Hunters in the Night (13 page)

“That
sucks.”

“More
than you know,” Dominique said. “There have already been reports of increased
Rift-kind activity. Newton estimates that half a million more people just
became unknowing residents of the Rift zone. Things aren’t so bad in Africa
because a lot of the affected area is just empty desert. But the Scandinavians
are about to get a lot of unwelcome night visitors.”

“What
do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Find
the reason the Rift is spreading so quickly, and
end
it. That little
incident we had in Long Branch will be nothing compared to what we’re going to
start seeing soon.”

I
shook my head and rubbed my forehead. “I guess I have to figure out a way to
save the world.”

“It
would seem so,” Dominique said. “But we do that kind of thing all the time
around here. Don’t expect a raise.”

* * *

After
that little chat with Dominique, I went back to my office and took a nap. The
conversation had drained me, and I’d already been running around with no sleep.
I needed rest and the office was quiet and my chair reclined far enough to make
a decent bed. I slept peacefully.

When
I woke up the sun had shifted and the day was almost gone. I decided it was
time to go home. I hadn’t been back in almost two days. I needed food, a
shower, and the kind of relaxation I’d never be able to get here. On my way
back I stopped by the neighborhood grocery store and picked up a few fresh
things. I’d been eating whatever was convenient for the past few days, and I
could feel my gut starting to bloat. Man, I missed having the metabolism of a
sixteen-year-old.

Everything
was absolutely normal that night. The security guards in the lobby were
relaxed. The neighbors seemed chipper and greeted me as I walked down the
hallway to my apartment. Once I got into my place and put my groceries down, I
took a quick dip into the Rift to see if anything was amiss, but I found
nothing. I extended my presence further, waiting for even the tiniest ripples
in the Rift. Everything seemed nice and quiet.

Too
quiet.

Even
the Rift-kind were still, as if they were watching and waiting for something
they knew was about to happen. It was like there was a predator on the prowl,
and all the Rift’s denizens were too afraid to move and possibly attract
unwanted attention.

“Oh
shit,” I said.

But
the trap was already sprung. I felt an irresistible force pulling me down,
bending me over backwards, and then there was only the dark.

I
was disoriented for a long time. Eventually my head stopped spinning and my
body hit solid ground again. My new surroundings were cold, black, and quiet.
Only the sound of my own breathing disturbing the silence. The chilly air made
me shiver. Despite my circumstances, I wasn’t afraid. The deep darkness was
like an old friend draping their arm around my shoulders.

I
got up off the ground and felt a great deal of relief when I realized I wasn’t
tied up or restrained in any way. Then I groped myself in the dark to make sure
there weren’t injuries. I was fine, all things considered. I reached into my
jacket pocket for my cell phone, but it was gone. It had either fallen out
during my rough teleportation, or had been removed by some spell. Fortunately
all the info on my phone was thoroughly encrypted and, as far as I knew, magic
hadn’t figured out a way around that yet.

I
focused my mind and found the Rift there waiting for me. I could sense my
surroundings using the echolocation-like sense that the magic provided. I was
in a circular cell made of stone. It was maybe ten feet wide. There was a
singular door, wide and made of metal. Besides that, there was nothing.

A
sudden breeze caressed my face. I felt another presence in the room, and in the
Rift. “Time for your meeting,” said a masculine voice in the dark. Then it felt
like the room was spinning, and I think I blacked out. It’s hard to tell when
you’re in a room that’s completely dark, but I had a vague sense that I’d lost
consciousness for a second or two.

Gradually,
the darkness faded and my eyes adjusted to a new azure glow. I was in a
different chamber now, and it was at the end of a long hallway. Small spheres
of ghostly blue light dotted the darkness along the walls of the narrow, tall
hall. The spheres hovered above short glass jars filled with a watery fuel. The
floor was made of something that looked like black marble, the walls were
glistening obsidian, and the ceiling was some sort of wood painted blood red.

An
unseen hand forced me towards a great wooden door with enormous iron knockers.
The door opened inwards, and a wave of heat and aromas assaulted me. The warmth
was very welcoming after the coldness of my cell. The chamber’s interior was
dimly lit with the same blue lights in the hallway. Once I entered, the doors
closed behind me.

To my left sat
a dark-skinned woman whom I could best describe as “hefty”. Her desk was
covered in books, loose sheets of paper, and jars of unidentifiable liquids.
The innumerable shelves that covered the walls were littered with similar
objects.

“You
have two minutes of my time,” she said in some sort of British accent. Or maybe
it was Australian, or South African. I couldn’t tell.

“Who
are you?” I asked.

“Everyone
here calls me Mater,” she said.

Ah
ha. The plot thickens.

“I’m
assuming Mater is an alias,” I said. “Could you tell me your birth name?”

“No.”

“Okay.
How about your date of birth?

She
smiled. “It’s not polite to ask a lady that question.”

“Okay
then. What am I doing here?”

“Penance,”
she said. “You’ve had your nose deep in our business. That has consequences.”

“So,
are you going to kill me?”

She
tilted her head and smiled. “We’re not murderers, Mr. Kai.”

“Call
me Kal,” I said, unsurprised that she knew my name. She obviously knew where I
lived, and how to set a trap for me. “So you’re not murderers but you have no
problem with kidnapping?”

“Please,
boy. You started this, remember?”

“Started
what?”

Mater
leaned in, glaring at me with impossibly dark eyes. “You kidnapped first. We’re
just responding in kind.”

“Ah,”
I said.

Mater
gave me a curt nod. “Now, it’s time for some questions of my own. What are you
trying to do with Madison?”

“I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Boy,
just get on with it and we’ll end this gently. You won’t even remember any of
it.”

“And
if I refuse?”

“We
keep you in your cell until you break down and give up . . . just like you did
last time. I always told Kellar that you didn’t have resolve. Was right about
that, wasn’t I?”

I
paused for a moment. I needed to let the flash of hot anger pass. Then I said,
“A lot of things have changed since then. I might last longer than you think,
and some dangerous people might come looking for me.”

“No
doubt someone will be looking for you,” Mater said. “But they will not be
finding you.”

Something
about the way she said that set off a bunch of warning klaxons in my head.
There was smarmy conceit in her voice. She knew something I didn’t. She
probably knew
a lot
of things I didn’t, but there was something specific
to this particular situation that I was clearly unaware of, and it bothered me.

Before
I could ask any more questions, Mater waved her hand and I was enveloped in
darkness again. Warmth leeched out of my body as I was surrounded by bitter
cold, and I realized I was no longer in Mater’s office. I was back in my cell.
I reached out into the Rift to cast a warming spell, and it actually worked.
That struck me as very odd. I was supposed to be a prisoner.

My
magic felt strong here. In fact, it was stronger than ever. Through my
Rift-sense I could still detect the heavy metal door to my cell. I had a
thought, and a thought turned into an idea, and an idea turned into conviction.

I
summoned as much power to myself as I could, just like I did in that little
neighborhood in Long Branch when I beat Madison. I condensed all that raw power
into a little ball of roiling magic. Then I hurled it at the door and hoped I
wasn’t about to blow myself to pieces.

The
door collapsed with a CRASH so loud it hurt my ears. The thick metal crumpled
like it was just aluminum foil, and new air flooded the cell. It smelled odd,
kind of like ozone. And this new breeze was even colder than the air in the
cell. My skin broke out into goosebumps as I stepped outside, ready to react to
whatever would happen next. I expected guards to come rushing at me at any
second.

There
was nothing.

There
was only more darkness outside the cell. No walls. No guards. I reached down to
the ground I was standing on to try to get an idea of what was going on. The
floor was a mystery like everything else here. It wasn’t grass or stone or
carpet or tile. It was just . . .
something
.

While
my mind tried to process this information, I felt a wave of activity through
the Rift. Creatures had joined me. I could not see them, and I couldn’t hear
them. But I could feel them through the magic, and that gave me more
information than eyes or ears ever could. They were small creatures, two-legged
and furry. They danced about and tackled each other in carefree playfulness.
I’d never encountered any Rift-kind like them before, and I’d certainly never
seen any creatures from the Rift actually frolicking with each other. It was
like these creatures were relaxed and comfortable, like they were home.

That’s
when I realized exactly where I was.

I
was
on the other side of
the
Rift.

The
nightcrafters had figured out a way to put people through the Rift. That’s
where those people I’d been following in London had mysteriously vanished to. I
lost track of them because they had gone over to the other side, into another
realm where they would have all the power they could ever dream of in a world
of eternal night.

Mater
would certainly have all the time she needed for me to crack. No one would
believe I was here. Even if Newton and his team could somehow figure out where
I’d been transported, they’d have no way to get here. There would be no rescue
team. I didn’t have the option of waiting things out. I’d have to figure out a
way to escape on my own, and soon.

* * *

There
was no place for me to go in the vast emptiness that existed here. I wondered
if some parts of this place might have interesting land features like hills,
valleys, and maybe even lakes if something like water existed here. But I
definitely didn’t want to go exploring. So I went back into my cell, and
waited.

I
fell asleep at some point. When I woke, I opened my eyes slowly and it was just
the same as having them closed. I reached into the Rift to expand my senses,
and felt another presence in the room.

I
jumped to my feet out of reflex and turned in the direction of the presence. I
extended myself into the Rift even further and got ready to cast as much magic
as I could muster. But just as quickly as I drew power to me, it was drained
away back towards the other person in the room. Then I heard a laugh in the
dark. The voice paralyzed me, but that had nothing to do with any magic. It was
a familiar voice that I hadn’t heard in years, and it wasn’t until this point
that I realized I’d missed it.

After
a couple of seconds I was able to regain my composure, and I said, “Did you
come here just to tease me, Kellar?”

“No,”
Kellar answered. “I came to talk.”

I
tried to strengthen myself with magic again, but my attempt failed. Kellar
could apparently block my access to the Rift’s power even though it surrounded
me. I figured that was why my captors had no qualms about leaving me in the
dark. They could restrict my nightcrafting as they pleased. I couldn’t see
Kellar’s face in this total darkness, but I knew he was smiling.

“You’re
here to talk?” I asked Kellar. “Or interrogate?”

Kellar
laughed again and said, “There are many things you never learned. And I doubt
you remember everything you
did
learn. So trust me when I say you’re
pretty helpless here, and you should cooperate if you want to go back home
within the next decade.”

“And
how exactly do you think I should . . . cooperate?”

“Easy,”
Kellar said. “Just answer a simple question. What do you want from me?”

“What
makes you think I want something from
you
?” I said.

“You
kidnapped Madison,” Kellar said, and I could hear a little anger creeping into
his voice. “Given our history, I think it’s safe to assume this supremely
stupid act was some kind of misguided attempt to get my attention. So,
congratulations. I’m here. Now, what do you want? Are you just trying to make
my life difficult?”

“No.”

“Well
that’s certainly what you’ve done. I’ve had a hell of a lot of questions to
answer recently. Mater has been bitching at me constantly since you reappeared
with an apparent knack for things you should have no knowledge of anymore.”

“So
you answer to Mater now?” I asked.

“I
answer to no one,” Kellar said. “I simply got tired of everyone looking to me
for all the answers. And everything was wonderfully quiet until you showed up
again.”

“Sorry
to ruin your retirement,” I said.

“I
don’t think you’re sorry at all. I think you’re reveling in it. I even think
this is a better outcome than what you originally expected. But I still don’t
know exactly what it is you expected to gain from all this. So, we return to
the question you still haven’t answered. What do you want?”