Death March: Black Magic Outlaw Read online

  "Fat chance with Manifesto taking to the limelight." He scowled. "It gets worse. This is high profile now. Margo canceled the agent she was gonna send. She's ordering all Society members out of town, including me."

  "You're leaving?"

  He angled his head. "Order from the board. She believes the damage is done. It's about containment at the federal level now."

  I couldn't believe the ease with which he was abandoning the case. It's what Shen had said: secrecy was more important than solution. Did it really surprise me?

  Simon's expression softened. "You should come with me. Get out of town a while. Let the police do their jobs. It's only a matter of time. Manifesto's a ticking bomb."

  My face darkened. "Don't worry about him. He came to my door with my friends inside. It's personal now."

  I considered mentioning the new letter but held back. It wasn't that I didn't agree with the Society's interests—nobody wanted Manifesto stringing up animists and spreading mass panic—but Simon was already cashing his chips. He had one foot out the door. He wasn't involved anymore.

  "Have you heard from Darcy?" he asked. "She's not picking up here phone."

  "Huh," I offered noncommittally. Evan and Lucky were heading to the elevator, no doubt to take a look-see upstairs.

  He hissed. "That kid is always a little hard to reach. If you see her, let her know about the order."

  I barely nodded, distracted by the police. Manifesto's letter was on my front door. If it was a personal message to me, I didn't want Lieutenant Lucky getting his grubby hands on it. Details about me and my friends could be in there.

  "Keep your phone close," I called to Simon as I sprinted away.

  Evan and Lucky entered the elevator. For once, Carmela saved me. She slowed the closing of the door by following them in. I weaved through personnel as they reactivated, slipping my hand through the doors just in time to stop them. Lucky grumbled.

  "Sorry," I said. "I gotta use the bathroom, and I really prefer my own toilet."

  Evan rolled his eyes as the doors slid shut. I shrugged meekly.

  "And that's another thing," complained Carmela as we ascended. "People live here, and they'd appreciate it if your officers didn't block off the entire lobby."

  Lucky grumbled even louder. "Ma'am, I'm gonna ask you to stop talking."

  The elevator stopped on the tenth floor. I arched an eye as Lucky brushed past me.

  "Step back, please." For a second I thought I'd gotten lucky and Lucky was gonna get off, but no such luck. The lieutenant held the door while he scanned up and down the hall then returned to the elevator. "I'll do a full check on the way down, but it looks clear. Ma'am, I'm gonna need the names of the residents on that floor."

  As we approached my penthouse, I tried positioning myself so I would get off first. Lucky angled in my way.

  "Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to wait a moment. I want to make sure the hallway's clear."

  "But Manifesto's not there anymore," I said.

  "It's just a precaution."

  I pressed to the door. "I really need to go to the—"

  The door opened and Lucky set his arm across my chest. He barged into the hallway first. I shoved past him as he turned toward my door, which was hard to miss because the penthouse took up the whole floor. I lunged but couldn't beat him to it. Not only did I trip face first to the carpet, but Lucky's eyes fixed on the only door in the landing.

  The letter was gone.

  Chapter 40

  "Aha ha," I chuckled nervously, picking myself up. Everyone stared. "Sorry. Just had an almost-pissed-out-of-my-ass situation there. I'm okay now."

  Carmela pointed an offended nose in the air. Lucky's hard glare softened. "I know the feeling," said the grizzled lieutenant. "I got half my remaining business knocking on the door myself." He surveyed the landing. "Looks like there's nothing to see here. No point getting prints if we've already identified the suspect." He nodded to the door. "Go ahead and take care of it."

  "Thanks."

  "And, sir," he called as the door was half open, "I'd strongly suggest using your peephole next time a stranger knocks. It's there for a reason."

  "Yeah. Thanks again."

  Evan asked about widening the perimeter as I shut the door. I didn't have high hopes this time. Manifesto was no stranger to avoiding detection. Given his close calls, he almost had it down to an art.

  An entire living room switched their gazes from me to the letter in Fran's hands.

  "You took it down," I realized, joining the pile. "You shouldn't have done that." I snatched the letter and ruffled her hair. "Good girl."

  The single page of copy paper had handwritten blue ink hastily scrawled across it. No special symbols or ciphers, just an all-too-straightforward message.

  To my Nemesis,

  We are meant for each other. I see that now. I finally understand the task before me.

  My work has resulted in the extermenation of several demons, but they've all been inconsequential and undeserving of my focus. You will be my grand finale.

  Our destinies are entertwined. We each represent banners of the war to come. Humans with eyes open facing off against furtive magicians. No longer can the curtain hide you. Let our confrontation be a rallying cry to the world. Leave my numbers to the sheep. For you, I will address a special invitation. Keep a fixed eye out for it.

  And if you don't, I'll pick off your magician friends and consorts, one by one. This is my manifesto.

  I nearly crumpled the paper in anger. Instead I handed it to Emily so she could have a look. "He's not a very good speller, is he?" she noted.

  "He'll get the electric chair for sure."

  Evan entered while fending off Carmela. He eventually closed the door with her on the outside. He huddled with his wife and went over the message.

  Milena punched my shoulder. "This guy really wants to kill you, huh? What'd you do?"

  "Probably my stunning good looks. Anyway, don't be jealous. He wants to kill you too."

  "That's reassuring."

  Darcy didn't appreciate the casual banter. "How are we gonna find him?" she demanded.

  "I'm not quite sure. Manifesto has a method to his madness. This letter is proof that he's setting something up."

  "So we hit him before he's ready."

  "That's a nice idea if we know where he is."

  Evan handed the letter back to Emily and said, "I'll be notified if anybody spots him. That doesn't mean the DROP team's free to act. This is too high profile for us to get involved off the books."

  "Screw that," said Darcy.

  "I'm serious," he returned. "Half the police force is on the streets as we speak. I'm gonna need to mobilize for any SWAT eventualities. There is way too much heat on this thing."

  "I don't see a way around it," I agreed.

  Darcy crossed her arms and dug in. "Come on, Cisco. They need us."

  "I don't disagree, but you have to keep in mind that the feds are out there too, and Rita may have her suspicions about spellcraft. Manifesto's actions have only shed more light on this." I paused before I revealed the next point. Part of me didn't want to tell her, but she had a right to know. "Margo recalled the Society. Simon's leaving town."

  Her eyes widened. "What?"

  "He said he called you."

  She snorted. "I lost my phone when I took a spill on the bike."

  "I can call him back to come get you—"

  "Fuck that. They're cowards. I'm not scared of this guy."

  I watched her for a second to determine whether she was pushing out false bravado or actual feelings. "Can you do that? Go against the union?"

  She set her chin out. "I'm my own person."

  A smile I didn't know I wanted stretched across my face. "Good. So we wait for Manifesto."

  "Wait for him to do what? He wants to kill you," pointed out Emily.

  "He can get in line."

  She chewed her lip. She wasn't usually the nervous type. Then again she didn't us
ually have crosshairs on her back. "I don't like this at all. He didn't give us any leads. He told us what he wants but not what he intends. His only instruction is to keep a look out. He doesn't even say for how long."

  "His time frame has moved up," said Evan. "It took a month between homicides one and two. Another week for Marie Devereaux. Then just two days before attacking you. Given his reckless public statement, I wouldn't be surprised if he makes a move tonight or tomorrow."

  "But no leads," repeated Emily.

  "Actually," contested Fran, studying her papers and holding a hand up as she would in math class, "I think I can solve this cipher."

  Everybody turned to her. Even Kasper peeled his eyes open and sat up.

  Evan shook his head. "Fran, I don't want you investigating something so dark."

  "It's not dark. It's just a number puzzle." She smiled confidently. "He said 'numbers,' remember?"

  I blinked. "What?"

  "In the letter. Manifesto said, 'Leave my numbers to the sheep.' You get it? He did give us a clue, only he didn't mean to. Look here."

  We huddled over her shoulder.

  "Look at the cipher fragment: wivo ivo wero ev. It's gibberish, but there's not a lot of variance. It doesn't use the whole alphabet and there are repeated letter pairs. I thought it was curious while studying it. Then looking at the second line. And the other two ciphers, the pattern is undeniable."

  "But those are letters," noted Evan, "not numbers."

  "And that's the key." Her face lit up. "Look here. There are no 'A's or 'U's. You know what words don't have 'A's and hardly any 'U's in them? Numbers."

  Kasper mouthed them out loud while he ticked his fingers. "One, two, three, four—that's a U. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten—"

  "Skip ten," she said. "Add zero. Those are the ten numerals you need to build a number."

  "So what's 'wivo ivo' then?" I asked.

  "Well, the W stands out. The only number with a W is two." She grabbed a pen and wrote it above the top line of the cipher.

  "Okay," I granted, not quite sold yet. "What's the I?"

  Kasper grunted. "Five, six, eight, nine."

  Fran nodded. "Right. The 'I's not unique, but the V is, except for seven which doesn't have an I. So what if the letter pairing IV represents five?" She scribbled that next in the sequence. "You see what's going on here now, right?"

  I scratched the back of my head, glad I wasn't the only one holding back.

  She sighed. "These are numbers, but starting with the second letter. No 'T's—two, three—and no 'F's—four, five. So the next O is four, not two or zero. Second letter, right? 'Wivo' is 254. The next 'ivo' is another 54."

  Kasper nodded. "I get it. And the reason some numbers, like five, are two letters instead of one is because the single letter's not unique to their second position."

  "Exactly!" she said, huddling closer to the tattoo artist. "The rest of the line is 'wero ev' which is two... ER is zero... four, seven. And last is this strange spiral symbol. I'm not sure what that is."

  We studied the string of numbers as Fran worked on the second line: 254542047.

  "Twenty-five," muttered Evan, bringing up something on his phone. He peeked at the beginning of the next sequence as Fran filled it out. "Eighty. These are GPS coordinates."

  I turned between them. I couldn't believe this was working.

  "Twenty-five degrees by eighty degrees is a location in Miami. The first line would be 25° 45' 42.047, assuming three decimal places. The spiral is probably just the end of the number. Or where GPS users would put the cardinal direction. In Miami's case, that would be north. If we assume the second spiral signifies west, because it wouldn't be anywhere near us if it was east, then we have a very specific location in the city."

  Fran smiled. "It's a geocache! Dad and I did some a few years ago."

  Everybody was thoroughly impressed. I swatted Evan's back. "You done raised her right," I joked. He was beaming. Fran's first police work. I waited as she copied down letters and translated them into numbers. "So what you're saying is we have a physical location to look for Manifesto?"

  "Three," she said. "Three ciphers, three locations."

  Emily shook her head. "But we won't find Manifesto at any of them. He said these numbers were for the sheep. This puzzle is meant for the general public."

  "And if these are true geocaches," explained Fran, "then there should be an item or stash at each one." She finished with all three and spaced them out correctly so they could be easily read. All nearby locations.

  "There's one problem," returned Emily. "The whole world has these ciphers now. We might not be able to get to them first."

  "No one else had the clue," said Fran. "No one's thinking only numbers. And the fact that some numbers are a single digit and some are double will throw people off."

  "That's for sure," I said. "The FBI's had the first cipher for over a month and they think it's gibberish."

  Evan shook his head. "I dunno. Never underestimate the power of 4chan."

  "You're right. Let's split into three teams and grab these caches. Emily and Evan—"

  She shook her head. "No way. I'm staying here with John and Fran."

  "Mom," whined Fran.

  "I'm sorry, honey. You did a great job with the evil ciphers, but you're not leaving this house while that man's out there. He had a picture of you."

  Her darkened face turned to me. I ignored her appeal. Her mother was right on.

  "Don't worry about me," said Evan. "I need to step out and mobilize my team. We'll take the first location." He grabbed an extra copy of the cipher and jotted down his coordinates.

  "Okay, then." I noted how eager Darcy was to get moving. She was already copying the second location down. She was a formidable witch by herself, but I didn't like the thought of anyone being alone. "How about you stick with Kasper, Darcy?"

  She flashed him a sidelong glance and nodded. "Sure."

  Milena hopped up to me like an excited puppy. "That leaves you and me!" She accepted the master list from Fran and pulled out her phone. I almost objected but realized I had no idea what to do with those coordinates. And, well, I could finally get my Milena alone time.

  We said bye to Emily and the kids and headed down together. Police still patrolled the lobby but their presence was less dense. We easily transferred to the parking lot.

  "I would ask if you know how to sit on a bike, old man," said Darcy to Kasper, "but you look like a crazy biker yourself. Hold on."

  They straddled the motorcycle and took off like a missile.

  I popped the trunk and handed Milena the same Uzi from two nights ago. "You should probably just keep this." She had jeans now so couldn't hide the drop-leg holster under a skirt. She ducked into the car with it.

  "I hope we don't need this."

  "Better safe than sorry." I gave Evan a nod before I pulled out next. He followed me out but quickly split off on his own mission.

  Chapter 41

  "Can't this piece of junk go any faster?" teased Milena.

  "It can, but I don't want to blow out the spare tire."

  I pulled onto Red Road and slowed as we neared the location. A park the size of a small block. No lights or infrastructure, just grass and trees. The area was well covered and abandoned; the park was closed from dusk to dawn.

  "At least the Obsidian March isn't following us," I said.

  I pulled onto the swale. The entire park was sunken into the ground, a gentle slope from all perimeter streets to what was a hilly picnic paradise during the day. At night the stillness was eerie, only broken by passing headlights that didn't reach the bottom of the basin.

  "I didn't know you could dig that deep in Miami without hitting water," said Milena. It wasn't much—fifteen or twenty feet—but her point was taken. She double-checked the coordinates. "It's definitely in there."

  I shut off the Firebird and scanned the park with my night vision. My spellcraft couldn't detect infrared heat signatures or anythi
ng like that, but it pierced the darkness well enough. "It looks empty."

  My phone buzzed. Evan had set up a group in a messaging app. Me, Milena, Kasper, him, and Emily. Darcy no longer had her phone. "Recovered 1st cache in Allapattah," he texted. "Diary pages. Grisly photos of Mordane, postmortem. Rant about magic."

  I frowned and texted back. "You named this group Team Evan? Not gonna fly."

  "My group. My name."

  Milena shook her head. "Focus, Cisco."

  "Right."

  I texted, "Magic rant?"

  He took a minute to come back. "Handwritten account of Mordane's magic."

  "Proof?"

  "Questionable. Need to finish with my team. Unless anyone needs assist?"

  Kasper interrupted the textathon. "Would you clowns quit hogging the airwaves? We don't need help. Public park. Have it soon."

  I chuckled. "Evan, hold off on handing that over until we're all clear. Then you can take credit for solving the cipher."

  "I'll tell Agent Bell in person," he replied.

  I smiled. Then I changed the name of the group to Team Cisco and put my phone away.

  "Real mature," said Milena after getting the last update.

  We exited the car and I pointed. "Lead the way, navigator."

  "Aye aye."

  We carefully descended the rocky grass to the bottom and headed toward the center of the park. I surveyed a wide swath around us to make sure there were no surprises. We weaved between a few trees, over a small hill, avoided a wayward boulder, then approached an oak. Milena moved to pass it on the left but looped around back to her starting position.

  "I think this is it."

  Milena's phone flashlight blinked on and momentarily blinded me. I squeezed the shadow from my eyes as she searched the tree. She bent over and her shirt rode up her back. I took special notice of the black frilly thong she wore.

  "You wore that to our 'chill platonic bros' night?"