Out of the Black - Lee Doty [52]
"You know him?" Alex asked.
Ping nodded. "Yeah... his name's Garvey. He and his partner gave me the reaming about your keys."
"Uh oh." Rae said, shaking her head and looking at Alex. "This guy and his fraternal clone tossed your cube downstairs while I was waiting for the Detective here. He was packing."
"Yeah, he should be, he's FBI." Ping said.
"No... packing." Her eyes shifted to Alex, full of meaning.
Alex turned his head to Ping. "She means he posts to the wizards-only chat room."
"You mean someone put the hex on him like you did to me?" Ping asked.
Rae shook her head. "No. I saw him use it when they were searching the Alex's cubicle... probably Cast Vision to see if Alex left anything hot behind. He's in the club."
"Hot?"
"Forged... like Rae's necklace." Alex answered.
"So maybe the Feds have a special Lovecraft squad or something. These guys interrogated me when I was still fiddling with your keys." Ping paused to punch Alex in the shoulder, "They know something's up with Lutine and folks like him."
"Ow." Alex said, rubbing his shoulder again, "Yeah, the Gov's got Savants... like your grade school had federal agents. Governments come and go, but the Clans go back forever."
"Clans?"
Alex held up his hands, then after a slight pause, continued. "This is big trouble... There's a lot of stuff I don't know yet, but you've got to believe me here: we don't want to stay and chat. If these are the guys that interrogated you, then I think they're on the side of the people who killed Roy and Ivo."
"Now that's a cheery thought!" Rae hissed, fingering her cameo. "These guys managed to take down either of them alone and asleep, I'd be scared, but both..." She trailed off, shaking her head.
"So you're saying that Lutine and Sieberg were like Yoda and his more powerful twin?"
"They were more like Yoda and his love child. They acted like father and son. Course they weren't," Rae said, "didn't look a thing alike."
Alex shook his head. "Lutine was more like Gandalf than Yoda, but Roy... he was scary. Don't get me wrong, he looked like he wouldn't hurt a fly and whoa, if you ever saw him with a baby in the room you'd think he was a more intense version of a favorite grandma. But your image of him changes the first time you catch him playing."
Ping looked troubled. "Playing? You saying 'torturing animals' or something?"
Alex gave a nervous laugh. "No. When it came to animals he was more the compulsive petter... Rae, you remember the time Roy had the puppy at Ivo's office?"
She laughed. "Who could forget... he had that little rat on his head for a while."
"Anyway, that's not what I was talking about. Once I came early for practice on the roof of the Grant building. Roy was showing off for Ivo... it was the weirdest thing. Ivo was laughing, Roy was capering around doing some pretty amazing gymnastics- flips and stuff. They hadn't seen me yet, so I stood in the doorway and watched. The tricks got more intense- but with a sense of humor. One I remember was a multiple flip that ended in a landing on his head and shoulders with his arms out to the sides. He just stopped with his legs going straight up, kinda twitching- I almost yelled, I thought he was dead. But Ivo just laughs harder, and in a second, Roy's up again and smiling."
"Then some birds go overhead and boom! Roy's gone and a second later he comes back down with a pigeon nicely folded in one hand. I checked the place he landed later and there were cracks in the ceramic of the roof."
"You're saying he flies." Ping said, unimpressed. "Like Superman."
"I'm saying he jumped at least four meters up with enough precision to catch a bird in mid-flight without harming it. I'm saying he landed like an Olympic gymnast... not just nailed the landing, but did it with a flourish... then he gets all melodramatic and says something about crying in the rain, waving the bird around for emphasis. Ivo was amused, but it creeped me out."
"All these moments will be lost in time. Like tears in rain." Ping quoted, a connection forming