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Daniel Jacobs turned into a parking lot filled with numerous cars, all looking brand new compared to his old jalopy vehicle.
Della had been quiet for the last hour, and he wondered what she would do while he went inside the building. She couldn't come with him. She would attract too much attention.
Della said, "Where should I wait?"
He shook his head. She must be reading his thoughts. From the parking lot, he spotted a small diner in the corner, called Official Diner. He smiled. It was perfect.
"Follow me."
He parked his car and they stepped out onto the street, almost deserted at this time of the day. He looked upon the buildings almost with reverence. After a hundred years since the Breaking of the Bastions, human society had brought themselves out of the second medieval era and into another period of enlightenment. And yet, he mused, we need the Elves and the other magical races to help us rebuild or we’ll be back to the same waste and pollution before the cataclysm.
They crossed the street toward the diner. Della had her black cloak over her head, and she looked odd in the daylight out in public. He shook his head. This was not going to work.
"Professor?" Della said.
He was about to turn around to face her, but noticed several men in black suits had surrounded them. They were stood in the middle of the street. Daniel started to breath faster, and he took a step back toward Della. She was still in her cloak, and he felt she was about to attack.
"Daniel?"
The Professor saw his friend, Erlick, standing with the men in suits. Erlick was the person he wanted to see.
"We need you to stand down. Tell your friend not to attack us."
"What is going on here?” Professor Jacobs said. “We’re just getting some brunch.”
Erlick said, "We’ve been waiting for you, Professor. We know you’ve been working with the Elves."
He gave Erlick a hard stare. Daniel remembered his friend as skinnier, and with more hair back in college.
"If you know everything, then you know why I am here," the professor said.
"We need to take you somewhere, first. You’re not safe out here."
"You must promise that we’ll be safe," Professor Jacobs said.
"Yes, I can promise that. We’ve been friends for years, since school. You can trust me."
A crowd of people had emerged from the diner to look at them.
Erlick said, "You have to decide now. You will come with us, voluntarily or not."
Erlick had an odd look about him, and he seemed comfortable giving the threat.
"Okayay, we will go," David said.
Della looked at him. "I am still hungry."
"We will provide food," said Erlick.
"What do you want with us?" she asked.
"It’s not me. It’s somebody else. He has been waiting a long time for this to happen."
***
THEY RODE IN THE BACK of a large black van.
Della sat next to Daniel, and Erlick sat in the front seat with one of the agents driving. Daniel wondered which agency Erlick belonged too. They had been friends since college. Erlick majored in International Studies, and was a Magical History major. They met in a class called Society Environments. They had to take that class because the government made them take it. It was an essential part of the curriculum.
In class, Daniel had sat close to the front and Erlick sat behind him. Erlick once asked him if he had a pen. He’d left his in his room. After the first day of classes, Erlick asked him about his other classes, if they were as boring as the Society Environments.
"No, my other classes were about magic and its laws," Daniel said.
"Sounds cool."
Daniel learned they were staying in the same dorm building. They soon became study partners, and then friends. They had stayed in contact even after he went to higher learning at the Magical College. Erlick would call him almost like clockwork every Christmas, and sometimes in the New Year. Daniel always thought it was odd that a government official would be interested in a learned professor talking about history and magic. Now, he wasn’t so sure about Erlick. He thought perhaps it was all staged.
Professor Jacobs’ anger boiled within him. "Erlick, were you always an agent? Did you spy on me?”
Erlick turned in his seat and looked at him. "I was not always an agent. It was not until the last year of college when they enlisted me."
"Do you have my manuscript?"
"They have it. The head of my order has read everything. He had been interested in you for a long time. He knew you were the one."
They drove toward the outskirts of town and exited down a one-lane dirt road. Erlick handed them a bottle of water and some granola bars. He explained to them that they would have a late lunch, prepared for them back at his headquarters.
Daniel looked behind and saw the other cars were still following them. He was getting nervous. He hoped he could get his manuscript back. Daniel hadn’t made a backup for his book, and he now realized he should have.
The road abruptly stopped at a large mountain wall. The van didn't seem to be slowing.
Erlick saw the concern on their faces, and said, "Don't worry, we’ll be okay. It’s always a little disorienting the first time."
"It's an illusion," Della said.
Daniel wasn’t so sure. The mountain wall looked solid enough, and he wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't. Della grabbed his right hand. The van drove right through the mountain wall, and everything turned dark. Until he saw rays of light suddenly pierce the darkness. He didn't know he was holding his breath. Sucking in some air, he shook his head.
"Why the subterfuge?"
Erlick didn't say anything. He was looking ahead. The lights of the tunnel were becoming brighter. The vehicle slowed. He scanned up ahead and saw a metal doorway, and to the side of it a large sliding door. The car came to a stop.
"Get out. We're here."
Daniel didn't know where he was, and suddenly felt he was way out of his depth.
