Chapter 10

Jill had still been awake when I returned from the Carlton St. house, and I needed to tell her what I had done there. After a little more hugging and kissing, we returned to sleep. We arose very late on Tuesday morning after a good, if interrupted, night’s sleep.

Following taking care of our usual morning rituals, we went out for a late breakfast which we combined with lunch that we took back to the room with us. This time we did not return to the hotel as we normally would. Instead I transferred us back to our room. Their security cameras had seen us going out, and they would see us returning after an early dinner, but that was all.

In our room, we rested and napped for most of the day, as we were expecting to have a very long and active night tonight. At 1830, that evening, we transferred out for a quiet dinner before returning to the lobby of the hotel at about 1915, so the security cameras could record our return.

In our room, we changed into our black recon clothes, but without all of the insulated underwear, as we didn’t expect to need it tonight. We did bring the flashlight, however. Around 1940, we transferred up to the suite on the sixth floor where the junior members of the Marine Society met. Several of them were already there, and shortly after arriving, we heard one of them say that he was on the way to the ‘Facility’. There were two white doors in the bedroom where we were. One led to the ‘Facility’, as he had termed it, and the other one was to a closet. It wasn’t a very large closet, but Jill and I managed to squeeze into it and close the door before he entered the room.

Shortly after that, I sensed a second person slip into the room and join the first one in the ‘Facility’. The two of them were in there together long enough to draw the attention of those in the other room.

“The two of you break it up in there,” I recognized the voice of Ben call to them. Shortly after that, we could feel the vibrations as the bathroom door slammed against the wall, and we heard the men leaving the room. Right after that, we heard someone banging on the table, and then Ben’s voice again.

“Is everyone here?” he demanded.

“Yes, everyone is here,” Nate’s voice answered after a few seconds, so he must have counted those present.

“This session of Part Two of the Salem East India Marine Society is now in session,” we heard Ben announce, and this was followed by him banging on the table again. “The first order of business will be a report from the Treasurer on the latest financial transaction,” he told those present.

Jill and I had moved out of the closet shortly after the two men had left the room. They had turned off the lights in the bathroom and the room on leaving. I cast the invisibility spell on us as we moved toward the door to the other room, but we remained back in the darkened room.

“Our financial situation will be very much improved by this time tomorrow night,” George told those present on taking the floor. “I have arranged the purchase of five hundred kilograms of Carat Diamond Heroin, which is the highest quality of this product, at sixteen thousand dollars a kilogram from a dealer in Nigeria. According to him, he obtained it from suppliers in Afghanistan. The product was delivered last Sunday afternoon and has been stored in the secure area under the Marine Hall. The purchasers will be here tomorrow afternoon to pick it up and to pay for it,” he had continued before pausing for a breath.

“Assistants will be loading the two pallets on our two delivery vans, which have been repainted and signed in the colors of a well known delivery firm, tomorrow just after noontime. The purchasers will accompany the vans to their headquarters in Philadelphia. The vans will return here following that,” he finished. There was silence in the room for a time following that as those present absorbed what he had said.

“What was the cost of this product, and what will be our return on the investment?” a burly man who appeared several years older than the others asked from the back of the room.

“At sixteen thousand dollars a kilogram, our investment on the five hundred kilograms was eight million dollars. The purchasers are paying eighty-five thousand dollars a kilogram for it, for a total return of forty-two million, five hundred thousand dollars. Our return on the investment will be thirty-four million, five hundred thousand dollars minus a little for interest on the initial loan, plus expenses in delivering it to Philadelphia,” George informed him.

“That’s over a four fold return on our investment,” Ben added.

“But ... but Heroin is a tool of the Devil,” one of the younger members objected.

“Those who use it are already in the hands of the Devil. If he calls them home, and they die, that means there are fewer that we need to worry about,” Ben told the young man in a sanctimonious voice.

“Where did the eight million for the initial purchase come from?” another member asked.

“I obtained a loan for the purchase money,” George told him, but appeared to be ill at ease.

“What was used as collateral for the loan?” the same member demanded pressing his point. George was now very nervous.

“I ... that is some of the items in storage under the Marine Hall were used as collateral. They were items that have never been displayed,” he replied and was sweating now.

“You are living dangerously, brother, and setting a dangerous precedent,” the man returned.

“There won’t be a problem. We’ll have the money to repay the loan tomorrow. It will go into our secret account at the bank where I work, and I’ll see that the loan is paid off before close of business on Friday,” Ben told those present in a commanding voice.

I had grown more and more upset on listening to the casual way they treated the death they were selling and had finally decided that I had heard enough. Canceling the invisibility spell, I brought my wards back up around both of us and cast the ammunition spell, before casting a room filling form of the freeze spell that would freeze them in place, but still allow them to see, hear, and talk. Once ready, I stepped into the meeting room with Jill right behind me.

“It’s very considerate of you to all be here in one place tonight. It saves me from tracking all of you down individually. Unfortunately for you, none of your plans will come to fruition,” I told them, as they stared at the two of us in shock in our black recon outfits.

The older man in the back was the first to react. He was perhaps thirty-six years of age, and instantly pulled an automatic from under his coat and fired, before I threw the freeze spell into the room. Nothing happened other than the sound of the hammer hitting the firing pin to his shocked surprise.

“That’s Hardtrick, you fools,” he shouted, as he pulled back the slide and chambered another round. It didn’t fire either, much to his disappointment. The others had started to react by now, and panic spread quickly when they discovered they couldn’t move from their seats or where they were standing. A great amount of noise and confusion was soon heard from all of them.

“Their Devil’s Magic shouldn’t work in here, this room is blessed!” Ben shouted to the others over the racket. “Pray, brethren, pray, and we can defeat their Devilish tricks,” he implored them, but most of them weren’t listening to him in their fear and anguish. Finally tiring of their noise I changed the freeze spell to individual full body ones and silence descended.

“These people have no morals at all, and do not understand religion,” Jill said from behind me in an angry voice. Neither of us had said anything during the meeting. I, however, was busy at the moment taking control of the gun from the burly man in the back of the room before calling it and the ejected cartridge to me, so I could send them to the water in the harbor where they could discharge.

“They certainly don’t appear to have any,” I said in agreement once I was finished.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“Now we transfer them a couple at a time to the sealed off tunnel that we discovered last night. We will interrogate them one at a time starting with the leaders tonight. Some of the others can wait until tomorrow morning if necessary,” I told her.

“What more do we need to know? They have convicted themselves with their own words,” she said.

“There are a few details that we need to know about the movement and the turn over of the Heroin,” I told her.

“All right, but these vermin need to be eliminated,” she replied, still upset.

“Don’t worry, sweetie, none of them will be alive by the time the delivery is scheduled for tomorrow,” I assured her, before we began transferring those at the meeting to the tunnel two at a time. On one trip we took three. It still required six trips.

“Damn, I’m hungry again, and we have only just started,” I told Jill after we finished moving all of them.

“Yes, I could use a little something also,” she agreed, “But how are we going to get anything to eat?”

“I was thinking that I could get some carry out, and we could eat here or back in the room,” I told her.

“And how would you do that? You would need to change clothes ... twice?” she asked.

“I was thinking that I could use a glamour,” I said as I considered who to look like. A light came on in my mind then. “How about a glamour of Ben here. He is supposed to be a big wheel here,” I continued as I cast the glamour while looking at Ben.

“Go ahead, and I’ll bring the battery lights down here from the room, while you’re out. We can eat in the room. It’s not like any of these guys are going anywhere,” she told me with a grin.

“Okay, I’ll meet you in the room. I’m not sure how long this will take. I’ll try some of the places over on Wharf St. I saw some of them had carryout when we were there on Sunday afternoon,” I told her before we both vanished from the tunnel.

I found a place that had huge burgers. I ordered six plus a couple of orders of fries and a quart of beer. It took them a bit of time to get everything ready, and I gave them a nice tip for their service. The clerk looked at me strangely when I left the tip. From that I presumed that Ben was a bit of a tightwad.

Back in the room, we each ate two of the burgers and part of the fries. The hotel supplied glasses with the room, even if they were plastic, so we didn’t need to drink the beer from the bottle.

“Leave the other two burgers and the rest of the fries for when we finish,” Jill told me before we returned to the tunnel to begin interrogating our newest prisoners. We carried the last of the battery powered lights with us, so we could see when we arrived in the closed off tunnel section. Once there, Jill had a question.

“Who do we start with?” she asked, as we hadn’t talked about the prisoners while we ate.

“It appears that Ben is the president or CEO of this group. George is obviously the Treasurer, and Joe appears to be in charge of Operations. I’m not sure what Nate’s position is,” I told her.

“Apparently, Ben is a banker,” she added.

“I believe that we should start with Joe if he is the operations guy. He’ll know what the arrangements are for loading the Heroin, and who is scheduled to be there for the transfer,” I told her before moving Joe to the area where we had the most lights set up, then changing his freeze spell to a partial one from his knees down. He snapped awake as the spell changed and looked around with terrified eyes.

“Where are we? Is this hell?” he asked in a shaking voice.

“If you don’t answer my questions, you will wish it was hell,” I told him, moving closer to him so he needed to look up to see my face. Shock showed on his face when he got a good look at mine in the light from the lamps.

“Hardtrick!” he said in dismay.

“Yes, Hardtrick, and I am here for revenge ... revenge on all of you. I have questions and you WILL answer them,” I told him in a growl.

“Never!” he answered though he was shaking in fear and sweating profusely. I cast the pain spell on him and allowed him to enjoy it for several minutes as he screamed before changing his freeze spell back to a full body one. The pain spell was still at work, we just didn’t need to hear his screams.

He was followed by Ben, George and Nate. None of them were any more cooperative than Joe had been, so they all went under the pain spell. The next one we selected to talk to was the older man who had the pistol. I had checked each of the others before we transferred them down here to ensure that they weren’t armed.

Those under the pain spell had been moved back into the edge of the lighted circle so the pain on their faces was visible, before moving the fifth man into the circle of light. On changing his freeze spell to a partial one, he also snapped awake to look around himself.

“Who or what are you?” he demanded on noticing that his pistol was gone. “Why didn’t my pistol fire?” he wanted to know.

“Your weapon didn’t fire because I cast a spell that kept the cartridge from firing,” I told him before adding, “I’m Max Hardtrick, as you said in the room, and I’m here to take revenge for the murder of my two Sons.”

“Magic user,” he said in disgust and loathing, but that was all.

“Yes, I’m a Magic user, now what is your name, and what is your job in the organization?” I demanded. He said nothing though I gave him plenty of time to answer. He only looked defiant. Losing patience with him, I cast the pain spell on him also before returning his freeze spell to a full body one like the others.

“We need something more to scare these people into talking. We haven’t gotten anywhere with the first five,” Jill reminded me after I had moved the fifth man into the semicircle around the area where we were interrogating, or at least trying to interrogate, the prisoners.