract the cultists as I walked past her and sat at the table across from them where I could watch over everything.
“Oh yeah, Miss Valentine. I’ve been good, working hard and finishing up my master’s degree. It’s nice to see you again,” Tran said, playing along and pushing against the man boxing him in. The guy pushed Tran back into his seat.
“I’m sorry, young lady, we’re in a private conversation,” the old woman said with a pleasant smile that seemed disturbing given who she worshiped.
“Oh, I can’t pass up the chance to visit with a prior student,” Marie said, sitting next to the old woman and using her hip to shove the cultists down the bench close to the wall. I caught the gleam of a pistol in her hand, the weapon shoved into the ribs of the old woman. Marie positioned the oversized purse she’d brought so nobody walking by could see the gun.
“What do you want,” the old woman growled.
“Tran and I are leaving, if you follow or try to stop us, you die,” I could barely make out Marie replying.
“We won’t let him go, you people have been troublesome, and the Master will deal with you eventually,” the old woman hissed.
“I doubt your master is going to do anything about the forty-five caliber round that’s only a few pounds of trigger pressure away from blasting a hole in you. Let’s make this easy and not cause a stink in a public place,” Marie said, motioning for the man trapping Tran to move out of his seat.
I took a quick visual sweep of the rest of the restaurant. We were on the tail end of the lunch rush and the place was about half full. Nobody else seemed to be focusing on our little showdown, and I couldn’t spot any other cultists in the place. The next few seconds, and the reaction of the man who was sitting next to Tran, would determine if we were going to leave without trouble or if the restaurant would turn into a bloodbath.