Hunters in the Night (5 page)

“So
where does this test factor in?” Dominique asked.

“The
test is designed to see if a prospective student has the traits needed to
master the dark,” I said. “But the trick is, you never know that you’re taking
the test. For me, the test was a simple manipulation of the strange matter in
the Rift. All I had to do was move a few pounds of metal with the power from
the Rift.”

“Sounds
easy,” Dominique said.

“It
wasn’t,” I said. “When I first met Kellar, I had no idea who he really was. He
was teaching theater at the local community playhouse in my neighborhood. It
was not the kind of place you’d expect to find a master of magic.”

“What
were you doing there?” Dominique asked.

“My
mom sent me. She wanted to keep me out of trouble, and I had showed no
potential for sports, so she figured drama would be the next best outlet for my
teenage angst. I was not happy about the idea of spending my summer with a
bunch of emo kids who couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag, but the
theater had air conditioning, which made that hot summer a lot more bearable.

“Kellar
was the creative director there. He handled everything: acting lessons,
lighting, sound, and music. Hell, I think he even cleaned the place since I
never saw a janitor. At the time, we all wondered how one man could handle all
that work. In hindsight, it’s obvious he was using magic to do most of it.”

“Why
was he teaching drama to a bunch of kids?”

“He
liked it. The man was a natural at teaching. He had a way with kids — a kind of
magic that I don’t think had anything to do with nightcrafting. He made us feel
like we could do anything.”

“Was
the drama class just a front for his nightcrafter recruiting efforts?”
Dominique asked.

“I
don’t think so,” I said. “I think he genuinely just wanted to teach some city
kids how to channel all the emotion and strife in their lives into something
positive. I don’t think he ever really planned to find an apprentice.”

“But
that’s exactly what he found in you.”

“Not
intentionally,” I said. “I was kind of a rebel back then. Like most teenage
boys, I was trying to find my place in the world, and reaching an age where I
was aware enough to see just how
wrong
so much of the adult world was. I channeled that disenchantment and frustration
into a fierce competitive streak. It made me difficult to be around, and my
classmates at the theater suffered. I didn’t exactly play well with others.

“Kellar
saw this and decided I was disrupting his class, so he figured out a way to
shut me up. One day, he gave me a special solo assignment. It was supposed to
be soliloquy, or at least, that’s what I thought it was. It was actually a
basic but long-winded spell. Kellar made me an offer my egotistical little
pubescent mind couldn’t turn down: learn the part to perfection, and he’d give
me a big role in the next show.”

“So
it was a spell in disguise,” Dominique said. “What was it like?”

“It
was a bunch of unrelated phrases, like a song written by a schizophrenic. But
it flowed with a lyrical style that made the mess
sound
like it had meaning. I was in
love with it. But I only had two days to memorize it, and it was three pages
long. I spent every waking moment trying to get those words to arrange
themselves in my head, and even when I slept, I dreamed about the text.

“Then
my two days were up, and Kellar made me get on stage and recite my lines. It
was just me and Kellar in the theater that night. I remember it clearly. I
wasn’t nervous at all. I had that passage down pat. It was like I had always
known it. And when Kellar turned on the stage lights and gave me my cue, I put
on one hell of a performance. I put every bit of energy and emotion I had into
it. By the end of it, I felt incredible pride. I felt invincible.

“And
as soon as I finished, Kellar turned off the spotlights and used his magic to
drop a lighting rig on me.”

“Wow,”
Dominique said. “Sounds like he
really
didn’t like you disrupting his class.”

I
shook my head and said, “I was never in any real danger since Kellar was in
full control of the situation. But I didn’t know any of that at the time.
Still, when it happened, I wasn’t afraid at all. The spell had focused my mind
in ways I wasn’t even aware of, and when the cables and lamps and aluminum bars
came hurtling towards me, I tapped into the Rift for the first time.”

“What
happened then?”

“I’m
still not totally clear on that. I just remember looking up at the rigging,
then the next thing I knew I was in total darkness, and a rush of power ran
through me. Then there was a crash when the rigging hit the floor. But I was
fine. Nothing ever touched me, even though I had been directly underneath that
mess. I guess I just knocked the rigging out of my way. But it felt so
easy
. In that moment, I felt like I
could move the whole world if I wanted to. I didn’t know what had happened. All
I knew was that I wanted more of it.

“After
that, Kellar told me I had passed the test. He told me that I had just pulled
off my first magic trick. He offered to teach me everything he knew, and all I
had to do was pledge my devotion to the craft. He suggested that I take some
time to think about it, but I didn’t need any time. I accepted right on the
spot.”

“And
he taught you magic,” Dominique said.

“Yup.”

“Where
is Kellar now?”

“I
have absolutely no idea. He doesn’t teach at that theater anymore. No one else
even remembers that he was ever there. I wonder why that would be.”

Dominique
smirked. “That little memory magic trick sure would come in handy in my line of
work.”

“Don’t
get any ideas,” I said. “I don’t know that spell.”

“I
figured you wouldn’t,” Dominique said. “But you do have many of other things to
offer. Take this little story you just told me, for example. In a few minutes
you’ve given more information than our people have been able to collect in
years. We need you, Kal. The
world
needs you. Kellar is not the only one who values persistence and ambition. Give
me your best effort, and I promise I’ll open doors to places you never dreamed
of.”

I
laughed. “That line might work on all your other recruits, Dominique. But I
learned magic. I can dream of a lot of things
you
can’t.”

Dominique
paused for a moment. Then she said, “Point taken. So what can I offer you as
additional motivation?”

“I
don’t need additional motivation,” I said. “We both want to find a way to stop
the nightcrafters from putting people in danger. That’s enough for me. You
could fire me the day after it’s all done. I wouldn’t care.”

“Very
noble of you,” Dominique said. “But I’ve been in this business for a long time.
Lots of people start out with the belief that virtuous acts are their own
reward. But, after a few years, even the best of us get jaded. It helps to have
some added perks to work for. The job has a way of grinding optimism and honor
out of you after a while.”

“Well
then,” I said, “I guess I’d better get this shit done quickly.”

* * *

The
next two months were intense.

Dominique
put me on a NATO training crash course designed to cram half a year’s worth of
preparation into 21 days. I had no time off. There were no lunch breaks with
the coworkers, and there weren’t any water cooler chats either. I just had one
training session after another. I learned the ins and outs of the NATO
organization: who reported to whom, what the rules were, how the rules could be
bent, and when the rules could be broken. I learned interrogation techniques
and basic firearm skills. Dominique even tried to get me into a lock-picking
course, until she realized there would be no point. My nightcrafter training
gave me many of the skills I’d need for my new job, including the ability to
soak up all this new information. As grueling as it all was, it was nothing
compared to Kellar’s unforgiving tutelage in the ways of the dark.

During
this training process I occasionally played the role of lab rat while Newton
performed his experiments. He was never pushy about it, and none of the tests
hurt so I didn’t have much to complain about. I even used some of the time to
get some naps in since Newton wanted to see if my dreams had any effect on my
abilities. But whatever Newton learned from me, I think I learned twice as much
from him. He gave me a clear perspective of the Rift and my magic from a
scientific perspective. It didn’t make my magic any better, but it did make me
feel a lot smarter.

Once
Dominique was satisfied that I’d learned enough to not embarrass her, she gave
me my first real assignment. I was going to Europe with a specialized NATO
team, and Newton. Dominique had two objectives for us to achieve. The main
point of the mission was to chart out NATO’s first accurate map of the Rift’s
boundaries and hot spots in Europe. But we were also supposed to get a feel for
where the European nightcrafters were hanging out.

As
a kid, I’d often fantasized about touring Europe with a rock band (I’d be the
lead singer, of course). Dreams of groupies and crazy sex in exotic places like
the Netherlands danced in my head. But this trip definitely fell short of the
fantasy. Instead of groupies, I had a gaggle of NATO chaperones tailing me.
Instead of sex, I was usually freezing my ass off in some forest.

Newton
was by my side during nearly every waking moment. He had a menagerie of devices
used to measure everything from heat signatures to the dew point in the air.
But most of his time was spent searching for that 214 Hz ELF field, and using
it as a guide to create his map.

I
spent all of November searching the frigid hinterlands of Europe at night. By
the time I was done, I wanted a vacation somewhere hot and sunny and full of
vibrant life — like Vegas or Tijuana. But the pain was all worth it because, at
the end of it all, we had our map.

When
all the data was collected and analyzed, Newton unveiled a high-resolution
digital map detailing the edge of the Rift down to an accuracy of three feet.
It integrated satellite images and street-level photography and all kinds of
crap. I was impressed. I’d never seen a detailed map of the Rift during my
lessons, and I doubted any nightcrafters ever had any kind of map although they
all knew the general areas where the Rift was sure to be. For the first time, I
felt like we really had an advantage over the other nightcrafters. I started to
believe we could actually beat them.

* * *

A
well-deserved rest came on a bright but chilly afternoon in a quaint little
Dutch town called Enschede. It was officially our day off, and it arrived long
after I’d lost track of how many consecutive nights we’d spent mapping the Rift
with as much accuracy as Newton’s brain and gadgets could manage. Our nights
were spent finding the edges of the Rift’s spread while our days were spent
analyzing the data, planning the next night’s scans, and grabbing sleep
wherever we could. Today, we finally had a chance to relax. Newton and I left
our escort of burly military types to enjoy their naps and sports and efforts
to chase local booty while we went off to explore the town and actually enjoy
the daylight for once. To my surprise, Newton spoke Dutch fairly well, so we
didn’t have much trouble navigating the town and finding a wonderful bar with
seemingly every beer known to man.

The
bar had an odd Dutch name that I couldn’t pronounce and I forgot it two seconds
after Newton told me. The exterior was pretty plain, and it looked like a dozen
other places we’d seen on this trip. But once we got inside it was a whole
different story. The few patrons there were all smiles and bloodshot eyes. The
place was filled with a flowery potpourri that reminded me of springtime in a
meadow. It was completely unlike the bars I was used to in New York. Those
joints smelled dank and had a faint aroma of spilled alcohol and vomit.

“This
town is located just off the German border,” Newton said. “So it has a fine
selection of the best Dutch and German beers. There’s a brewery in town that
makes some amazing stuff you just can’t get in the states. This place has a
great sampler special too. Seven varied beers for a good price.”

We
settled in at a booth. Newton used his flawless Dutch to order some food and
the beer sampler for two. A few minutes later there was a plate of meat and
fourteen glasses of beer on our table.

“NATO
doesn’t do random breathalyzer tests, right?” I asked Newton as I took my first
sip of a dark and nutty lager.

“Not
for our department,” Newton said. “We don’t even officially exist. But don’t
ever mention this cornucopia of alcohol to Dominique.”

“Why
not?”

Newton
made air quotes with his fingers and said, “The rules. The rules state that
we’re only allowed a maximum of two drinks. After the kind of week we’ve had,
the rules can kiss my ass. But, like I said, don’t tell Dominique. She’s
usually fairly lenient about these things but . . . you can never be too
careful with that woman.”

“Understood,”
I said. “You know, I don’t think I ever asked how you joined up with her and
this whole government thing.”

“I
was recruited out of high school,” Newton said. “The government keeps an eye on
promising young prodigies, and when I got into MIT at age sixteen I drew some
attention and they made me a deal. They’d pay all my education costs and give
me a job once I graduated, in exchange for a five year minimum commitment to
them and I’d spend my summers in their training programs.”

“Ah,”
I said. “So you’re already a veteran. Is that why you know Dutch so well?”

Newton
took another swig of his beer and nodded. “And German and French and some
decent Russian. I’ve been groomed for this job since I was a teenager.”