Chapter 2

The following characters appear through the entire story:

The Boss

a short, thin man with a very short temper, about 5’-6’’ tall and maybe 130 pounds with a fringe of brown hair left around his mostly bald head, blue eyes and 50 years old.

Gunther

A tall, heavily built man at about 6’-2’’ tall and maybe 230 pounds with black hair and brown eyes, in his early 30s.

Joey

Shorter than Gunther at about 5’-10’’ tall and maybe 170 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes, also in this early thirties.

Chip

The electronics guy about 5’-9’’ tall and maybe 185 pounds with dark blond hair and gray eyes, 36 years old.

Since Sylvia had completed her work and was still tired from her exertions, I thought it best to get her home, but I needed to talk to her first.

“Sylvia, I think it’s best if you don’t mention where you have been, or what you did to anyone for your own safety. I have no idea who is behind all of this – whatever this is, and I’ll need to have a long talk with the young woman to determine what is going on, though I already have my suspicions.

“I’ll also transfer to your bank account an appropriate amount of money to account for your absence from the clinic this afternoon,” I told her.

“I’m sure that the head of the clinic is less than pleased with my absence, but he knows that I’m the one who others call on in emergencies, so I can smooth things over by showing him that deposit. He may want a portion of what I get, but that’s all right, too,” she said with a smile.

“You should start your own clinic,” I told her.

“Soon,” was all that she said, but smiled again.

“Are you ready for me to transfer you home?”

“Yes, a good hot shower, some food, and a long cold bottle of O’Connell’s Ale before I go to bed is what I really need,” she told me.

I checked my wards around the building before casting the transfer spell, and both of us vanished to appear outside of Sylvia’s residence.

“Good night, my dear. Thank you for your help,” I told her sincerely.

“It’s what friends and fellow Magic users are for,” she replied, and I leaned in and kissed her on the check.

“Send me a wedding invitation,” she told me before turning to go inside. That certainly startled me, and I was at a loss for words for several seconds.

“I will if things work out,” I told her more in jest than anything else.

“I can read your emotions, Greg. You think that saving her and her Talent make up in part for not being able to save your Wife. Be good to her,” she finished before going through the door and closing it. I just stood there for a minute or more trying to sort out my own emotions.

“How could she know that before I became aware of it?” I wondered to myself, but I was only wasting time here and needed to get back to the young woman, as I didn’t want her to wake up alone and frightened. I transferred back to the building and sat next to her waiting for her to recover. The Magic powered lamp was now hanging from the top of the cage so I could read from the book of Magic that I was still working on.

Meanwhile in the back room of a bar / night club in the Historic district, the Boss was questioning three of the men working for him.

“How the hell did that bitch get out of the room let alone the hotel?” he demanded of the three in an angry voice. The three men blanched and looked at each other before answering.

“She was knocked out on the bed from the shot of the drug that I gave her, and I went into the connecting room to have a drink and get something to eat. The others were checking the downloads from the various cameras in the room to be sure that they were working okay,” the first man told his boss.

“Did you give her another shot of the Panacea, Joey?” Chip, the second man, asked in a puzzled voice.

“Yes, she hadn’t had a shot in eight hours, and it was wearing off. I didn’t want her screaming and making a commotion when she woke up there in the hotel,” Joey told him.

“But I had given her a shot about a-half hour before that, just before we started checking the downloads,” Chip told him in a surprised voice.

“You idiots,” the third man said in a growl. “I gave that stupid broad a double shot an hour before she got away. With that amount of the drug in her, she shouldn’t have been able to even move, let alone get past the range of that control collar.”

“Jeez, Gunther, that’s enough of that shit to kill a horse,” Joey said in an amazed voice.

“But she did get away from not only the room but most of the way to the front entrance before the control collar or the drug knocked her out,” their boss said in an unhappy voice.

“Who the hell was the guy who disappeared with her?” he demanded next.

“We don’t know,” Gunther told him. “We were just entering the lobby when someone in a suit disappeared with her.”

“The security cameras didn’t get a good look at him either, we checked. He was hunched over the woman most of the time, and when he cast that spell, the Magic from it took out most of the security cameras covering the lobby. We were lucky to get what we did from the few cameras that weren’t affected,” Chip told the Boss, before returning to his monitoring equipment. He tapped on it, but still didn’t get any readings from the tracking chips.

“She’s probably dead,” he said looking at his instruments in annoyance. “I haven’t had a reading from the chips in hours,” he finished.

“Are you sure that thing is working correctly,” the Boss demanded in a grumpy voice.

“Yes, I’ve checked it three times,” he told him and was ready to turn the equipment off when the Indicator that a signal was being received appeared on the screen.

“Or maybe she’s not dead,” he said gleefully. “I’m getting a signal from both chips. Give me a few minutes to get a triangulation on her location. I’ll need to restart the remote unit, as I shut it down a couple of hours ago to save the battery. The computer will use the readings from both units to give us a picture of where she is and in what direction she’s moving,” he told the others happily.

“Why the hell haven’t you been picking her signal up all of this time?” their Boss demanded.

“Could be a number of reasons. Boss. If she was underground, or surrounded by something that blocked the signal, we wouldn’t receive it, but she’s moving now,” Chip told him, looking at his equipment.

“Where?” the Boss demanded next.

“I’ll have a plot in a minute or so as soon as the computer has enough readings,” Chip told him. Shortly a map of part of Charleston appeared on the screen. It showed the Ashley River, and the image of the map moved north until it stopped with the lower edge of the image on Spring St., a part of South Carolina Route 17. The image showed the area north of there, including the Bristol Marina and its various docks. Just north of the Marina along Lockwood Dr. in what had formally been the southern part of Brittlebank Park was the abandoned business park. A solid red line started in the business park and continued north along the edge of the Ashley. It soon turned into a dashed line which was the projected path of the tracking chips.

“How the hell did she get all the way up there?” Gunther asked in an amazed voice.

“That guy must have taken her up there, but it appears that she has escaped from him too,” the Boss told them. “Get out there and intercept her. Stay in contact with Chip in case that track changes,” he ordered. Joey and Gunther left quickly, happy to be out from under the eyes of the Boss.

It was two plus hours after I had returned before the young woman awoke. She had moaned some and her limbs had thrashed about some also while she was still unconscious, but I didn’t know if that was a result of the drug, or if she was having a bad dream.

I had just recently set my book aside to watch over her after the last of those episodes when she suddenly sat upright, the blanket slipping from around her, to frantically look about herself. Her breathing had increased to short sharp intakes of breath, as she stared at her surroundings. Her glare eventually came to rest on me.

“Easy child, you’re safe here. No one will be able to hurt you while I’m here,” I told her in as reassuring a voice as possible. She took several more shuddering breaths before settling down a little.

“Who are you, where am I, and how did I get here?” she asked in a near whisper from a very dry throat.

“Would you like some water?” I asked.

“Maybe ... you haven’t answered my questions,” she whispered in return.

“I’m Greg O’Brien,” I told her, as I called one of the glasses to me and filled it with water before handing it to her.

“You’re a Wizard!” she whispered in surprise.

“Yes,” I replied, but noticed that she hadn’t consumed any of the water. “If you think the water is drugged, I’ll drink a part of it,” I offered.

“You’re a Wizard. If you can fill the glass, you could empty it partially, so that wouldn’t prove anything,” she whispered before exhaling heavily, taking the glass, and began drinking the water. When she had emptied the glass, I refilled it for her.

“What changed your mind?” I asked.

“I decided that it didn’t make a lot of difference if I was drugged by you or the others, and I was thirsty,” she admitted in a little better voice.

The water seemed to have calmed her down some, and she became aware of her nakedness. She sat the partial glass of water on the floor and used the blanket to cover herself. I was disappointed, as I had enjoyed watching her fine, large breasts as they moved when she was breathing heavily. She had noticed where my attention was.

“You like my breasts,” she whispered in a little better voice.

“Yes, I do, they’re lovely, as are you,” I admitted.

“You still haven’t answered all of my questions,” she retorted.

“We are presently in a building in the abandoned business park that is located at the south end of Brittlebank Park. I transferred us here after rescuing you at the hotel, with a short stop while I assessed your condition. A friend of mine removed most of the drug you were given from your system. It’s now a bit after 8:00 at night,” I told her to bring her up to-date.