Chapter 34

By the time the limo crunched over the gravel and snow of the school's parking lot, Cassie felt as though she were bursting at the seams. She had to hold her tongue through the ride from Ned's house so as not to allow Harry any more ammunition for her mother. As soon as the car stopped, Cassie yanked the door release.

"Please be careful, Miss Kendall, as it is rather..." Harry trailed off when Cassie launched herself from the car and ran across the parking lot, despite how her heels tried to fly out from under her.

Her enthusiasm was dampened when she spotted an Aura walking at a brisk pace towards the school entrance and realized it was Jason. "Oh goodness, look," she said as Ned stumbled to a stop next to her.

"Yeah, we shoulda figgered that," Ned drawled, his voice breathless from running around the other end of the limo. "We gotta be real careful now, babe. I know yer excited about this but--"

"I know, Ned, I know," Cassie said, then sighed when she realized her voice had betrayed some of the annoyance she wished she was not feeling. In a more contrite voice she said, "We'll have to make sure no one around us is with the Darkness. Come on, let's tell them, they look like they could use some good news."

Cassie approached the other Harbingers, this time moving at a more sedate if still brisk pace. "There's Cassie!" Melinda piped, jogging up to her. "Cassie! It's really bad around Jason now and--"

"I know, I saw him going into the school," Cassie said, her chagrin overwhelmed by her ebullience.

"He said we should tell you that Jason ... that he might..." Melinda's eyes glistened, and she turned away. "Someone else tell her," she said in a choked voice.

Heather stepped forward. "Cassie, Jason said today might be the last time he's ... well, safe around us."

"Oh my," Cassie said. She glanced towards the school but Jason had already gone inside.

"He said he'll probably have to go to the Inn over the weekend."

Cassie understood the problem at once and wished she lived inside the town proper. "All right, that just means we'll have to keep track of each other over the weekend and make sure he's ... h-he's not sent after anyone."

"I doubt I'll be allowed out anywhere," Melinda said in a miserable voice.

Heather took Diane's hand. "I'll keep track of Diane."

"That should be the other way around," Diane said. "You have to go back Sunday night."

"Just keep tabs on each other, then," Cassie said.

"Hey, what the hell, what about me, huh?" Richie snapped. "I was the one Jason told to keep him off your backs."

"But that was in school," Melinda said. "When we're all in the same building. You're not going to be able to watch over all of us."

"Richie, maybe you can keep track of Jason's movements," Cassie said.

"What, you want me to follow him?"

Cassie paused. "Well, no, not quite, just--"

"Whoa, wait, babe, he's onta something," Ned said. "Wouldn't it easier ta keep tabs on one person than the whole group?"

"But Jason is going to the Inn, right over where the Darkness lives," Cassie said in a quavering voice.

"But it doesn't live inside the Inn, does it?" Richie said. "It's below it, like underground."

"It's not quite the same concept."

Richie rolled his eyes. "Really getting friggin' sick of people telling me it's not what I think. Look, plain and simple: I'm not gonna fucking run into it on the street, right?"

"Well, no, but--"

"Then that settles it. I'll follow him."

"But jus' on the street," Ned said. "Don't go followin' him inside."

"Fuck, Ned, I didn't just fall off the hay truck," Richie snapped.

"I might be able to get you a cell phone to use temporarily, like I did when we were coordinating plans against Melissa," Cassie said. "Then you can call someone if you see him going somewhere you think he shouldn't."

Richie's eyebrows suddenly rose. "Wait, a cell phone?"

"Yes, I still have some unused numbers on my account."

"Haven numbers?"

Cassie paused. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"I mean the numbers assigned to the phone, are they Haven numbers?"

"Oh, no, they're on a different exchange. Why do you ask?"

Richie shrugged. "Just curious."

"Seems a silly thing to be curious about," Melinda said.

"Look, I don't go criticizing all the questions that you--"

Cassie was again about to burst. "Melinda, could you please look around and make sure no one nearby has an Aura?"

Melinda stared at Cassie for a moment, then swung her gaze one way and the other, her hair flying. "No, everyone's clean. Why did you want to--?"

"Ned found something in the journal!"

Melinda's eyes widened. "What?!"

Everyone else started speaking at once.

"Are you sure?" asked Heather. "Can we use it to help Melinda?"

"Is it gonna help Jason finally kick their sorry asses at the Inn?" Richie demanded.

"Can we get Heather away from Bendon with it?" asked Diane.

"One at a time!" Cassie cried.

"Whoa, folks, settle down," Ned said. "Yeah, I found something, but I don't know what it is yet. An' I haven't had time yet ta find all of 'em."

"All of what?" Melinda demanded.

"A buncha numbers that ol' Lizzie hid in her writin'. Like I said, don't know what it means yet."

"Mrs. Radson might know!"

"Yeah, she might, but it's gonna hafta wait til we get outta school later. Meanwhile, I brought the journal with me ta--"

"Oh, Ned, you didn't tell me you had done that!" Cassie said. "Is that safe?"

"As far as the Great Dark Poobah is concerned, the journal ain't got nuthin' of worth in it. So long as it keeps thinkin' that, it won't care even if we posted the thing on the internet. Here's my theory: Lizzie got inta some sorta scrape with the Darkness an' lost. It made her rewrite part of the journal ta make it look like the potion was a farce. She pulled a fast one by includin' a code."

"And the Darkness never noticed?" Diane asked.

"It ain't got 'xactly what ya would call a details-oriented personality, even less so back then. Anyway, I brought the journal with me so I can work on it during class."

"Ned, be careful, " Cassie said. "If a teacher confiscates it from you--"

"Yeah, I know, I'm takin' a chance. But the sooner I figger this out the sooner we can get Jason back among the sound of mind. Anyway, only teacher we know of that's tied ta the Darkness is Terrible Terri Hollis, and I ain't got her fer any of my classes this semester."

"Terri Hollis hasn't really been doing anything," Heather said. "She barely acknowledges I'm there anymore."

"See, that's what I mean," Ned said. "It don't think we're a threat right now. Let it keep thinkin' that."

"If a teacher does grab it from you, just send Cassie after Seeger," said Richie.

Cassie blinked. "What?"

"Jason was in good with Seeger 'cuz he was in charge of the Harbingers. Now you're in charge."

"I don't want to press my luck with that, Richie."

"Why the fuck not for chrissakes? That's what he's there for."

Cassie uttered a quick sigh and stopped herself from rolling her eyes. She did not want to explain to Richie yet again how much she hated assuming more authority than that to which she felt entitled. Down that path lay the woman whom her mother had become.

"Let's blow up that bridge when we come ta it," Ned said.

Cassie gave him an appreciative look, then glanced past the now largely empty parking lot towards Seeger, who still looked intimidating despite his supposed alliance with the Harbingers.

All the more reason not to abuse the privilege, Cassie thought as she turned back towards the others. "All right, we better get to class. Let's play it safe and not speak about this in the hallways. And definitely do not tell Jason. Please, this is very important."

Melinda suddenly frowned. "Why are you looking at me when you say that?"

Cassie had not realized she was, but it was Heather who responded, "Maybe because you tend to be the biggest blabbermouth, runt."

Melinda whirled around to face her big sister. "Okay, yeah, I'd love to be able to tell him that we might be able to do something for him, but I'm not stupid."

"I didn't mean anyone in particular," said Cassie. "Now let's get going. We can meet after school..." She glanced at Melinda, who gave her a miserable look in return. "Um ... meet after school at Mrs. Radson's house."

She turned and rushed towards the school, thinking that Jason's return to the leadership position of the Harbingers could not come a moment too soon for her.

Cassie had passed under the watchful gaze of Seeger when she heard footsteps racing up behind her. She turned her head to see Heather jog up to her. "Cassie, wait, you have a second?"

"Yes, but at my locker, please," she said in a low voice. "I'm really not comfortable with this, Heather."

"I know, and I'm not even sure I'll understand it enough to be able to do anything with it."

"Plus I don't think he ever tried it from inside the school."

"I don't have a choice. I have zero access to internet at home since Mom took out the network card from me and Melinda's computer."

Cassie stopped at her locker. She opened her backpack, glanced around to ensure no faculty were nearby, yanked the folder out, and thrust it towards Heather. "Thanks, Cassie, I really appreciate this," said Heather as she tucked the folder under her arm.

"Just be careful, please."

Heather smiled. "Always."

Heather entered the school library, clutching several unrelated textbooks and notebooks to her bosom. She had picked them at random, their only purpose to hide the manila folder from view. Cassie had already stuck some post-it notes over the tab so the title was not evident.

She headed for the row of computers and picked the one furthest from the aisle. Her heart pounded, not so much over the fear of being caught as it was knowing that if she did indeed find an address, she was committed to finding out about her mother's past.

She performed the same search which had yielded the link and returned to the same login screen. She took a deep breath, looked around, and opened the folder in her lap.

She glanced at some of the initial entries and skimmed over the techniques listed. A lot of it went over her head. Most of the instructions assumed a level of expertise in computer programming that she did not have.

She searched through the entries, flipping pages until she came to one marked "Haven Department of the Treasury, Administrator Login." She slid her finger across the page and breathed a sigh of relief when she discovered she was at least familiar with the term mentioned in the opening sentence.

Okay, yeah, I've heard of "SQL injection" before, Heather thought. Now what the hell do I type here? Here it is ... shit, I bet I have to get each of those symbols just right.

Heather began her laborious typing task, entering one or two characters at a time before dropping her eyes back to the page. A few moments later, her typing speed picked up. Finally, actual WORDS ... let's see ... insert ... into ... loginsession ... values...

After a few minutes, she had the entire long string of text entered into the tiny login user name field. She glanced back at the page. Says to put anything at all in the password field. Has to have something or the form validation will reject it.

She banged her fingers on the keyboard and let it spew some random characters into the password field. She grasped the mouse with a trembling hand, took a deep breath, and clicked "Login."

The page appeared to hang for a moment, and she briefly panicked that the school had somehow discovered what she was doing and had blocked her access to the site. Instead, a page came up titled "Welcome, Administrator" near the top, with the record she had wanted displayed upon the rest of the page.

Heather scrambled to open a notebook and fish a pen from her pocket. She wrote down the address as fast as she could and clicked the "Logout" button. She stared at the address she had written: 10204 North 1st Street. She consulted Google maps and verified what she had guessed, that it was located to the west of City Hall, just inside the downtown district.

She glanced around once more and cleared the browser history. She picked up her things and rushed out.

Richie hung out at the end of the short side hallway until Jason passed, then plowed through the other students and came along beside him. "Hey."

Jason glanced at him. "Hey."

"Doing okay, man?"

Jason stopped at his locker. "As well as can be expected."

"So you think they'll have you work at the Inn on the weekend, huh?"

"I don't see why they wouldn't, given that they could keep me all day."

"What time you think they're gonna have you come over?"

Jason opened his locker and peered at his friend. "I haven't been told yet. Why?"

Richie shook his head. "Can't tell you."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "In that case, maybe you've already told me too much."

"Look, just give me a call later when you know what time you're headed down there."

Jason gave him a wary look. "Richie, you and the others better not be planning to stop me from going there."

"Naw, dude, nothing like that. Just trust me, okay? You want me to keep you from fucking with everyone else, and that's what I'm doing."

Jason sighed. "I think I already know what you're planning now, but I don't see any other way you could have asked for this information and not given it away."

"I didn't say nothing, dude. You're imagining things."

"Yeah, right," Jason said in a sour voice as he grabbed some books from his locker and slammed it closed. "Okay, I'll call and tell you. Hopefully it will be the actual truth."

Richie frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "You're not exactly the best at subtlety, Richie. I've already figured out that you're going to follow me tomorrow to make sure I'm not sent after anyone."

"I never said that!"

"I was able to imply it. Realize that I may be so far gone by the end of today's session that I won't tell you the truth. So I'm not sure if knowing the time will do you any good."

Richie sighed. "Fine. Fuck it, then. I don't need to know. See ya in the funny papers."

He spun around and fled, grumbling a curse under his breath.

Maybe instead of trying not to be a total dick you should instead work on not being a total moron.

"Just shut up, " Richie growled through clenched teeth.

"What??"

Richie flinched and stopped dead in the hallway, and Heather nearly ran into him. "Huh? Oh, sorry," Richie said. "Wasn't talking to you."

Heather looked around, nonplussed. "Oh, um..."

"So what do you want?" Richie said, trying not to sound impatient.

"I just wanted to tell you that I got the address of where my mother's business used to be. And, no, it's nowhere near a cemetery."

"Okay, fine. You have to get the pendant and bring it there."

"I know, and it's pretty much certain that it's going to have to be in the evening. I don't think my mother ever takes it off during the day."

"I'll bet she takes it off at the Inn."

"Yes, but we're not going to try to get it from her in there."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not a total idiot," Richie said, though the conviction in his voice was weak. "Anyway, I'm gonna be busy this weekend tailing Jason."

"But I have to go back to Mistress on Sunday night. Dammit, I didn't want to wait another week! I guess we'll just have to play this by ear, assuming I can get my hands on the pendant in the first place."

"Yeah, that works."

Heather stepped closer. "One more thing," she said in a low voice. "Please don't tell Mrs. Radson about this. She's been getting really protective of us and I'm afraid she's going to try to stop me. Maybe I'll tell her after we find something."

Richie nodded. "No problem."

Heather smiled. "Richie, you've been a real friend. I, um ... I should do something for you in return, but getting time at Mrs. Radson's guest room seems kind of hard these days."

Richie's cock twitched even as his brain was still parsing Heather's meaning. When it finally caught up, his cock hardened in the tight confines of his jeans.

"I really should be doing it more often with you," said Heather.

Richie clenched his jaw against the urge to act on his impulses whenever he became aroused for a fellow Harbinger. The shared link could be used to influence each other in matters of sex, and no one took advantage of that more than Richie.

Despite his best efforts, he could not dismiss the image of his cock buried between Heather's big boobs. Heather shivered, and her nipples stood out against her blouse. Her lips twitched into a small smile. "Yeah, I can tell you've missed it, too. Maybe we can squeeze some time in if the meeting isn't too long."

Richie stared. Had he just affected her mind?

Still can't leave it be, huh? Maybe you still want to make everyone your slave after all. Guess you'll do well to stop Jason and eliminate the competition.

"We don't have to do it today if you don't want to," Richie said in a strained voice.

Heather tilted her head. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why the fuck wouldn't I be?"

"You just looked kind of tense just now, and, well, the idea of you passing up a chance for sex--"

"Maybe I just don't want to mess up things with Diane. She has those sessions with Mrs. Radson, remember?"

Heather looked embarrassed, as if she had indeed forgotten. "Right," she said in a soft voice

"We'll do the same as you and the pendant and just play it by ear, okay?" Richie said. "We'll do it whenever."

His cock remained hard, and Heather's hips still swayed at his involuntary mental prodding. Heather swallowed and nodded. "I'll see you on the bus, then," she said in a quavering voice before jogging away.

Richie thumped a fist on the nearest locker. "Fuck this shit," he muttered before following Heather.

When Cassie and Ned arrived at Debby's unannounced, Debby braced herself for the worst. Her dreams had already taken on disturbing themes, and when she sensed Jason over the link when he was not blocked by the corrupted line energies, he seemed a little more "off" every day.

When she opened the door, however, she saw from Cassie's psychic aura that she was excited about something. Even Ned -- whose aura tended to be as laid back as himself -- betrayed intense focus, similar to what she would see on her own daughter while she was cramming for finals.

"You have some news?" Debby said in a hopeful voice as she let them in.

"Yes, but I want to wait for the others to arrive first," Cassie said. A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "It's good news, at least I hope it develops into that."

"I have to at least know this much: is it about the journal? Did you find something?"

"Ayep, I found somethin'," said Ned. "But don't know what it is yet."

Debby let out a deep sigh. "You cannot imagine how relieved I feel right now. Please, come sit down!" She shepherded them to the sofa. "Ever since Jason came to the apparent dead end, I felt guilty about not warning him."

"He prolly woulda figgered it out faster than me," Ned drawled.

"How is Jason? I have to admit, I'm not sure how to interpret what I'm feeling over our shared link, but it doesn't seem good."

"I know, you're feeling the same thing I am," Cassie said in a sad voice. "The taint."

"Taint? You mean..." Debby trailed off, then gave them a horrified look. "Oh no, he hasn't--"

"He hasn't fallen completely, no." Cassie let out a tremulous sigh. "This is almost worse, watching him fall little by little each day."

"So that's what I'm sensing, the Darkness' increasing influence over him," Debby said in a hollow voice.

"Yeah, an' we really gotta put our noggins together ta figger out this code," Ned said. "If we don't want that 'taint' spreadin' ta the rest of us."

Debby's eyes widened. "A code? You found a code in the journal?"

"Mrs. Radson, I want to wait until the rest of us get here first before we go into that," said Cassie, who offered up another small smile. "Yes, I'm excited about it, too, but I wanted to ask you about what Ned just said. Do you think Jason could influence the rest of us over the link if he does fall any further?"

"I'm still learning myself how it all works," said Debby. "I have never seen a link as tangible as this one. I can almost see it as a physical presence in my mind. Yes, I think it is possible, if you're not expecting it."

"Jus' 'cuz I'm curious, how can ya be sure of that?" asked Ned.

Debby wished Ned would be more open with his feelings. While she was grateful for the polite face he put on it, she knew he had his doubts as to just how accomplished a Witch she was.

It played into her own growing doubts. She felt like she should have more of the answers. It had only been recently she had pushed herself into opening Elizabeth's Book of Shadows, which laid more guilt upon her that she was somehow soiling Elizabeth's memory. First she had failed to destroy the book as would have been proper, now she was pilfering it for knowledge that was not necessarily meant for her.

It's all in there. To her, those last words were not a clear grant of permission to keep and read the book. For all she knew, it was a plea to destroy it to prevent the information from falling into the wrong hands, especially if the potion she described was real and could be turned to evil intent with a simple re-balancing of the ingredients.

"An incident in one of my sessions with Diane," Debby said in a subdued voice. "I instructed her to build up her sexual energy and release it to me. She accidentally tapped line energy, and it came rushing into me. I was unable to block it."

Ned blinked and looked uncomfortable as if he had already worked out the logical conclusion as to what followed. "Um, yeah, but that's like a whole buttload of energy all at once. Fer Jason, we could start tryin' ta block him out now. Mebbe Diane could help with that."

"You may be right, Ned, but her control over her power will have to be far more refined than it is now. I will have to work with Diane further if she is willing to do so."

"Huh? If she's willing? Why wouldn't she--"

"She probably will be, but I want to make absolutely sure," Debby declared. "I do not want to take even the slightest chance that she will feel she is being used."

"I understand perfectly, Mrs. Radson," said Cassie. "Anything we want of her she has to do of her own free will. We'll leave it to you to talk to her about that and won't pressure her."

Debby smiled, but she could tell that Ned was not entirely mollified. Debby was grateful for the insight into his psyche that her heightened powers had given her, for she did not want to be left wondering about his intentions. It was clear he simply wanted to take action and had no lingering desire to use Diane as a tool.

As if on cue, Diane arrived. As Debby greeted her at the door, Heather appeared down the street, walking a bicycle along the sidewalk. Diane cocked her head as Heather approached. "Hey, isn't that Richie's--" she began before her gaze fell on the black limo sitting at the curb. "Oh shit," she whispered.

"Yes, this is Richie's bike," Heather called out as she passed the limo. "Since he can't come here anymore, he let me use his bike since mine needs new tires."

Debby let Diane in and said, "I'll open the garage door so you can pull it in there, Heather."

"Oh God, I'm sorry, I almost blew it!" Diane cried after the front door was closed.

"Diane, it's okay!" Cassie said as she rushed up to Diane. "It's an easy thing to forget when we're so used to all of us being together."

"Besides, Heather covered for ya brilliantly," Ned said with a grin. "Nothin' like a little disinformation to..."

His voice faded into the background after Debby hit the garage door opener button. As the door started up, she heard a banging noise from the kitchen. She almost forgot herself as Diane had, and she came close to calling to the others to let Richie in the back door.

Heather trotted the bicycle into the garage and rushed up to Debby. "Richie's coming around the back," she whispered. "I hope I sounded convincing to Cassie's driver."

"You did just fine," Debby said with a small smile. She led Heather inside, where a disheveled Richie stood just inside the kitchen while Ned and Cassie helped him remove snow and ice from his pants.

"Oh, Goddess, what happened?" Debby asked.

"Fucking stupid dog," Richie growled. "Chased me down the fucking alley and I had to go through a goddamn snowbank to get over the fence."

Cassie sighed as she fetched some paper towels to clean up the floor. "Richie, I'm sorry, I feel like this is my fault."

Richie shrugged. "Forget it. I'm here, and that's what matters, right? Let's lay the shit going down on Mrs. Radson."

"As long as you're okay, then yes, I'm anxious to hear what Ned uncovered," said Debby.

The Harbingers scrambled to find seats in the living room, with Heather and Diane opting to sit on the floor in front of the sofa. Ned dragged his book bag into his lap and pulled out a notebook. He opened it and thrust it at Debby.

Debby took the proffered notebook and stared. "Numbers?"

"Yeah," Ned said. "Hidden in the writing. She wrote some letters ta look like backwards digits. Only on every third page."

Debby looked down the list, her heart thumping. It was a matrix of three-digit numbers, five rows by three columns. "And each row is from one page? Three sets of three digits?"

"I'm assumin' that's how I'm s'posed ta read it."

"Most definitely yes!" Debby cried. "Is this all of them?"

"Not by a long shot. Still got a big chunk of 'em ta go through. What's missin' in this li'l puzzle is what the freakin' hell the numbers mean."

Debby's eyes darted over the page, but any hope of enlightenment was fast fading. "I don't recognize them off the top of my head," she said in a cautious voice.

"It's supposed to be a code for the potion, right?" Heather asked. "The one Jason told us about."

"Yeah, mebbe," Ned said.

"Well, what else could it be?"

"I dunno, mebbe the location of where the potion is stored. An address. A combination for a lock somewhere."

Debby stared at the numbers and slowly shook her head. "No, this has to be the formula itself."

"An' how d'ya figger that?"

Debby lifted her head and gave Ned an earnest look. "Because of what I know of Elizabeth Jellison. She was not one to engage in a lot of misdirection. That she could conceive of this code in the first place is nothing short of amazing."

"And why would she do it any other way?" Cassie asked in an excited voice. "If she wanted someone to find it, she wouldn't make it too hard."

Ned slowly nodded. "An' tryin' ta point ya ta somewhere else has problems of its own. Ya can't guarantee someone wouldn't come along and find it first."

"And Elizabeth was no fool, Ned," said Debby.

"Okay, ya convinced me, it's a formula. Now how do we interpret it?"

Silence reigned until Diane said, "We need a primer."

Richie frowned. "A what?"

Diane's cheeks colored. "Um ... never mind, I just..."

"Diane, what is it?" Cassie called out. "Please, tell us."

"Um ... it was something I saw in a movie once. It was about receiving an intelligent message from space but there was no way to decode it. The main character in the film said they needed to look for a primer, something in the message itself that helps you decode it."

"Oh, crap, yeah, I fergot 'bout that," Ned said. "That was from Contact, wasn't it?"

"Yes, that's the film," Diane said in a relieved voice. "They found something in the message, something like a pattern or a mathematical expression."

"Yeah, yer right! It had like one plus one equals two and stuff like that."

"Oh come on, this isn't a fucking message from a fucking E.T.," Richie snapped. "It's a freaking recipe."

Ned took the notebook and tossed it in Richie's lap. "Okay, Einstein, tell me what the numbers mean, then."

Richie frowned and tossed it back to Ned. "How the fuck should I know? You're the one pretending to be Jason."

"Then don't put down Diane's idea so fast."

"I'm not! I'm just tired of people making things so fucking complicated it takes a nerd-brain to figure them out."

"Look, I didn't say it was gonna be a complicated primer," Ned said. "But we need something."

"But it's ultimately a recipe, right?" Heather said. "So what do you need to know for each ingredient?"