This chapter is mostly more character stuff, but I also tried to build up the coming confrontation as much as I could. None of the mains really understand the enemy's abilities fully, or understand what exactly he is after, if it will really make him unstoppable. They just know that they can't take the chance. There are emotions involved here, and I focus on those emotions more than the events happening around our characters. I gloss over those events because each and every character involved in this portion of the journey is lost in their own head, looking ahead at what is to come.
Also, this leg of the journey is just kind of boring.
This chapter also gives us the first solo encounter between James and Max, which I've really been waiting to include. James really idolized Max early in the story, but I think it is safe to say that things are different now that he knows Max as a person, and he isn't handling it well.
Arrangements
For the second time in an hour, all eyes were on James. Max’s mind was racing. Thompson wasn’t far behind. He looked to Max and asked, “Is that possible.”
Max hesitated, thinking over what to say, and replied, “I’m not some kind of expert on Shadow Magic. I don’t know everything that it can accomplish. But I just healed myself from a fatal wound, something that I never thought could be done. I’ve known people who can move between two shadows as easily as you and I would move through a door, who can dissolve their enemies’ bodies, and even a girl who could grant wishes. Is this possible? Probably. But either way, we have to act as if it is. I looked into that man’s eyes, and he has no fear. If he can make himself immortal, then I have no way of stopping him.”
“Does it say in those notes where the final Item is located?” Thompson asked. He had assumed, just as Max had, that that is where the killer would be headed next.
“I don’t think that’s where he’s going,” James replied, shifting through the fax pages until he found a specific one. “I had our people back home send this over when i recognized that necklace from my research into the killings. The necklace, found only a year ago during another dig outside of Al Minya, was stolen from a different location where it was on display. There was one fatality, a night security guard on scene. His wounds shared some similarities with the other killings, but I wrote it off as unrelated until now.”
“So he already has all three items,” El remarked. “That means that he’ll be on his way to the site where they were forged.”
She made a fist, “We have to beat him there.”
“How?” Max demanded. “We don’t know where it is, and even if we did, there’s no way my powers are enough to get us there.”
“I can help in one of those regards,”James interjected. “The research notes here do give the location of the site in question.” He looked at El, “Your father was very smart. He was able to work out the location from only a few context clues in the hieroglyphics.”
“Where is it?” El demanded, growing impatient. Max looked at her. She was acting like she had when they had uncovered the existence of Arlen Cord. She was eager, and Max worried that she was eager to the point of recklessness. He realized at that point that he should say something to her, except that the detectives were present. He needed the two of them to appear collected and sure of themselves in the presence of the detectives. If they began to feel that the two of them couldn’t handle continuing the investigation, they might stand in opposition of them again, and that was a distraction that Max didn’t want to deal with. Max glanced to the two detectives. James, who was too distracted by his notes, didn’t notice how anxious she was, but Thompson did, though he didn’t say anything.
“That’s the interesting part,” James said, answering El’s question, “it’s right where everything started, at the site where your father found the knife. At the site where he, where he…”
He looked up at El, realizing what he was about to say, that it might hurt her. She, however, barely hesitated, “Where he was killed.”
“Y-yes,” James agreed, and continued, “it’s one of the reasons why he started hiding his actual findings: he realized that there was more to the site than what they had found already, and how dangerous it could be if they found it.”
El hesitated again. Max wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what to say, and in the end he didn’t have to say anything. “We have to go there,” El told everyone present. “We have to get there in time to stop him.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I can’t get us there,” Max replied. “We’ll need to find another way to Egypt, or it won’t matter.”
“I could get you there,” Thompson told him simply. “I have some cash saved up that you can use for plane tickets, and I think I can even get you through security.”
“What do you mean,” James asked, “you can get us through security? Aren’t you coming with us?”
Thompson took a deep breath, “No, I don’t think that would go over well. None of this has been approved. If we try to get away with it, the captain will shut us down. You don’t just rush a group through airport security these days without a good reason. I’ll need him to back up the decision rather than work against it, and I’ll need him in our corner in case it comes out that we pushed the boundaries of police authority to further an investigation that we can’t even tell anyone about. The closest airport is Westchester. I should be able to get back and explain things to the captain by the time you get there if I leave now. You’ll have to get a rental, though, ‘cause I’m taking my car.”
“If that’s the case,” said James, setting the papers down and refusing to meet Thompson’s eyes, “I’ll go back and explain things. You can go with them. You’re the superior field officer. If you hadn’t been incapacitated back at the records room, we might have even gotten the guy then. I’ll go back and do research. It’s what I’m best at.”
Thompson laughed. It was a hearty laugh, right from his gut, “That’s exactly why you can’t go. I am the better field cop, sure, but I’m also better known. Captain Carl knows me. We’ve worked together for years. We’ve got a bloody crime scene that someone’s got to explain to the captain, so he can explain it to the locals. I’m the man to do that. I can get him in our corner. If I tell him I’ve met the Reaper and that we need to trust him, he’ll believe me because he knows I’d never make that up. He knows that I came into this thing a skeptic. If you go, he’ll brush you off and put a stop to our little excursion before it can begin.”
Thompson crossed his arms and looked up over the heads of the rest of the group, as if avoiding their eyes, and he continued, “Besides, if this scheme ends up stepping on the toes of international relations or something, someone will have to take the fall for it. I’ve had a career, but yours is just getting started. This way I can take credit for the whole idea. I’ll be handy to use as a scapegoat, and if everything goes right, you’ll come back scott free.”
James looked shocked. It was like he couldn’t process that Thompson would make such a huge sacrifice for him. Max and El looked on the man with new found respect. They had already had respect for him as an investigator, and as an adversary, and Max had begun to form a better opinion of the man himself since their earlier conversation, but now they were both sure that for the man’s faded jacket, and worn appearance, and his brash outlook, he was really something more. Something better. Max found himself wondering what he would have been like if he’d actually moved to a safer city and had more time to separate himself from the stress of the job. Then he found himself rather selfishly glad that Thompson hadn’t taken that other job. If he had, he wouldn’t have been here to help, and his and El’s crusade might have already come to an end. He felt horrible for thinking that way, but it didn’t change the fact that he was right. Without Thompson, they wouldn’t have had a hope of reaching the mystery man in time.
“Alright, guys,” Thompson said, making himself meet the eyes of each other member of the group one by one, “let’s get going before things get too sentimental or some shit. Get going. Trust me, I’ll make this happen.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, removing a card from it and handing it to James, “This is my savings account card. Use it for the tickets. We could probably secure police funds to pay for them, but it’ll just take more time that we don't actually have. There is more than enough there for three tickets and transportation from here to the airport. Let’s just hope my water heater doesn’t break down or something until I can build that back up again.”
James didn’t know what to say, so he only nodded and gathered up the faxed copies of the research notes before making his way out of the room and toward the front of the university, and the exit. El followed him, asking if she could go through the notes again, as there were clearly pages that she hadn’t seen. Max started to follow, already going over in his head how long it might take them to arrive in Al Minya by plane, and how quickly he could get them to the old dig site from there, or if he even could, since he had to know where he was going to get there with his powers. However, just before he could leave the room, Thompson put his hand on Max’s shoulder to stop him.
“The girl,” Thompson said. “She’s really into this chase. She wants this guy too much.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Max replied defensively, not turning to look at the older man.
“I do,” Thompson assured Max in a tone that said that he was telling the truth. “I’ve seen cops get too involved in a case and throw caution to the wind, risking their lives unnecessarily and getting themselves hurt or killed in the process. She’s got that same look to her.”
“I won’t deny her the chance to get this guy,” Max argued, assuming that Thompson wanted him to stop El from going with them. So he was surprised when he heard Thompson’s reply.
“I’m not saying you should,” He said hastily. “She seems perfectly capable, and this is obviously her business. She’s gotta take care of it, or at least take a shot at it. All I’m saying is don’t let her do it alone. ‘Cause she will. If she thinks she has the chance to take this guy down, she will, even if no one’s with her. Especially after what happened back in the records room. She’ll feel like she has something to prove. Be there for her. That’s all I’m sayin’.”
Max looked over his shoulder at the older man, and actually met his eyes, and despite what had happened the last time Max had looked into his eyes, Thompson didn’t look away. Max nodded, and Thompson removed his hand. Without another word Max followed after El and her conrade, leaving Thompson alone. The older detective let out a sigh, and then he left as well, prepared to do what he had to do.
James took charge for a while, as if he had something to prove. Or maybe he was just an efficient and motivated person. Max honestly couldn’t tell. He didn’t know the man very well, and had trouble reading him. And after what he had done to Thompson, he wasn’t about to risk trying to pluck information from the man with his magic. Instead he simply went along for the ride as James called a cab to take them to the nearest car rental company, rented the most fuel efficient car on the lot, and ushered Max and El inside. He drove them frantically, guided by GPS, talking pleasantly with El, but practically ignoring Max, and refusing to meet his eyes.
The drive took almost one hour and fifty minutes, but it seemed to take much longer before, finally, the three of them exited the car and made their way to the airport interior. Immediately James sought out a member of the staff, introduced himself and showed his badge, and inquired whether they had been contacted by his home office. The young woman who he spoke to had no idea, but she made a call, leaving James, Max and El to wait. In the meantime, James took the opportunity to purchase the tickets. Against his better judgment, Max went with him.
“What happened to your partner,” Max said to James, as they walked back to where El and the young airport employee waited, “isn’t going to happen to you if you talk to me.”
James didn’t reply at first, only fingering the tickets in his hand, and then he stopped and said, without looking at Max, “That’s not it. I’m not worried about you hurting me with your magic.”
Max was relieved. As far as he was concerned the issue was resolved. He didn’t even consider that James might have had a different problem with him, until James continued to speak.
“It’s just,” James said, “you aren’t what I expected. You’re just a kid, really. And you’re out in the world, doing what you do.”
Suddenly Max understood, recalling how excitedly James had talked about him to his captain in that abandoned annex what felt like so long ago. “You expected Batman,” he said with a wry smile, “or the Question, or some other comic book hero who is only fallible if it makes for a better story, and never messes up when it really matters. But seeing me, it broke that illusion. Now you can’t see me as the hero that you wanted me to be anymore.”
James nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Well,” Max said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I never was that person. I’m just a regular guy who is fortunate, or maybe unfortunate, enough to have these abilities, who is crazy enough to use them. And let me tell you, it isn’t because I’m simply a good Samaritan. I got to the place I am today by wading through years of pain, and there wasn’t anything glamorous about it. I’m not billionaire Bruce Wayne with a bat cave and gadgets, I’m just a guy, and I have no idea what I’m doing. I didn’t even have any real focus until I stumbled upon the connection between the city's drug rings almost by accident, and then I wouldn’t have had any focus anymore if El hadn’t come along. I’m a person like you, but like you I’m going to do everything I can to stop this man, and I’m going to do it for my own reasons. If that isn’t good enough, you can send me and El along without you and we’ll handle it.”
He hadn’t meant for it to happen, but his words became a rant, and by the end, he was angry. He couldn’t blame James for his misconceptions, but knowing that he’d had them, that he’d idolized Max, it made Max feel like he’d somehow let this man down. “I don’t owe you anything,” Max said, more harshly than he meant to, “and it isn’t fair that you seem to think I do.”
James reacted like he’d been stabbed, but then his expression softened as Max’s words sunk in. Almost sounding surprised, James replied, “You’re right. I convinced myself that you were something that you’re not. That’s my problem, and I’ll have to work through it myself. But we just don’t have time for that. I’m coming with you, and I’ll trust you to watch my back. You’re just a man, but you’re a man who’s done incredible things, who shares my goals, and that’s enough for me.”
Max felt suddenly guilty for how harsh he’d been with the young detective, but he stood his ground, only nodding in reply. James nodded back, and the two of them continued back toward where El waited. They found her not with the young staff member, but a middle-aged gentleman with a receding hairline and a mustache that was slightly gray, like the hair upon his head. He informed James that the airport had just received a call from the precinct, and he checked James’ identification before leading the group briskly past security.
With sidelong glances at El, who seemed oblivious to the situation, and Max, who did his best to keep the man from seeing enough of his face to remember it, he took them right to their gate. They boarded the flight, which had been held for ten minutes already to give Max and his party time to arrive and board, and took their seats in three different parts of the coach section, and within half an hour, they were off, toward a destination that they knew nothing about, to confront a man whose abilities they didn’t understand and prevent him from unleashing a power that they could barely imagine. It’s no wonder that they were all afraid.
With sidelong glances at El, who seemed oblivious to the situation, and Max, who did his best to keep the man from seeing enough of his face to remember it, he took them right to their gate. They boarded the flight, which had been held for ten minutes already to give Max and his party time to arrive and board, and took their seats in three different parts of the coach section, and within half an hour, they were off, toward a destination that they knew nothing about, to confront a man whose abilities they didn’t understand and prevent him from unleashing a power that they could barely imagine. It’s no wonder that they were all afraid.
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