Duncan took a few more deep breaths. “Can you get me Mackie’s number, Gwen? I was an idiot, and didn’t bring a cell phone with me. I’m heading to a kiosk where I can get one.”
“Sure. Anyone else you need? Ray’s? Dr. Sakurai’s?”
Duncan winced. “Might not be a bad idea to give me both. Staying calm will be a challenge.”
The kiosk was quite happy to sell him a phone and an unlimited-talk plan for the next month. Duncan didn’t bother to haggle over the price, it was trivial in the context.
“Mackie, I need help.”
“I do not like that tone of voice. Where are you?”
“Puerto Vallarta. The salient point is... my family is not. Their flight got intercepted in the US and forced to land, and they were removed from the plane by armed men. I need information. Who took them, where, why.”
“I’ll touch base with my counterpart in Project M. Hopefully the FBI can shed some light. If not...”
Duncan winced. “I’ll have to track them down myself. Do what you can from your end, and... I’ll see what I can manage. Can you contact the Director, too? Pulling Canadian citizens off a flight has got to have some diplomatic implications.”
“So will storming in after them, Duncan. Don’t do anything rash.”
“You have until the full Moon rises. After that, I will go after them, permission or not.”
“I understand. I’ll light what fires I can.”
Duncan hung up, then tried his wife’s number. As expected, it immediately went to the answering service.
“I wish I’d put a tracker on them,” grumbled Duncan. “Or added comm capability to their crystals. Hey Gwen?”
Duncan’s crystal chimed after a moment. “Any leads?”
“None yet, but... they do have soulcatchers. I can’t do anything with them at range, but... what about direction-finding?”
They discussed designs at the speed of thought, and soon Duncan had a design. He moved away from the airport and into an area of the parking lot that seemed mostly unused, then formed the crystal device in his cupped hands. “No dice, I’m not getting a signal.”
“You’re a fair distance away. There’s a lot of rock in the direct path. Might need line of sight,” suggested Gwen. “To get that, you’ll need to go up about 300 klicks.”
Duncan spawned a crystal computer to do the math for him, and quickly concurred. “Less if I move it closer, but... I should prefer not to cross the border. Yet.”
“You’re making a big assumption, D.”
“Which is?”
“That they will feel any similar constraint.”
Duncan mulled that for a time. “They didn’t cross the border to come after my family. They waited until they were in US airspace. Still, I’ll get moving, and stay off their radar until we know more. First, though...”
Ducan blinked the sensor high above the atmosphere, pinged its position, then blinked it up again. For a moment, there was a ghost of a signal, then nothing. He cursed.
“Language,” chimed Gwen through the crystal.
“I’m not getting feedback. Can you test the design there?”
A moment later Gwen replied, “Works fine. But if they’re underground or behind silver, it would block it.”
“Or shielding. There was a flicker...”
“If they’re shielding or using silver, they know about magic. That narrows the field. Where were they taken?”
“Anaheim. Which is odd, they wouldn’t have flown over California at all.”
“Not so odd, when you consider where that airport is,” replied Gwen. “I think you need to track down Mr. Hawke.”
“Disney.” In Duncan’s voice, it sounded like a curse. “But how? They don’t have a military wing, do they?”
“If they’re using magic, their influence could be wider and subtler than any ghoul’s.”
Duncan shuddered. “I thought I was done with all of that.”
“Eternal vigilance...”
“Is the price of freedom,” Duncan finished with a sigh. “I know. Pity I didn’t have my family under continual surveillance.”
“Second-guessing yourself won’t help now.”
Duncan stood still for a long moment. “No, but something else might. If I was closer, I might be able to sense where they’ve been. And wherever that trail ends...”
“Good. Follow that up, I’ll go ask Rowan if she kept Mr. Hawke’s calling card.”
Once the call had ended, Duncan blinked the sensor back down to his hand. It was already falling, no point in losing it to atmospheric reentry.
Duncan looked around to see if he’d drawn any attention standing in the mostly-empty parking lot. An older woman wearing a black dress and shawl was determinedly heading toward him. He smiled at her apologetically. “Sorry, I need to go.”
“Not yet.”
Duncan’s eyes rose when he realized she’d spoken in Spanish, yet he’d heard English echo in his head. He turned more of his attention to her, saw the aura of old power about her. A longer look reassured him that she was no ghoul, despite her apparent advanced age. “Should we take this somewhere more inconspicuous, so we can talk.”
She tapped her temple with a gnarled finger. “No need.” Her lips stopped moving, but words kept echoing in Duncan’s mind. “You are powerful and angry. Dangerous combination.”
Duncan puffed out a breath. “I know. My family...”
The crone nodded slowly. “Family is important. But there are more important things.”
“I can’t think of any, just now.” Duncan replied mind to mind instead of speaking.
“You will. Be wary, young spirit.”
Duncan winced. “Not more ghouls.”
“They are busy running the cartels. Leave them alone, and they’ll not bother you. They stay out of tourist areas, so if you follow the main highway, you’ll be fine.”
“You don’t want them dealt with?” asked Duncan, surprised enough to ask it out loud.
“No,” replied the crone. “Remove one monster, another rises.”
“Some monsters are worse than others.”
The crone shrugged. “This is not your place. Not your fight.”
Duncan saluted her. “Good luck. You sound like you need it.” He broke a small shard off of his reserve crystal, and offered it out to her.
The crone’s eyes widened. “You give such power lightly?”
“Not lightly. From one walking the path of light to another.”
She nodded, and said a few words that didn’t translate but sounded like a blessing. Duncan bowed to her, then jogged northward. Once he was out of sight, he crafted a tiny crystalline aircraft, summoning it around his new phone. He’d discovered that radio-based electronics didn’t work well when shrunk, so he wanted to keep it normal sized. He placed a seat behind the phone so that when he diminished to a few inches tall, it spread out in front of him like a rug and he could watch the GPS-driven map go by below him.
Finding the highway and following it north was easy enough. It wound its way up the coast, passing through many scenic areas that Duncan would have enjoyed if it weren’t for the urgency of his errand. Despite the urgency Duncan felt that it would be prudent to stay subsonic to minimize the attention he would draw.
Partway to the border, Mackie called. “I don’t have good news. Agent Carson of Project M has usually been forthcoming, but he was awfully cagy. My impression is that the FBI may have been involved, but not through his section. He has some good contacts in the military, and now that he knows why the hornet’s nest is buzzing he hoped to get some answers.”
Duncan set his tiny craft to hover before answering. “Thanks, Mackie. That’s better than nothing. Do you think he’ll be able to figure out who gave the orders?”
“He thought so, but... this is damned unusual stuff. Forcing an allied country’s plane to land? Ottawa is seriously pissed, and a major diplomatic incident is brewing. So far, through official channels all we’re getting is denial and stonewalling. It’s like they have no idea that it even happened, never mind who ordered it or why.”
“But the government is getting involved? That’s good to hear, thanks.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. Something about this stinks to high heaven.”
Duncan chuckled ruefully. “No kidding. I’ve got Gwen trying to contact that Disney lawyer, maybe he’ll have something.”
“Disney? Anaheim would point that way, but... this doesn’t seem their style.”
“I’ll know more soon, I’m hoping to pick up my family’s back-trail from just across the border. That should tell me one way or the other.”
“Watch your back. Your name is moving up on their lists.”
Duncan snorted. “They keep my family, and I’ll top the lists.”
Mackie laughed. “They have no idea who they’re messing with. Yet.”
“Feel free to tell them if you think it’ll help.”
“Thanks. I think I’ll hold on to that card until I need to motivate Carson. Could make things worse.”
“My family has been kidnapped. How much worse do you think it could get?”
“Do you really want to ask that?”
“Better to be prepared,” sighed Duncan. “But point taken. I won’t go borrowing trouble.”
Duncan resumed his trek. Before long, the highway he was following turned west and ran alongside the border. Other than that turn, and a token wall alongside the road, there was little enough to see from his altitude. Despite that, it felt like he was being watched. Turning to magical senses, Duncan noticed a faint tracery along the border. He formed a small crystalline probe like the one he’d used back in Puerto Vallarta, moved back, and lobbed it across the border. Nothing happened to the probe, but a pulse fired along the line. Duncan did not doubt that someone would be informed of the intrusion. He teleported the probe back to him, triggering another pulse.
Duncan backed well away from the border to see what response might arrive. After ten minutes he gave up on the wait and resumed his journey to the west.
He crossed over a small city where the difference between the two sides of the border became much more visible. He briefly debated stopping at border control to get permission to enter, but saw that it was on the far side of the border and decided to wait. He knew he could get much closer to his goal while staying south of the border.
Once he reached the ocean he realized he’d overshot his target. Still, it was as good a spot as any, and prettier than most of the desert he’d overflown. He blinked the sensor up into the sky, and as it only needed to go up about 5 kilometers to get line of sight, he added a balloon to it so it could stay up there as an aerostat.
Studying the return from it, he once again got a glimmer of a return, but once again it vanished as some sort of shield went up around it. Duncan paused to consider that, consulted Gwen via a quick crystal-mediated chat, and twiddled with the sensor design. After a few sweeps, he picked up a the distinct shimmer of a dome-shape shield in the distance. “Hah! Not as clever as you thought.”
A few quick blinks along the border gave him enough information to triangulate the location of the shield. It aligned very well with Disneyland, though from the distance it was hard to tell exactly where it was in the theme park, it seemed to be slightly beyond it.
Duncan debated for a few moments, and considered his previous attempt to send a probe across the border. The response time had been laughable, but he was much closer to civilization here. Still, it seemed worth the sacrifice to get a closer look. He retuned the sensor back to his family’s signature, added a smaller package that could detect shields, and an optical camera to align all the information with the terrain.
Then he added a shield, and a self-destruct charge. One quick blink sent it across the border, still at the same altitude so that Duncan would have line of sight to it. To be safe, he sent it somewhat off to the side.
The ping from the border ward was much brighter this time. The primary signal went to the nearby border control facility, though several secondary ones echoed off the line and headed north.
Duncan studied the imagery from his probe. The path his family had taken was an indistinct smoky trail, but it clearly led into the park, around it in a wandering path, then into a nondescript circular building in the northwest corner of the park. The trace led directly to the shield.
Five seconds after the probe appeared in the air near Disneyland, a bolt of energy raced from one of the perimeter towers, and blew it out of the sky.