Tricks by Scott Rhine

Tricks by Scott Rhine

Author:Scott Rhine [Rhine, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2020-02-02T22:00:00+00:00


16. Raid

When I stepped into the hallway, Luca was arguing with her mother. Lena gestured to the parking lot. “Since you don’t have a vehicle, your father agreed I could pick you up on days he’s too busy campaigning against me.”

“Are you really making this all about you? Your campaign is the reason I don’t have a car right now. Besides, the race is over.”

“Not until I say it is. I haven’t accepted the Council’s offer of membership yet.”

“I’m going to be late for my doctor’s appointment. Vassar gave me a whole list of vaccinations I need to be on campus, vaccinations that you didn’t believe in at the time they were due.”

“If you’re going to blame anyone for my being late, blame the Council’s goon squad. They’re searching everyone coming into the campus, and nobody is allowed out.”

I locked eyes with Luca. “They’re sweeping for dark artifacts. The guys they arrested Friday must’ve given them a list of other offenders in exchange for leniency.”

“Why? The Antinomians already tossed lockers for the lip balm.”

“No. This is about more than blood. They waited for the new law to kick in before making the sweep,” I said.

Her mom shook her forefinger. “It’s a power play by the white coalition. They can’t do this. The compact says that we have to give a moon’s notice for all changes that result in punishment. They can’t send in the CRT yet, let alone two squads.”

“Whoa!” I said. “You didn’t mention the big guns were here. Somebody could get hurt.”

“I think that’s the idea,” Lena replied. “They want someone to resist arrest and get dead. It’s jackboot time.”

I pounded on the office door and let Ms. Bradstreet know about the invasion.

She passed me the shield and grabbed a tuning fork out of a wall safe. Without ear protection or an immunity like mine, the magical sound would put anyone in hearing distance to sleep if she tapped it. I followed her and the ex-mayoral candidate out to the parking lot. Luca had stopped to grab her Book and lagged a few yards behind.

My mentor pounded the back door of the armored van and shouted, “What is the meaning of this?”

The blonde medic often handled communications at the mobile base. Freya was the only cop I’d met with scissors strapped to her right pant leg. She moved her throat mic aside. “Sorry, Melisende. We were in the boys’ school in the process of serving a legitimate warrant on Jeroboam Jefferson for possession of a forbidden grimoire. The suspect knocked out the officer and ran. The school cameras tracked him to the boathouse, where we’ve surrounded him. We’re constructing a circle in case he attempts a summoning. The lockdown is just a precaution in case he has accomplices.”

A grimoire was serious stuff. Men couldn’t use family Books to invoke magic. They had to control a supernatural creature, take its blood, and talk to related creatures through that. Instead of having dead relatives act out of a legacy of



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