Matt Archer: Redemption Part 9

We pulled into the parking lot of a low building surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. If it hadn't been for the metal spikes on top and the security cameras everywhere, I might've thought it was some kind of lab or dentist's office.

The front door was steel, without a window-but a camera pointed down at our heads here, too. Johnson pressed the bell and after a moment, the door buzzed as the lock clicked open. Inside we found a plainly furnished waiting room with a gla.s.s-fronted reception desk next to a door on the back wall-exactly like a doctor's office.

The frosted window opened and a stern-faced woman in a dark suit looked us over. Johnson's lips twitched like he was trying to hold back a smile. "I believe we have an appointment."

"To see our guest." She picked up phone receiver. "Sir? They're here."

After a moment of listening, she hung up and the door to her right buzzed. She nodded us through.

The hallway behind the door was stark white and smelled like a strong antiseptic, giving me a serious case of the heebies. This wasn't the place where we interviewed Ann before. This was the place my dad had called "the dungeon."

At the time, I'd thought he was being melodramatic to scare Ann. Now I wasn't so sure.

"The elevator's at the end," Stern Lady called. "Second bas.e.m.e.nt level."

"Really charming staff they have here," Johnson said, then he stopped with his forehead scrunched up. "Mamie, you okay?"

I turned to find that she hadn't kept pace with us. Instead, she had a hand on the wall, leaning like she felt faint. Her face was pasty and a fine sheen of sweat stood out on her upper lip.

"All wrong," she whispered. "This is all wrong."

I went back to her and tugged her upright so she could lean against me. "Sis, what's up? Do we need to leave? Because you don't have to do this. Jorge and I can question Ann."

And I would love to question her. Ask her how she slept last night, knowing hundreds had died at her command.

Mamie stirred. "Sorry. Just a little dej vu. I'm okay."

Her pallor suggested that she was anything but okay, but I nodded. Sometimes a brother had to be encouraging, no matter what. "I'll walk with you then."

Taking our time, we made our way to the elevator. Johnson held the door open, watching her with concern. He met my eye when we got in. The look said he'd rather not make this trip, and part of me agreed. Still, Mamie had proved the only effective weapon against Ann and we needed to know what the witch knew.

The elevator ticked down two floors, opening up on a gray hallway. It was colder down here, and the scent of bleach was even stronger than upstairs. What went on in this building? I probably didn't want to know.

Mamie stumbled into the wall. "I don't like this."

"Don't like what?"

"There's something here. I can't explain it. Something like a blot in front of my eyes. I can't See."

I heard the capital S in that sentence. "Do we need to leave?"

She shook her head. "I have to know what she knows."

"Are you sure?" I stood in front of her, so the others couldn't see her face. "I'll take you back to the hotel if you aren't well enough to do this."

She stood up taller. "It doesn't matter how I feel. We need answers only she can provide, and I'm literally the only person she'll talk to. I'll be fine."

"We have other options," I said. "The Chinese shaman is bound to turn up sometime, especially if Dad's searching for him. He might know things about the Shadow-"

"Do not say his name," Mamie hissed, her eyes glowing that preternatural blue for a brief moment. Then she slumped a bit. "Sorry. Let me be the one taking the risk of naming him here, okay? This is something I have to do."

I raised my hands, wondering why the very mention of the Shadow Man had her so jumpy. "Okay."

She took a deep breath. "Don't worry. I'm good to go."

A lie if I ever heard one. "Then let's go." I motioned for Jorge. "Jorge can take you in. Johnson and I will be in the room right next door. If you need us, wave and we'll come running."

A door at the end of the hallway opened and two CIA officers-both armed with pistols, based on the holster straps showing under their jackets-came out. They were identical in their boring suits, red ties, and regulation haircuts. Both had stern expressions to match the woman's upstairs.

The first one, who I decided would be Frick, said, "The prisoner is secured and ready." He pointed at a door to his right. "This is the observation center. We'll monitor the progress with you there."

Frack, the second one, asked, "Who's going in?" When Mamie raised her hand, he frowned. "I was under the impression a specialist was coming."

"She is the specialist," I said. "So's her escort. The captain and I will observe."

Identical eyebrow raises from Frick and Frack, but they didn't ask any more questions. Frick led Jorge and Mamie to Ann's door, while Frack escorted Johnson and me to the observation room. Like before, there wasn't a two-way mirror, but a monitor bank with six different video feeds from various angles.

What struck me as different, though, was Ann's appearance.

The last time I'd seen her was five weeks ago. She'd been defiant at every turn after we captured her, even after Dad told her the CIA had erased her ident.i.ty and that the Australian government had denounced her. Then, Ann had had a cold beauty, with a mane of auburn hair to rival Ella's.

Now, she seemed to have shrunk.

She was hunched in her chair and if her wrists hadn't been cuffed and chained to the table, I bet she would've wrapped her arms around herself. Her hair hung lank and stringy and her eyes had a dull cast to them. Was she still sick from the conjuring? Or was the CIA a less than kind host? I could believe either.

When the door opened and Mamie entered, followed by Jorge, Ann cringed and pushed her chair as far back as her restraints would allow.

"She's scared," Johnson said. "That's one terrified lady."

"I wouldn't call her a lady, but I'm with you on the scared part," I said.

Frick joined us in the room. "They're ready to begin."

Jorge pulled out Mamie's chair for her before picking a spot in a corner by the door to lean against the wall. He watched Ann with hooded eyes, but otherwise faded into the background. From the intensity of his stare, though, I knew he was catching every detail of the room.

"Why are you here?" Ann said. Her once throaty voice now sounded like a knife on a whetstone. "Come to say goodbye?"

Mamie visibly stiffened for a moment before closing her eyes. Tink moved restlessly in my head, too. I reached for the knife sheathed in the thigh pocket of my BDUs. The handle was cool. Whatever had Tink upset wasn't something I could take care of, apparently.

My sister relaxed and opened her eyes. And suddenly, there was Super Mamie. Her eyes weren't glowing, but they had that same steely quality as the last time we did this.

"We don't have much time, as you well know," she said. "You called the darkness two days ago. How, since you were stuck in here?"

Ann sighed. "It was already in motion before I was arrested. I didn't get my phone call, thanks to your father, so I couldn't tell my people to stop the calling ritual. You want to blame someone, blame him."

"Nice of you to blame someone else for your ideas. Especially when the result was the death of five of your followers, an innocent child, and four hundred and eighty other people." Mamie leaned her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands. "But that's not really why I'm here. You know that, too."

Ann's expression went sullen. "Yes."

"Something happened several weeks ago. What was it?"

"I'm not an idiot, Marguerite. There was a blood red moon, which is why you can have this conversation with me." Ann tilted her head, almost coy. "You came into your full power that night. Otherwise-" She held up her cuffed wrists. "This never would've happened."

"Keep deluding yourself about that. My father and brother caught you because you screwed up, not because of anything I did. I had nothing to do with their trip."

Now Ann looked surprised. She darted a glance at one of the cameras. It happened to be the one that fed into the monitor directly in front of me. Almost like she meant to catch my eye.

"Remarkable. I had no idea. I thought you scryed me out."

"I don't know how to find people that way," Mamie said. "Yet."

Note to self: find out what "scryed" meant.

"Anyway, I was abducted by thirteen of Dark Master's creatures. They ultimately let me go. That tells me a lot of things, but also leaves me with a puzzle I'd like you to help me solve."

"And what do I get in return?" Ann asked. "I'd rather not die in this place."

Mamie lifted a shoulder. "I'll do what I can, but both of us know that might not mean very much."

The witch deflated. "So the creatures let you go? They were that self-aware?"

"Yes, enough to recognize right from wrong. They accidentally-or so they said-killed two of my friends as we walked back to the dorms from the astronomy lab." Mamie sighed. "I never should've gone out that night, but there was extra credit to observe the eclipse from the campus telescope. So when they asked me to go, I had this strange pull to watch it happen."

"That I understand." Ann sounded almost dreamy. "I felt the same way the first time I crossed planes. When Jorge opened the portal to the spirit's world, there was this delicious tug and I knew I'd found the door."

Mamie glared at her. "Every time the Dark Master made these monsters in the wake of a lunar eclipse, they're bloodthirsty for humans. No matter how intelligent each round became, they wanted to kill us. Why did the Bears take such pains to keep me-and my brother's team-alive?"

Ann scooted closer to the table to give her hands some slack, then brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Quite a puzzle, indeed."

Mamie nodded. "I asked one of them why there were only thirteen and why they seemed to have a newfound respect for human life. A She-Bear, right before the Dark Master took her life, said that they weren't fed by blood."

My ears perked up. I'd wondered about this-especially as to why only thirteen monsters showed up both in Montana and Peru after the last eclipse. We'd had a hundred in Australia during that eclipse.

"You've noticed how my people can create monsters outside the cycle, right?"

Mamie went very still. "Yes. Because you fed the dark spirits through your sacrifices. You brought them across without the help of an eclipse."

"There's more to it. The Dark Master is very powerful in general, but he fights by proxy, much like the light spirits do."

Now it was my turn to go still. Last year, in Africa, a monster had called me Tink's proxy. And I'd often thought of myself as her arms and legs. Was that true?

"That's why he needed us," Ann was saying. "To bring his corporeal form here and give it power. The Shadow Man, as your brother calls it, isn't really him. It's his proxy, but it's part of him, too, if that makes sense."

"It does."

"Then you understand how dangerous the Shadow is. It has some of the Master's power-which is considerable-and all of his hate. And it continues to draw on him, even here, much like the wielders draw on their spirits. But it's still missing something important, which is where we came in."

"Blood," Mamie whispered.

"When the Master saw what we could do... " Ann shrugged. "He asked us to help him increase his earthly power."

"And that's why there were only thirteen monsters in Montana in August." Mamie's face had a far-away expression. Her brain was working hard to put the pattern together. "You didn't help him call more. And because you didn't help him, the Bears were able to advance past all the others."

"Yes. See, we had something bigger in mind," Ann said softly. "When I outed the wielders to the politicians, I had one of my covens standing by. If a hearing was held, they were to try to knock out all five wielders at once, while other covens brought through whatever creatures they could in the meantime. Global panic is an ugly thing. Without the wielders, humanity would be in chaos, and the Shadow Man would have an easier time winning the final battle."

My sister sat up straight, and righteous anger seemed to ignite the air. "Just for kicks? Or do you still have some delusions about coming into power once the Master takes over? What did he promise you, Ann? To rule over us as his new proxy?"

"Whatever he offered is off the table," she snapped. "He used us this entire time and never intended to give us our reward. I don't like being used." Her expression was hard with fury. "While I was in the hospital yesterday, I managed to get word to one of my lieutenants. The covens are to stand down. We're finished, and they know it. If the wielders can clear out the creatures we brought across, whatever happens from here is all him."

"Because you let him in," Mamie growled.

"Because I was a fool. If I'd known the true stakes, I never would've agreed." Ann coughed and ma.s.saged her throat. "Do you think I could get some water?"

Jorge slipped from the room like a ghost, and poked his head through the observation room door. "Is it okay for me to get her water?"

Frick shrugged. "There's some in the fridge in the corner."

Jorge retrieved a bottle and took it to Ann. Her hands shook as she drank and water spilled onto her beige jumpsuit. When she set the bottle down, her eyes had a gla.s.sy sheen. "What were we talking about?"

Mamie shot Jorge an alarmed look. "About the covens standing down. How once you knew the true stakes of the war, you backed off."

"Ah, right." Ann's voice was raspier than before, and she seemed to have trouble breathing. She tugged at her collar. "See, it's all tied together. The power of blood is-"

Ann jerked suddenly, making choking noises, then fell out of her chair. Her cuffs kept her from hitting the floor, but she was hanging by her arms. All of us scrambled out of the observation room and raced inside to find Jorge holding Ann up, while Mamie forced a pencil between her teeth.

"Seizure," Mamie said. "We're trying to keep her from swallowing her tongue."

Frack unlocked Ann's cuffs and helped Jorge lower her to the floor. Her breath came in labored wheezes that got progressively farther apart.

Frick bent like he was going to start CPR, but Mamie held up a hand. "She's beyond that."

Ann took her last breath and it rattled out. Then she went limp.

"What happened?" I asked. "Was she poisoned or something?"

Johnson gave the CIA guys a suspicious glare. "Was the water poisoned?"

"No." Frack looked dazed. "I can't believe we let this happen on our watch. Our superiors will be p.i.s.sed."

"There was nothing you could do." Mamie sounded exhausted. "He took her. Like he took the Bears."

My head popped up. "What? You mean he was here?"

"He was in her head, like Tink's in yours." She reached down to smooth Ann's hair, and a tear ran down her cheek. "What disturbs me most, though, was how much he let her tell us, and when he killed her. What was she about to say?"

Yeah, that was pretty disturbing. "I don't know. But I'll bet it means something awful for us."

"Agreed." Mamie sighed. "Can we go back to the hotel? I'm cold and my head aches. I need some candy and a nap before we leave this afternoon."