Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

end of December, the sun didn’t make it over the horizon until after
     seven. Rule stood at the window looking out at a city still wrapped in predawn twilight.
     That was plenty of light for his eyes, but there was nothing worth seeing.
    He wanted coffee. He’d started to make some, but thoughts of Lily crashed down, and
     he’d left the little kitchenette to stare out the window. He hadn’t thrown anything,
     though he’d wanted to do that, too. It would worry his men and wake up Jasper, who
     was asleep on the couch that had been intended for Cullen. He wouldn’t be using it.
     He was in a helicopter.
    “Why,” Grandmother had announced, “is your sorcerer down here? He should be overhead,
     looking for the magic these bad elves are using.”
    Rule had explained that Cullen had been charging the charms they might need.
    Madame Yu had raised her eyebrows. “Are they charged now?”
    “Yes,” Cullen snapped, “but they aren’t enough. We’re going up against magical heavy
     hitters. We need—”
    “More than you will have. You have power and some skill in using it. You do not have
     the decades or centuries of training and knowledge these elves have. You will not
     make up that lack in the next few hours. Instead you will search for evidence of their
     magic.”
    “Do you have any idea how much magic there is in a city this size?” Cullen had demanded.
     “There’s two major nodes here and two minor ones, and all the ley lines pouring out
     from them. Plus there’s the randomized magic pouring in from the ocean, the power
     puddles that collect everywhere—”
    “You are telling me all magic looks the same?”
    “Of course not, but…” Cullen had stopped. Rubbed his head. “Maybe, if I wasn’t too
     high off the ground and if they were doing some powerful spellcasting…but they won’t
     be casting major spells every minute.”
    She had sniffed. “Elves use magic as we use electricity. Constantly.”
    Madame Yu’s journey here hadn’t been quite as simple as she’d seemed to expect. Commercial
     flights didn’t depart that late. In the end, Rule had called Ruben, telling him they
     needed Madame Yu here because she was in touch with Sam. Which was true, if incomplete.
     Even Ruben didn’t know everything about Lily’s grandmother…but then, who did? Ruben
     had arranged for military transport, which turned out to be an Air Force C21-A—a Learjet,
     in other words, the kind reserved for VIPs. Rule didn’t know how Ruben was going to
     justify that in his budget, but he was grateful. Li Lei Yu had arrived at San Francisco
     International Airport about two this morning, as erect and indomitable as ever.
    By three o’clock, Rule had brought her up-to-date. He told her everything, ending
     with what they’d learned about Hugo—which now included the name he’d been born under.
     Given a little more information, Arjenie had come through. Anson “Hugo” Bierman was
     a naturalized citizen. Born in Germany fifty-five years ago, he’d immigrated to the
     United States with his parents. He’d never officiallychanged his name to Hugo, but had begun calling himself that about the time he was
     kicked out of high school for fighting, truancy, and theft. He’d used a multiplicity
     of surnames since then, but always with Hugo for his first name.
    The next bit of information had come from Special Agent Bergman. Hugo had managed
     to pile up some very large debts to some very bad people. Gambling debts.
    Jasper had confirmed Rule’s hunch. Hugo knew about Jasper’s habit of using FedEx trucks
     to stash a stolen item until it was convenient to reclaim it. He could have followed
     Jasper on the night of the theft, seen where he put the prototype, and gone back for
     it.
    The question was, had Hugo already passed the prototype on to Friar? Or was he holding
     on to it, trying to jack up the price? Jasper suspected the latter. “If he’s given
     up on keeping his word, there’s nothing left but greed.”
    Cullen had received his assignment first. Rule chartered a helicopter for him to use
     to look for sidhe-type magic—which meant, Cullen said, formed magic of unusual power,
     clarity, and intricacy. Unless he got really lucky, that would be a long, slow business.
     Maybe impossible, he’d grumbled. But worth trying.
    Then Madame Yu sorted out the rest of them.
    Tony was to allow his Lu Nuncio to coordinate the scent hunt and look for the person
     who’d tipped Tony to Hugo’s