It took less than five minutes for us to scout the general area our thief had headed into and confirm they were no longer around. Despite the various parahumans meandering about, June was surprisingly methodical in keeping them mentally organized as she dragged me to each section and asked if anyone matched what I saw. Truthfully, I shouldn’t have been surprised by her skill, but I was accustomed to Krystal’s style of problem management, which was . . . less organized, to put it nicely.
“If the thief came this way and isn’t here anymore, that leaves us with limited options,” June declared, once the final area was pronounced to be thief-free. “They could have doubled back and gone to another part of the floor, but Krystal was right about those weapons being bulky as all hell, not to mention noticeable. There probably wasn’t time to stash them before the lights came back on, so if I were in their shoes, I’d have left the convention floor and found a place to squirrel the goods away before coming back.”
“It makes sense, but it’s equally possible they ran this way momentarily and then shifted course, or found cover in one of the booths.”
June nodded her head toward a white-painted door that nearly blended in perfectly with the ivory-colored walls. “There are only two exits out of this whole area besides the main doors, and our thief happened to run right at one of them. True, it isn’t concrete, but sometimes this job is about playing the odds. Besides, I have a feeling in my gut that says the weapons went this way.”
“Forgive me for asking this, but I’m relatively unfamiliar with the capabilities of fey. At least, beyond the old stories and literature. Is this gut feeling an actual magic, or are we merely talking about intuition?”
“Fred, when you’ve been doing this job as long as some of us have, there is nothing ‘mere’ about intuition,” June said. “I actually can sense magic within a certain range, but no, this isn’t that. It’s just decades of experience telling me to follow this route.”
“A well-made point,” I conceded. Though I had peeked behind the curtain a bit in terms of seeing agents without the bluster, that didn’t change the fact that they were highly capable at their jobs. If June said the thief went out the door, then it behooved me to trust her judgment. Besides, it wasn’t like I had any better idea to put forth.
We exited the main floor and came into a stone hallway, clearly meant only for emergencies and staff, since it lacked the more upscale décor of the rest of the convention center. Before us were a set of rising concrete steps and a short hallway that led to a door with a bright red “Exit” sign hanging above it. Even just seeing it left me a touch uneasy, as I knew beyond that door was bright, beautiful, deadly sunshine. If June wanted to follow the trail that way, she would have to do it without me.
“We go up,” June said. That command made me feel both worried and at ease, since, as much as I’d dreaded the idea of telling June I had to quit, the chance to exit the hunt had been extremely appealing.
“What do you think is up there?” I asked. “The hotel is attached, but it’s a separate building, so it can’t lead to the rooms.”
“Smart money says this is how they access those catwalks near the ceiling. With the main lights down from the spell, it’s pitch black up there, and no one is looking up at them anyway. Perfect place to hide stolen magical weapons.”
“If you’re right, our thief seems to have done an awful lot of planning for a spur of the moment pilfering. Being at the booth just as the lights went out, having this place already in mind, it all screams to significantly more pre-meditation than I’d suspected.”
June gave me a long, cool stare, then artfully raised one of her eyebrows by the barest of inches.
“I, um . . . I watch a lot of mystery movies and shows,” I admitted, caving under her authoritative gaze.
“Then you realize our only advantage over this jerk is that, while the thief you described is short and hobbly, we are both capable of incredible speed. So we should quit yapping and start climbing.”
“Of course.” I barely had time to get the words out before June was off, barreling up the stairs with the same grace she’d demonstrated in maneuvering through the convention hall.
Now, as a vampire, I’m pretty spry myself, and since having a drop of Gideon’s blood, I’d been even more so, yet I still had to push myself to keep up with her as we climbed flight after flight. Had it been a straightforward race on flat ground, I likely could have overtaken her, but when adding the nimbleness needed to corner and climb, she easily became the faster of us. If she was only half fey, I shuddered to think what a full-blooded one could do. Suffice it to say that the fey had joined the ever-growing list in my head of parahumans to avoid slighting or angering. Thus far, it included every type of parahuman I’d met, as well as a few I’d only heard about.
Even with our exceptional speed, it took us nearly a full minute to ascend the high reaches of the industrial stairs. At last we came to a small platform with a door marked “Employees Only.”
“That just seems cruel,” I said, pointing at the sign. June shot me a curious glance, so I continued. “It makes more sense to have the sign at the bottom. Imagine if someone was all the way down there, curious about what was at the top, and they climbed that whole set of stairs just to be disappointed. Sure, it’s not a big deal for us; however, that might have been truly taxing for a human.”
“Fred, stop talking.”
“My apologies. I was just struck by how it—”
“No, Fred, stop talking because I need to concentrate,” June said, her voice surprisingly patient. “I can feel a slight trace of magic up here.”
“Ah. Right. Shutting up now.”
June closed her eyes and inched carefully toward the door. She pressed her slender fingers against its cold metal surface, face so close that if the door were flung open it would easily break her nose, or it would if that exceptional speed of hers didn’t extend to her reflexes as well as it did to her legs. It was hard to say how long she stood like that; time spent trying to be quiet and still tends to stretch out in odd directions. Thankfully, June finally broke the silence, and with good news at that.
“They’re here,” she said softly. “I can’t be sure where, or if the thief is still around them, but I can tell they’re nearby.” She reached around to the small of her back and removed her gun from its holster. It was smaller than Krystal’s sidearm—my girlfriend preferred the sort of weapon that could cleave limbs off bodies with a single shot. June’s was smaller and built for precision. It matched her personality well.
“From here on, things get dangerous,” June warned. “Normally, I’d tell you to wait out here, but we’re going into a situation with an unknown parahuman whose capabilities are a mystery. The one thing we do know, however, is that they’re adept at staying hidden. Add in that it will be dark as hell up here, and that means I need as many eyes as I can get, especially vampire ones, just in case our villain tries to get the jump on me. All you need to do is play lookout, no trying to be a hero and getting involved. Just because our thief has been peaceful and working in the shadows doesn’t mean they have to. It’s entirely possible that this person has plenty of power to throw around and just prefers the convenience of staying hidden. That option won’t exist when they’re cornered, so you’d better brace for anything.”
I gave a small nod to signal my understanding. Much as I loathed getting tangled up in these situations, June was right about plunging into the unknown. It was always dangerous, and my extra vision might very well make the difference between a successful surprise attack and a thwarted failure. June clearly wasn’t my biggest fan, and she’d done little to ingratiate herself to me thus far, but it didn’t matter. She was important to Krystal, and that made her important to me. Such is the burden of love and friendship.
“I’m going to pull open the door in a minute. When I do, I’ll jump forward, in case anything is nearby, and as soon as that happens, I want you to do a quick scan for our thief. If they try to bolt, give me directions. If they rush us, give me a warning. Under no circumstances, none, are you to pursue or engage. Clear?”
“Understood,” I said.
June gave a half-hearted roll of her eyes, then grabbed the door handle firmly in her clutches.
“One, two, three, go!”