"Babe Lincoln"
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dochermes"Babe Lincoln"
6/2-6/3/2012
I.
"The super-hero poses are very dramatic, Hales, but they don't get the job done."
Pouting at the snark from her best friend forever, Windcatcher lowered her fists from her hips and threw the heavy blue cloak back over her shoulders. At seventeen, slender and long-legged in snug blue shorts and a long-sleeved white pullover, Haley Lawson had the confidence of youth that nothing really bad could happen to her. No matter how much she asked for it.
Her rich auburn hair blazed in the early September sunlight, and under heavy bangs a pair of lime green eyes winked at Gina and Bentley. "Okay, I'm gonna try it. Not sure how well this will work out."
"That's why we're sitting way over here," called Gina from forty feet away.
"Oh ye of little faith..." Haley grumbled, moving up to a waist high boulder that was standing by an outcropping at the edge of the meadow. "See, I got this idea because of something my mom did when she was in high school. One winter, the driver's door of her car was covered with ice. No way to open. She thought it would be a good idea to bring up a soup pan of boiling water from the house and pour it all over."
Bentley laughed out loud at the thought and Gina smirked in her own subdued way.
"Yeah! She got the door open and drove to school BUT the window on the driver's door was shattered into a million little bits. So, let me take what Mom learned the hard way and put it to good use." She touched the soft choker under her shirt collar to contact the unimaginably ancient Air Gem and concentrated. Over an active volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, air at a temperature just under two thousand degrees was mystically siphoned the great distance to flow over that rock. The surface turned bright cherry red instantly, and the shape of the rock visibly sagged.
"That's part one," Haley announced and then launched a blast of wind from an Antarctic storm. Eighty degrees below zero, that air struck the superheated rock which exploded like a grenade and sent shards whizzing off in all directions. Haley yelped and jumped back too late to have done any good.
"Haley, come on!" screamed Gina. "Are you TRYING to kill us?!"
"Sorry, sorry, you guys aren't hurt?"
"No. I'm okay. Bentley, did you get hit by any of that?"
The gawky eighteen year old was patting his arms and legs tentatively, looking for blood. "I'm good. But man, that was close. I heard a piece of rock buzz by me and it sounded like a bee."
Haley Lawson herself noticed a gash in the fabric of her blue cloak, down by the lower hem. As sublimely confident as she was, the thought did pass through her head that a sharp fragment of rock could have taken out someone's eye or sliced across an artery. But it hadn't. And as quickly as that, she moved on.
"Okay, okay, I guess my next experiments will be conducted a wee leetle bit more carefully. I think I can manipulate hot and cold air masses enough to cause lightning strikes..."
"Time for us to go!" yelled Gina, hopping to her feet. She was a petite curvy Junior at Haley's high school, with the full wavy hair that came from being full Italian generations back. She was yanking on her boyfriend's arm as if she had spotted a brown bear emerging from the woods.
The Windcatcher trotted over to her friends, waving her hands. "Not today, not today, I swear. That's enough for right now. What we need to experiment on is pizza. How does that sound?"
Both Gina and Bentley came to a halt. "It's always a good time for pizza," the boy agreed. We skipped lunch to come out here and it must be four o'clock by now."
"Out of deference to our jangled nerves, I will not fly us down to the Village Pizza joint but we will walk with our feet solid on the ground. Sound like a plan?"
Gina began tugging Bentley in the opposite direction, toward the long sloping h
ill which led down to Glenville. He didn't mind. He had gotten used to her pulling on his arm to make he was going along with her impulses. "Say, Haley," Gina said, "I was wondering. If you got to be really good with your Air Gem, I mean like perfectly in control, couldn't you make the weather better? Couldn't you stop droughts and break up hurricanes and stuff?"
Unsnapping her cloak and rolling it up to carry under one arm, Windcatcher sighed. "You'd think so, ya know? But Mom said that she tried it when she had the Gem, and things went wrong every time. If she tried to stop a hurricane, she could split it up but it would surge back stronger than before. Redirecting floods caused just as much damage somewhere else. One time she tried to divert a Northeaster, big winter storm ya know? and it split into TWO Northeasters and got much worse."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Bentley offered. "I know you've got a good heart, Haley. You want to help people."
"Thanks. But it seems like weather is just too big and too complicated to mess with. Maybe someday, I'll try starting small and see what I can do. But for now, I think the Air Gem has to be used carefully. With great power...."
"Yeah, we know the quote," Gina laughed. "I still think you need to start reading some real books for a change."
Heading down the hill toward Church Road, Haley said, "Have you guys seen on the local news about this burglar called Babe Lincoln...?"
II.
>"This is the unluckiest room I have ever seen!"< fumed Uncle Pao. >"Number 404 on the fourth floor! The windows face south. And look, the feet of the beds point toward the bathroom door. This is a death trap. I'm surprised the maids don't wear white for mourning."<
Putting down the suitcases and shrugging out of his knapsack, Sheng glanced around. >"I don't know much about that Feng Shui business,"< he admitted, >"And I'm sure the Holiday Inn didn't take it into account when drawing up the blueprints."<
Pao ran bony fingers through the shock of white hair which stuck out in several directions as if he had taken a vow never to use a comb. >"Ahhhh, at least it seems clean. Look, the sink has been scrubbed today. I will survive the bad luck for one night.<"
Dutiflly inspecting the bathroom, Sheng Mo-Yuan loosened his tie and undid the top button of his tan dress shirt. He was wearing his favorite dark brown suit with its matching vest. At five feet five, Sheng had taken to wearing two inch lifts in his shoes because he honestly felt he could use some help dealing with tall Americans over six feet. >"I took this room for two days, Uncle,"< he continued in Cantonese. >"But we may not need to stay here that long. It depends on finding Babe Lincoln right away."<
>"The criminal's name is a crude pun, nephew. There was an American president named Abe Lincoln."<
>"Yes, thank you, Uncle." Sheng kicked off his polished shoes and gratefully sank down on the edge of one of the twin beds. It had been a two hour drive from Manhattan to this end of Long Island. "Oh, that's better. Yeah, I seem to draw all the whacky criminals for some reason. The Punster, Casey Strangle, Pete and Repeat, Pumpkinface, the Pelican..."<
>"Be grateful that your friend the Dire Wolf handles the genuinely scary madmen. Samhain, Sepulchre, Golgora...."<
>"And he's welcome to them."< Sheng stretched out luxuriously on the bed and released a heartfelt sigh that was quashed by the disapproving tsk from the other bed.
>"This menu is a disgrace,"< he announced. >"Not a bit of Real Food to be seen."<
Switching to English as he relaxed, Sheng said, "I saw a Chinese restaurant on the main street. The RED ROSE, I think. We can see what it's like."
"Feh. It will be a mess designed to suit undeveloped Western palates with only a few hints of Real Food. I know. It will be as bad as Burger Hell but with cheap white rice and soggy vegetables. So it goes." The old man got up on his own bed and began experimenting with the remote control.
"I don't know much about this Babe Lincoln. The only description we have from one witness is that she's above middle height and has red hair. Not much to work with. So far, she has robbed three collectors of genuine Midnight War talismans. Always in the middle of the night, too. She sneaks in and snatches and then runs for it before any burglar alarms can bring help. There's a funny touch involved too, she leaves a three by five card with a sketch of a stovepipe hat and the signature 'Babe Lincoln,' so at least she has some sense of humor."
Uncle Pao was making disgusted noises at the TV. "Eighty channels of trash. Feh. I might as well leave the Weather Channel on, at least they are not lying as much as the news channels."
"So, Babe Lincoln has committed all her robberies in the general Metropolitan area. I see a few helpful common factors. All the talismans were made by Humans, not by Darthim or Eldanarin, so they're not as valuable but they're also not as dangerous. She seems to be placing some distance between each crime. The first was up in White Plains, the second near Times Square and the last one was down by the Battery. So, I'd guess either New Jersey or Long Island is likely."
"My old friend Harry Hung would have pinpointed the next burglary to the exact minute."
"Yes. Thank you, Uncle. I've found out there are a few Midnight War collectors on the island and the most tempting to me seems to be Sheldon Reinhardt, here in Glenville. For one thing, this is his summer home and he stays here mostly during July and August. The rest of the year, he has his business upstate. All three burglaries have taken place on Sunday night and of course, that's tonight."
Uncle Pao snorted in complete disdain. "Nephew, you are not entirely without deductive skills. It has been three years since you opened our Chuan Lo-Tsing agency..."
Sheng almost interrupted at hearing Fist For Hire as 'our' agency but prudently let it slide.
"...and you have had many successes. True, it must be said that it is your physical prowess more than your mental sharpness which has done this. Being able to become bulletproof or strong enough to throw a motorcycle across a street is a great advantage. Your Argent powers are not to be dismissed..."
Almost starting to drift off, Sheng made himself sit up and took deeper breaths.
"..I am pleased at the way you are finally beginning to regard beautiful young women with some suspicion rather than simply believing every word they say..."
"Uncle, are you hungry? We could try that Chinese restaurant we saw. Many places have a separate menu not meant for the average white American customer."
That perked the old man up. Suprisingly nimble for someone in his seventies, Pao was up and on his feet in a blink. Behind the thick round-lensed glasses, his eyes brightened. "A worthy thought, nephew. We should investigate. Some Real Food is good for both body and spirit."
Sheng was putting his shoes back on. "It's not even dark out. When we get back, I'll grab a few hours sleep before setting out to look for this Babe Lincoln burglar."
III.
Her mother wasn't thrilled at Haley leaving the house alone at night when the crusading fervor struck, but then Lisa Lawson remembered her own past. She had been two years younger than Haley was when the Heirs of Buliwyf had recovered the four mystic talismans. Looking back, Lisa was amazed at how many dangerous situations she had blithely strolled into and how often she had come within a hair of severe injuries or death. Lisa knew Haley was quick-thinking and had the overwhelming powers of the Air Gem to protect her, and of course they both knew that a single phone call would have mother racing in her car to go get her daughter.
Still.... It wasn't easy. Nights when Lisa looked at her bedroom door and saw the light under the crack that meant Haley had turned on a living room lamp before leaving, sleep would not be coming until she saw that gleam under the door wink out again.
High over the rooftops of a slumbering Glenville, Windcatcher whizzed through the air with her cloak flapping behind her. She was siphoning winds from a Kansas tornado and, although they peaked at two hundred miles per hour, she had learned how to lessen them around her. Haley was gliding over her hometown at about the same speed of a car on the highway. Flying wasn't effortless by any means. Aside from the mental focus needed to summon the winds and to keep them coherent, Haley had to keep her body stiffened like a high diver with her legs out straight behind her and her arms moving to help control her flight. It was a huge strain on her lower back and her abs, and she ached ruefully each day after using her powers.
A three-quarters moon and a clear sky gave excellent viewing. Haley kept a sharp eye for any suspicious activity but honestly, she had to admit Glenville was snoozy and boring, and its inhabitants liked it that way. There were no men with stocking masks running out of the Island Credit Union with sacks of money in their hands. No black limos meeting behind the Pharmacy with mobsters examining a shipment of heroin. Not even a stealthy figure lurking in the shadows, looking for a helpless damsel to chase. Nope. It seemed that everyone was sound asleep except her.
The one barely interesting moment came as she watched a bright red sports car roar up along Main Street. Very snappy looking, she thought, but it continued north toward the way out of town and the driver was neither speeding nor showing signs of being drunk at the wheel.
After twenty minutes, as she neared the Lutheran Church on the north end of town, Windcatcher admitted she needed a break. There, on the ridge of the church roof, she lowered her legs and dropped down, slowing as best she could. Not bad. She landed without stumbling or having to windmill her arms for balance. Sitting down next to the ten foot high gilded cross, Haley exhaled in relief. Her calves were cramping up and she kneaded them.
It had been three months since she had found the Air Gem by chance while rummaging through their attic. She had no idea at first that it was more than a gorgeous faceted gem that resembled blue tourmaline. But the gem had bonded with her. She couldn't stop staring into its depths and fiddling with it, and inevitably her mother had seen her toying with the stone. The story of the Heirs of Buliwyf, a family of explorers and rescue workers in the Midnight War twenty years earlier, had been reluctantly revealed.
And because Lisa had packed the Air Gem away and had not had contact with it for years, er mystic bond with it had faded. The talisman had immediately latched on to Haley's life force and would not work for anyone else. She was the new Windcatcher. The best that Lisa Lawson could do was to instruct her imaginative but basically responsible daughter how to use the ancient jewel and how to keep as safe as possible. So far, she had not gotten into any serious trouble.
Perched atop the old Lutheran Church where she had attended as a girl, Haley wondered if she was wasting her time. If this Babe Lincoln was out and about, what were the odds she would be anywhere near Glenville? Then Haley dropped into a low crouch next to the cross. That red sports car had come back and swerved into the church parking lot with a screech of brakes.
Was it Babe Lincoln? wondered Haley, thinking that somehow the famous thief had been following her all this time. But how? Who even knew about Windcatcher yet? From the car, a taut figure of a man in a business suit hurtled toward the church faster than any Olympic athlete. Crouching down, he sprang straight up without any effort to catch hold of the sloping roof and scrambled straight toward her.
She had no way of knowing that Sheng Mo-Yuan had shifted the focus of gralic energy in his body into increased stength. Much more powerful than what his still-normal weight required, he was capable of more prodigious leaps than that. She knew only that this strange, seemingly superhuman man was attacking her. Instinctively, she unleashed a blast of tornado wind that howled straight into the man and hurled him back off the roof fifty feet before he dropped.
Even as she heard the thud of the body hitting the asphalt far below, Haley Lawson felt awful. What had she done? She could have lifted herself up out of reach instead, but there hadn't been time to think. Now, maybe she had killed someone. Drawing on just enough wind, she glided down off the roof to a soft landing in the parking lot and was gobsmacked to see the stranger getting up as if he had merely stumbled and fallen on his back.
As soon as he had found himself being blown off the roof, Sheng had switched his gralic charge to extreme resilience. He was resistant to harm in that state, not literally invulnerable but dense enough to survive rifle bullets. His body cracked the asphalt when he hit and the breath was knocked out of him for a second, but he was up on his feet as Windcatcher touched down almost within reach.
"Well, I see how you've been pulling off these burglaries," he called out. "No more tricks! I didn't realize you're Midnight War, Babe Lincoln."
IV.
"Dude, what the hell?" demanded Haley. "How are you not hurt?"
"Never mind that. I can't arrest you but as a licensed PI, I can use reasonable force to detain you until the police arrive." Sheng took three quick steps forward before a withering blast of sub-zero gale force wind shoved him back again. Moisture in the warm summer air froze into a layer of frost over his body. Still in an impervious state, he wasn't dazed or slowed at all. With a pounce, he leaped on top of Windcatcher, kicking one foot back out from under her so she fell face down. In an instant, he had a knee in her upper back and was holding her right arm straight up.
"Now, no need for you to get hurt," Sheng said, coughing a little from the frost on his face. "Stay calm. Don't struggle."
"I don't think I like you very much," Haley snapped. She wasn't at all certain she could use winds force him up off her without getting caught in the tornado herself but there was another effect she had been wanting to try. She siphoned all the air away from from around Sheng's head and kept more air from flowing in to replace it.
Still flesh and blood despite being in his dense state, Sheng staggered back, pawing at his face but unable to draw in a breath. A normal Human might have had one or both lungs collapse from the sudden vaccuum. Aware of how dangerous some of her effects could be, Haley let his air return as she rolled over and got back up on her feet. The long blue cloak had become tangled around her legs and she tugged on it with some difficulty to get free.
In the next second, as the two of them glared at each other, a scrawny old man in an oversized cardigan came out of the red Ferrari Italia 458 and screeched, "Why are you two fighting? Idiots! Can't you see you're on the same side?"
Taken offguard once again, Haley stared at the senior and had no idea what to say.
"Now I get it," Sheng said. "You've got the Air Gem. But you can't be one of the Heirs of Buliwyf, you're just a kid."
"Kid or not, I've been throwing you all over the place!" Haley barked. "How'd you like to inhale some air from a volcano! Hah?"
>"Young people today,"< grumbled Uncle Pao before switching back to English. "Young lady, this is my nephew Sheng Mo-Yuan, known sometimes as Argent. He is a Tel Shai knight and a member of the Kenneth Dred Foundation."
"Kenneth...?" she repeated. "Hold on. You know a guy named Jeremy Bane?"
"He's my captain," Sheng replied with such easy conviction that Haley believed him.
"I...I guess we shouldn't be fighting. I want to join the KDF. Jeremy said he'd start the process when I turn eighteen."
"You're still a minor? What are you doing running around by yourself in the middle of the night?" demanded Sheng.
"How is it any of your business?! Glenville is MY town. Better stay out of my way." Haley flung her cloak back and swirling air gathered around her legs as she prepared to take off.
"I know where Babe Lincoln is going to strike," said Sheng, making Windcatcher hesitate.
"Yeah?" asked Haley. "And where might that be?"
The Chujiran detective was straightening his jacket sleeves and reknotting his tie. "We're getting off on the wrong foot. Don't you think we should work together or at least co-operate? After all, if you're applying for KDF membership, I'm going to be one of the team voting on your admission."
"Hmmm. I guess.... Okay. My name is Haley Lawson, I'm Lisa Lawson's daughter. She was one of the Heirs of Buliwyf. Like you said, I own the Air Gem now."
"Great powers should be used sparingly and responsibly," added Uncle Pao.
"See, that's what I say!" Haley agreed. "What's the deal then? You wanna team up and go chase this Babe Lincoln?"
The old man chuckled. "Even cats and dogs may hunt together. My nephew does have his sources. There are only four serious collectors of Midnight War talismans on Long Island, isn't that right?"
"Absolutely," Sheng agreed. "One of them has a large family on hand which discourages discreet burglars, another is known for having up to date security and a third keeps his collection in Manhattan. But the fourth one, Elmer Schober, seems to live very quietly by himself. He's an older bird, he's definitely the best prospect to rob."
"Really? I bet you don't even know where he lives," scoffed Haley.
"He's known in the community as Old Man Schoeber. 1222 Stuyvesant Lane. Big house on a rise overlooking Route 311, down at the end of the road."
"Hah! Thanks, sucker. You can arrive in time to applaud as I bring Babe Lincoln in." With a roar of tornado winds that blew dust everywhere, Windcatcher shot straight up and was gone from sight in a blink.
V.
Swooping down out of the black sky, Haley lowered her legs and cut her speed to come to a perfect landing without stumbling or having to tuck and roll. And no one was there to see it! How annoying. She was standing by the side of the highway, gazing at a slight elevation twenty yards back at the end of a gravel drive. It wasn't someone's house. It was a small brick structure with a wooden porch extension on the front and a signpost reading VANWICK REALTY. And there was the number that Sheng guy had used, 1222. What the heck?
A few minutes later, the red Ferrari rolled up with the smooth growl of a finely-tuned engine. As the headlights snapped off, Haley strode stiff-legged in annoyance toward it. "Hey, genius!" she yelled. "This isn't anyone's house? What's your problem?"
"The problem is that we wanted to see if we could trust you," Sheng shot back. With Uncle Pao following, he came up to Windcatcher and thrust his fists to his hips in a pugnacious stance. "If you think you have a chance of joining the KDF, you're going to have to learn to work as part of a team."
"Oh, you devious little guy," she snapped. It was true that Haley at five foot eight stood a few inches taller than Sheng but mentioning it just showed her lack of tact. "Working with the Dire Wolf is much better. At least I can trust what he says."
"Young lady, if I may speak without offending?" asked Uncle Pao. "I see that both you and my nephew are both strong-willed and independent. But even proud generals and kings are wise enough to work with those they may not like. Will you not join us? Please come with us and we will find this burglar quickly."
"Hmmmm," she growled. "I suppose. Although I don't need you guys. I can handle things perfectly well on my own, I'm not a baby."
"Look, I'm sorry about calling you a kid," Sheng offered. "But honestly, Uncle and I could use your help. You're wielding one of the greatest talismans in the Midnight War and I would feel better having you beside us."
Haley folded her arms and tapped one foot. "Oh, all right. Wait. Let me see some ID first, for all I know you're the bad guys."
Standing in front of the Italia's headlights, she carefully examined Sheng's leather billfold. There was his New York State Private Investigator's license, membership card for the Kenneth Dred Foundation ("a non-profit research organization"), a folded civilian consultant document from the NYPD as well as a standard driver's license. "I'm convinced," she conceded, handing the billfold back. "I'll try to get along as best I can."
Haley had thought the red sports car was a two-seater but it turned out to have two rear passenger seats with slightly limited leg room. Settling into the posh interior, she could not help asking, "How much do these wheels cost anyway?"
"I got my baby for two hundred and twenty thousand, although she did have one previous owner for eight months," said Sheng as he eased out onto the highway. "Of course, our Trom member has made some modifications. Bullet-resistant acrylic windows and Kevlar panels, some advanced communications systems, that sort of thing."
"No hidden machine guns, though?"
"Heh. No, and I did ask a few times. I can remotely trigger jets of our anesthetic gas from the sides and rear, but I've never had to use that. Haley, I wanted to ask about the Heirs of Buliwyf. Mind telling me how they are?"
Windcatcher had gotten comfortable and resigned herself to being polite. "They're all alive and well. My mom had the Air Gem. That's how I got it. My cousin Jimmy lives up in White Plains, he still has the Fire Gem. Uncle Charles and his wife Cathy have the Earth and Water Gems. But they haven't used the jewels for ages."
"That's one of the unsolved mysteries of the Midnight War," Sheng said tentatively. "For a few years, the Heirs of Buliwyf were very active. They weren't fighters but they did valuable exploration of the adjacent realms and some rescue work. Then they dropped out of sight."
"I wish I knew what happened," Haley admitted, leaning forward. "Mom changes the subject and says she'll explain when the time is right. I don't know what to think."
Uncle Pao put unusual gentleness in his voice. "It is hard for parents to know the right thing to do and to say. Many times they must bite their tongues and hold back words. Even uncles know the difficulty."
"I guess. I just hate hearing, 'when you're older...' It bugs me. So, anyway, where are we going?"
"We just passed it," Sheng said. "See that house with aluminum siding?"
Swiveling to look out the back window, Haley muttered, "Yeah."
"That's Schoeber's place. I kept going because I saw a white van parked by the house. His file says he drives an old blue Hyundai. So I didn't slow down because if Babe Lincoln IS there, she might see us and get nervous and run for it."
"What? Really? So, aren't we going to go back and grab her?"
Sheng had pulled over to a flat area beneath an impressive maple tree. "Yes. Now, Uncle Pao, I will need you here. If the police stop to see why you're parked here, tell them you wanted to make a phone call. You think quickly. If I call you, though, that means we're in trouble and you need to come get us. You're our back-up."
"I will find a better radio station while you are tip-toeing through the dark with this young lady, nephew."
Squeezing out from behind the steering wheel, Sheng raised one accusatory finger. "Oh. And I know how fast this car can accelerate, there is no need to test it."
As Uncle Pao got out to cross over to the driver's side, Haley also emerged from the car and straightened out the long cloak she had wrapped around her lap while riding. She was almost hopping up and down in excitement. "I'll go to the far sie of the house where she can't see me land. There's woods close enough to hide me." A swirl of accelerating gale force air whipped around her feet.
"Hold on, Haley. I have to mention it. I'M the one who can turn bulletproof. It'd be safer if I approached her first."
"Too much wind. Can't hear you!" she called down as she plunged up into darkness.
"She wasn't spanked enough as a child," grumbled Sheng. He drew on his Argent power to enhance speed and tore off along the highway as fast as his Ferrari could have matched.
At one hundred feet up, Windcatcher passed over Schoeber's house, which was lit by a single cast iron lamp over the front door. Kind of a dump, she thought. That lawn looked like it had given up on life and the small patio had all kinds of clutter. But more interesting a sight was a tall figure in dark clothes who was doing something to a window on the side away from the highway.
Forgetting what she had said about stealing up unseen in her enthusiasm, Haley dropped down with a whoosh that sent stray leaves and small debris whirling away. She landed well enough, if a bit too hard for her arches' comfort, and threw back in her cloak in her favorite dramatic pose.
The woman whirled around at the rush of air which swept over her. In the gloom, she was revealed as tall and lean in a black long-sleeved shirt and tight pants. A deep canvas satchel was slung from a strap across her chest. Under dark red curly hair, a long face gaped with visibly startled eyes. "Where did YOU come from?"
"Oh, you know, dropping down from the sky," Haley answered. "Babe Lincoln, right? I hear the police would be all excited to ask you some questions."
"Listen to you. What, are you fifteen?"
"SEVENTEEN!" shouted Haley. "Ooooh, you rubbed my fur the wrong way."
Babe Lincoln laughed easily. "I'll do more than what. Here, take a good look." The thief held up her left arm to reveal a small dark object which burned with five tiny flames. It was grisly, the dried withered hand of a hanged man made into candles with tallow from the man's melted body fat.
As Haley took in a breath to make a disgusted noise, she froze into place. Paralyzed as if bound tightly with invisible ropes. It was terrifying, her arms and legs did not respond to the way she wanted them to move.
"This is the Hand of Glory!" taunted Babe Lincoln. "Deeper Black Magick than anything you have heard of, little girl. When I enter a house, all its occupants lie still as statues so they won't get in my way."
"I hadn't thought of that," Haley managed to gasp. She was still able to breathe and to move her eyes, but the rest of her body felt numb and stiff beyond hope. "But you're using the talismans you've been stealing."
The master thief held the gruesome talisman higher. "And now, I'm sorry to say, you've gotten a good look at my face. That won't do. I have no idea who you are but it doesn't matter now." With her other hand, she reached down a small holster on her belt and unsnapped its fastener to yank up a black .32 revolver. Without aiming or hesitating, Babe Lincoln blasted off three shots directly at the helpless Windcatcher.
V.
For one hellish split-second, Haley was certain she had been killed as she was slammed down hard to the gravel. But something big and heavy was on top of her. And her chest didn't hurt. She gasped and realized Sheng was jumping up off of her and getting on his feet. She was alive! She hadn't even been shot.
For the moment, her mind couldn't quite process what had happened. Then she saw Sheng frozen awkwardly into place with one arm raised and his knees bent. He must have seen that horrible Hand of Glory thing. Sight of it had paralyzed him as well, and now they were both helpless with Babe Lincoln free to kill them.
She did not need to be able to move to use her Windcatcher abilities. Her panicky mind tapped the ancient Air Gem and summoned a burst of freezing air from the Antarctic. Hundred mile per hour winds at forty below zero roared over Babe Lincoln to send her flying off her feet and crashing against the house as if she had been struck by a speeding bus. Snow whirled everywhere in the whiteout.
Just like that, she could move again. It was freezing. That small area around her had been gone from warm Summer night to the bitterest depths of winter in a flash.
Haley rolled over on her hands and knees to get up. It was just beginning to sink in how much had happened in a few seconds. Sheng was moving again. She was him hurry over to yank the satchel free off Babe Lincoln, then seize the Hand of Glory and thrust it inside.
She could see her breath, but already the normal air of the area was drifting back in and it was getting warmer. "She shot me. She shot me. But you showed up... andv then what happened?"
"I took the bullets." Sheng pulled his suit jacket open to reveal three ragged holes in his shirt high up on his chest. "I told you I could become bulletproof. It's my gralic power. You're just damn lucky I ran here in time to intervene! You'd be dead right now otherwise."
"Don't yell at me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry," her voice cracked as she got a bad case of the shakes realized how close she had come to being killed. "Thank you."
Sheng's voice softened. "Good thing you hit her with that blizzard. She's unconscious from the shock but I think she'll be all right." As Haley watched, Sheng tugged off Babe Lincoln's belt and deftly tied her wrists together behind her back with it. Then he removed her shoes and socks to tie her big toes together with the shoelaces. Once he was satisfied she was secured, he relaxed a little.
"Whew," he said. "That was a busy few minutes. Her breathing is clear and her pulse is steady. She seems to be about thirty and in good health. My bet is she'll recover in a minute. But we need to get out of here."
Humbled for the moment by her close call, Haley wrapped her cloak around herself for warmth. The thin layer of snow she had brought was already beginning to melt. "What was that awful thing she used?"
"Oh, it's called a Hand of Glory. It's Black Magic, all right. I see a few other occult talismans in this bag, here hold it."
As she reluctantly took the satchel by its strap, she watched Sheng quickly frisk the moaning Babe Lincoln and then go over to search her van. "Nothing else. I guess she kept all her talismans on her. Come on, we better get walking."
"I could... No, you're right. Let's walk. We're just going to leave her there?"
"For right now. As soon as we get back to my car, I'll put in an anonymous call to the police reporting an intruder. My Link can't be identified or traced. There's all kinds of burglar equipment in her van and they've been looking for her. We'll hear about her arrest in the news."
Up ahead, Haley spotted the red Ferrari sitting where they had left it. The tousled white-haired head of Uncle Pao was protruding from the driver's window, watching them approach. Finally, a feeling of relief and safety flooded over her. "Everything worked out, I guess. You caught the bullets and saved me but then I blasted her while you couldn't move. That's teamwork in action, you know?"
"You might work out with the KDF after all," Sheng admitted. "Sometimes I forget what I was like when I signed up. I wasn't much older than you and I thought I knew everything."
Already regaining her spirits, Haley was beginning to swing the satchel as she walked. In it, the Hand of Glory and other mystic talismans were safely out of Babe Lincoln's possession.
5/15/2023
6/2-6/3/2012
I.
"The super-hero poses are very dramatic, Hales, but they don't get the job done."
Pouting at the snark from her best friend forever, Windcatcher lowered her fists from her hips and threw the heavy blue cloak back over her shoulders. At seventeen, slender and long-legged in snug blue shorts and a long-sleeved white pullover, Haley Lawson had the confidence of youth that nothing really bad could happen to her. No matter how much she asked for it.
Her rich auburn hair blazed in the early September sunlight, and under heavy bangs a pair of lime green eyes winked at Gina and Bentley. "Okay, I'm gonna try it. Not sure how well this will work out."
"That's why we're sitting way over here," called Gina from forty feet away.
"Oh ye of little faith..." Haley grumbled, moving up to a waist high boulder that was standing by an outcropping at the edge of the meadow. "See, I got this idea because of something my mom did when she was in high school. One winter, the driver's door of her car was covered with ice. No way to open. She thought it would be a good idea to bring up a soup pan of boiling water from the house and pour it all over."
Bentley laughed out loud at the thought and Gina smirked in her own subdued way.
"Yeah! She got the door open and drove to school BUT the window on the driver's door was shattered into a million little bits. So, let me take what Mom learned the hard way and put it to good use." She touched the soft choker under her shirt collar to contact the unimaginably ancient Air Gem and concentrated. Over an active volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, air at a temperature just under two thousand degrees was mystically siphoned the great distance to flow over that rock. The surface turned bright cherry red instantly, and the shape of the rock visibly sagged.
"That's part one," Haley announced and then launched a blast of wind from an Antarctic storm. Eighty degrees below zero, that air struck the superheated rock which exploded like a grenade and sent shards whizzing off in all directions. Haley yelped and jumped back too late to have done any good.
"Haley, come on!" screamed Gina. "Are you TRYING to kill us?!"
"Sorry, sorry, you guys aren't hurt?"
"No. I'm okay. Bentley, did you get hit by any of that?"
The gawky eighteen year old was patting his arms and legs tentatively, looking for blood. "I'm good. But man, that was close. I heard a piece of rock buzz by me and it sounded like a bee."
Haley Lawson herself noticed a gash in the fabric of her blue cloak, down by the lower hem. As sublimely confident as she was, the thought did pass through her head that a sharp fragment of rock could have taken out someone's eye or sliced across an artery. But it hadn't. And as quickly as that, she moved on.
"Okay, okay, I guess my next experiments will be conducted a wee leetle bit more carefully. I think I can manipulate hot and cold air masses enough to cause lightning strikes..."
"Time for us to go!" yelled Gina, hopping to her feet. She was a petite curvy Junior at Haley's high school, with the full wavy hair that came from being full Italian generations back. She was yanking on her boyfriend's arm as if she had spotted a brown bear emerging from the woods.
The Windcatcher trotted over to her friends, waving her hands. "Not today, not today, I swear. That's enough for right now. What we need to experiment on is pizza. How does that sound?"
Both Gina and Bentley came to a halt. "It's always a good time for pizza," the boy agreed. We skipped lunch to come out here and it must be four o'clock by now."
"Out of deference to our jangled nerves, I will not fly us down to the Village Pizza joint but we will walk with our feet solid on the ground. Sound like a plan?"
Gina began tugging Bentley in the opposite direction, toward the long sloping h
ill which led down to Glenville. He didn't mind. He had gotten used to her pulling on his arm to make he was going along with her impulses. "Say, Haley," Gina said, "I was wondering. If you got to be really good with your Air Gem, I mean like perfectly in control, couldn't you make the weather better? Couldn't you stop droughts and break up hurricanes and stuff?"
Unsnapping her cloak and rolling it up to carry under one arm, Windcatcher sighed. "You'd think so, ya know? But Mom said that she tried it when she had the Gem, and things went wrong every time. If she tried to stop a hurricane, she could split it up but it would surge back stronger than before. Redirecting floods caused just as much damage somewhere else. One time she tried to divert a Northeaster, big winter storm ya know? and it split into TWO Northeasters and got much worse."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Bentley offered. "I know you've got a good heart, Haley. You want to help people."
"Thanks. But it seems like weather is just too big and too complicated to mess with. Maybe someday, I'll try starting small and see what I can do. But for now, I think the Air Gem has to be used carefully. With great power...."
"Yeah, we know the quote," Gina laughed. "I still think you need to start reading some real books for a change."
Heading down the hill toward Church Road, Haley said, "Have you guys seen on the local news about this burglar called Babe Lincoln...?"
II.
>"This is the unluckiest room I have ever seen!"< fumed Uncle Pao. >"Number 404 on the fourth floor! The windows face south. And look, the feet of the beds point toward the bathroom door. This is a death trap. I'm surprised the maids don't wear white for mourning."<
Putting down the suitcases and shrugging out of his knapsack, Sheng glanced around. >"I don't know much about that Feng Shui business,"< he admitted, >"And I'm sure the Holiday Inn didn't take it into account when drawing up the blueprints."<
Pao ran bony fingers through the shock of white hair which stuck out in several directions as if he had taken a vow never to use a comb. >"Ahhhh, at least it seems clean. Look, the sink has been scrubbed today. I will survive the bad luck for one night.<"
Dutiflly inspecting the bathroom, Sheng Mo-Yuan loosened his tie and undid the top button of his tan dress shirt. He was wearing his favorite dark brown suit with its matching vest. At five feet five, Sheng had taken to wearing two inch lifts in his shoes because he honestly felt he could use some help dealing with tall Americans over six feet. >"I took this room for two days, Uncle,"< he continued in Cantonese. >"But we may not need to stay here that long. It depends on finding Babe Lincoln right away."<
>"The criminal's name is a crude pun, nephew. There was an American president named Abe Lincoln."<
>"Yes, thank you, Uncle." Sheng kicked off his polished shoes and gratefully sank down on the edge of one of the twin beds. It had been a two hour drive from Manhattan to this end of Long Island. "Oh, that's better. Yeah, I seem to draw all the whacky criminals for some reason. The Punster, Casey Strangle, Pete and Repeat, Pumpkinface, the Pelican..."<
>"Be grateful that your friend the Dire Wolf handles the genuinely scary madmen. Samhain, Sepulchre, Golgora...."<
>"And he's welcome to them."< Sheng stretched out luxuriously on the bed and released a heartfelt sigh that was quashed by the disapproving tsk from the other bed.
>"This menu is a disgrace,"< he announced. >"Not a bit of Real Food to be seen."<
Switching to English as he relaxed, Sheng said, "I saw a Chinese restaurant on the main street. The RED ROSE, I think. We can see what it's like."
"Feh. It will be a mess designed to suit undeveloped Western palates with only a few hints of Real Food. I know. It will be as bad as Burger Hell but with cheap white rice and soggy vegetables. So it goes." The old man got up on his own bed and began experimenting with the remote control.
"I don't know much about this Babe Lincoln. The only description we have from one witness is that she's above middle height and has red hair. Not much to work with. So far, she has robbed three collectors of genuine Midnight War talismans. Always in the middle of the night, too. She sneaks in and snatches and then runs for it before any burglar alarms can bring help. There's a funny touch involved too, she leaves a three by five card with a sketch of a stovepipe hat and the signature 'Babe Lincoln,' so at least she has some sense of humor."
Uncle Pao was making disgusted noises at the TV. "Eighty channels of trash. Feh. I might as well leave the Weather Channel on, at least they are not lying as much as the news channels."
"So, Babe Lincoln has committed all her robberies in the general Metropolitan area. I see a few helpful common factors. All the talismans were made by Humans, not by Darthim or Eldanarin, so they're not as valuable but they're also not as dangerous. She seems to be placing some distance between each crime. The first was up in White Plains, the second near Times Square and the last one was down by the Battery. So, I'd guess either New Jersey or Long Island is likely."
"My old friend Harry Hung would have pinpointed the next burglary to the exact minute."
"Yes. Thank you, Uncle. I've found out there are a few Midnight War collectors on the island and the most tempting to me seems to be Sheldon Reinhardt, here in Glenville. For one thing, this is his summer home and he stays here mostly during July and August. The rest of the year, he has his business upstate. All three burglaries have taken place on Sunday night and of course, that's tonight."
Uncle Pao snorted in complete disdain. "Nephew, you are not entirely without deductive skills. It has been three years since you opened our Chuan Lo-Tsing agency..."
Sheng almost interrupted at hearing Fist For Hire as 'our' agency but prudently let it slide.
"...and you have had many successes. True, it must be said that it is your physical prowess more than your mental sharpness which has done this. Being able to become bulletproof or strong enough to throw a motorcycle across a street is a great advantage. Your Argent powers are not to be dismissed..."
Almost starting to drift off, Sheng made himself sit up and took deeper breaths.
"..I am pleased at the way you are finally beginning to regard beautiful young women with some suspicion rather than simply believing every word they say..."
"Uncle, are you hungry? We could try that Chinese restaurant we saw. Many places have a separate menu not meant for the average white American customer."
That perked the old man up. Suprisingly nimble for someone in his seventies, Pao was up and on his feet in a blink. Behind the thick round-lensed glasses, his eyes brightened. "A worthy thought, nephew. We should investigate. Some Real Food is good for both body and spirit."
Sheng was putting his shoes back on. "It's not even dark out. When we get back, I'll grab a few hours sleep before setting out to look for this Babe Lincoln burglar."
III.
Her mother wasn't thrilled at Haley leaving the house alone at night when the crusading fervor struck, but then Lisa Lawson remembered her own past. She had been two years younger than Haley was when the Heirs of Buliwyf had recovered the four mystic talismans. Looking back, Lisa was amazed at how many dangerous situations she had blithely strolled into and how often she had come within a hair of severe injuries or death. Lisa knew Haley was quick-thinking and had the overwhelming powers of the Air Gem to protect her, and of course they both knew that a single phone call would have mother racing in her car to go get her daughter.
Still.... It wasn't easy. Nights when Lisa looked at her bedroom door and saw the light under the crack that meant Haley had turned on a living room lamp before leaving, sleep would not be coming until she saw that gleam under the door wink out again.
High over the rooftops of a slumbering Glenville, Windcatcher whizzed through the air with her cloak flapping behind her. She was siphoning winds from a Kansas tornado and, although they peaked at two hundred miles per hour, she had learned how to lessen them around her. Haley was gliding over her hometown at about the same speed of a car on the highway. Flying wasn't effortless by any means. Aside from the mental focus needed to summon the winds and to keep them coherent, Haley had to keep her body stiffened like a high diver with her legs out straight behind her and her arms moving to help control her flight. It was a huge strain on her lower back and her abs, and she ached ruefully each day after using her powers.
A three-quarters moon and a clear sky gave excellent viewing. Haley kept a sharp eye for any suspicious activity but honestly, she had to admit Glenville was snoozy and boring, and its inhabitants liked it that way. There were no men with stocking masks running out of the Island Credit Union with sacks of money in their hands. No black limos meeting behind the Pharmacy with mobsters examining a shipment of heroin. Not even a stealthy figure lurking in the shadows, looking for a helpless damsel to chase. Nope. It seemed that everyone was sound asleep except her.
The one barely interesting moment came as she watched a bright red sports car roar up along Main Street. Very snappy looking, she thought, but it continued north toward the way out of town and the driver was neither speeding nor showing signs of being drunk at the wheel.
After twenty minutes, as she neared the Lutheran Church on the north end of town, Windcatcher admitted she needed a break. There, on the ridge of the church roof, she lowered her legs and dropped down, slowing as best she could. Not bad. She landed without stumbling or having to windmill her arms for balance. Sitting down next to the ten foot high gilded cross, Haley exhaled in relief. Her calves were cramping up and she kneaded them.
It had been three months since she had found the Air Gem by chance while rummaging through their attic. She had no idea at first that it was more than a gorgeous faceted gem that resembled blue tourmaline. But the gem had bonded with her. She couldn't stop staring into its depths and fiddling with it, and inevitably her mother had seen her toying with the stone. The story of the Heirs of Buliwyf, a family of explorers and rescue workers in the Midnight War twenty years earlier, had been reluctantly revealed.
And because Lisa had packed the Air Gem away and had not had contact with it for years, er mystic bond with it had faded. The talisman had immediately latched on to Haley's life force and would not work for anyone else. She was the new Windcatcher. The best that Lisa Lawson could do was to instruct her imaginative but basically responsible daughter how to use the ancient jewel and how to keep as safe as possible. So far, she had not gotten into any serious trouble.
Perched atop the old Lutheran Church where she had attended as a girl, Haley wondered if she was wasting her time. If this Babe Lincoln was out and about, what were the odds she would be anywhere near Glenville? Then Haley dropped into a low crouch next to the cross. That red sports car had come back and swerved into the church parking lot with a screech of brakes.
Was it Babe Lincoln? wondered Haley, thinking that somehow the famous thief had been following her all this time. But how? Who even knew about Windcatcher yet? From the car, a taut figure of a man in a business suit hurtled toward the church faster than any Olympic athlete. Crouching down, he sprang straight up without any effort to catch hold of the sloping roof and scrambled straight toward her.
She had no way of knowing that Sheng Mo-Yuan had shifted the focus of gralic energy in his body into increased stength. Much more powerful than what his still-normal weight required, he was capable of more prodigious leaps than that. She knew only that this strange, seemingly superhuman man was attacking her. Instinctively, she unleashed a blast of tornado wind that howled straight into the man and hurled him back off the roof fifty feet before he dropped.
Even as she heard the thud of the body hitting the asphalt far below, Haley Lawson felt awful. What had she done? She could have lifted herself up out of reach instead, but there hadn't been time to think. Now, maybe she had killed someone. Drawing on just enough wind, she glided down off the roof to a soft landing in the parking lot and was gobsmacked to see the stranger getting up as if he had merely stumbled and fallen on his back.
As soon as he had found himself being blown off the roof, Sheng had switched his gralic charge to extreme resilience. He was resistant to harm in that state, not literally invulnerable but dense enough to survive rifle bullets. His body cracked the asphalt when he hit and the breath was knocked out of him for a second, but he was up on his feet as Windcatcher touched down almost within reach.
"Well, I see how you've been pulling off these burglaries," he called out. "No more tricks! I didn't realize you're Midnight War, Babe Lincoln."
IV.
"Dude, what the hell?" demanded Haley. "How are you not hurt?"
"Never mind that. I can't arrest you but as a licensed PI, I can use reasonable force to detain you until the police arrive." Sheng took three quick steps forward before a withering blast of sub-zero gale force wind shoved him back again. Moisture in the warm summer air froze into a layer of frost over his body. Still in an impervious state, he wasn't dazed or slowed at all. With a pounce, he leaped on top of Windcatcher, kicking one foot back out from under her so she fell face down. In an instant, he had a knee in her upper back and was holding her right arm straight up.
"Now, no need for you to get hurt," Sheng said, coughing a little from the frost on his face. "Stay calm. Don't struggle."
"I don't think I like you very much," Haley snapped. She wasn't at all certain she could use winds force him up off her without getting caught in the tornado herself but there was another effect she had been wanting to try. She siphoned all the air away from from around Sheng's head and kept more air from flowing in to replace it.
Still flesh and blood despite being in his dense state, Sheng staggered back, pawing at his face but unable to draw in a breath. A normal Human might have had one or both lungs collapse from the sudden vaccuum. Aware of how dangerous some of her effects could be, Haley let his air return as she rolled over and got back up on her feet. The long blue cloak had become tangled around her legs and she tugged on it with some difficulty to get free.
In the next second, as the two of them glared at each other, a scrawny old man in an oversized cardigan came out of the red Ferrari Italia 458 and screeched, "Why are you two fighting? Idiots! Can't you see you're on the same side?"
Taken offguard once again, Haley stared at the senior and had no idea what to say.
"Now I get it," Sheng said. "You've got the Air Gem. But you can't be one of the Heirs of Buliwyf, you're just a kid."
"Kid or not, I've been throwing you all over the place!" Haley barked. "How'd you like to inhale some air from a volcano! Hah?"
>"Young people today,"< grumbled Uncle Pao before switching back to English. "Young lady, this is my nephew Sheng Mo-Yuan, known sometimes as Argent. He is a Tel Shai knight and a member of the Kenneth Dred Foundation."
"Kenneth...?" she repeated. "Hold on. You know a guy named Jeremy Bane?"
"He's my captain," Sheng replied with such easy conviction that Haley believed him.
"I...I guess we shouldn't be fighting. I want to join the KDF. Jeremy said he'd start the process when I turn eighteen."
"You're still a minor? What are you doing running around by yourself in the middle of the night?" demanded Sheng.
"How is it any of your business?! Glenville is MY town. Better stay out of my way." Haley flung her cloak back and swirling air gathered around her legs as she prepared to take off.
"I know where Babe Lincoln is going to strike," said Sheng, making Windcatcher hesitate.
"Yeah?" asked Haley. "And where might that be?"
The Chujiran detective was straightening his jacket sleeves and reknotting his tie. "We're getting off on the wrong foot. Don't you think we should work together or at least co-operate? After all, if you're applying for KDF membership, I'm going to be one of the team voting on your admission."
"Hmmm. I guess.... Okay. My name is Haley Lawson, I'm Lisa Lawson's daughter. She was one of the Heirs of Buliwyf. Like you said, I own the Air Gem now."
"Great powers should be used sparingly and responsibly," added Uncle Pao.
"See, that's what I say!" Haley agreed. "What's the deal then? You wanna team up and go chase this Babe Lincoln?"
The old man chuckled. "Even cats and dogs may hunt together. My nephew does have his sources. There are only four serious collectors of Midnight War talismans on Long Island, isn't that right?"
"Absolutely," Sheng agreed. "One of them has a large family on hand which discourages discreet burglars, another is known for having up to date security and a third keeps his collection in Manhattan. But the fourth one, Elmer Schober, seems to live very quietly by himself. He's an older bird, he's definitely the best prospect to rob."
"Really? I bet you don't even know where he lives," scoffed Haley.
"He's known in the community as Old Man Schoeber. 1222 Stuyvesant Lane. Big house on a rise overlooking Route 311, down at the end of the road."
"Hah! Thanks, sucker. You can arrive in time to applaud as I bring Babe Lincoln in." With a roar of tornado winds that blew dust everywhere, Windcatcher shot straight up and was gone from sight in a blink.
V.
Swooping down out of the black sky, Haley lowered her legs and cut her speed to come to a perfect landing without stumbling or having to tuck and roll. And no one was there to see it! How annoying. She was standing by the side of the highway, gazing at a slight elevation twenty yards back at the end of a gravel drive. It wasn't someone's house. It was a small brick structure with a wooden porch extension on the front and a signpost reading VANWICK REALTY. And there was the number that Sheng guy had used, 1222. What the heck?
A few minutes later, the red Ferrari rolled up with the smooth growl of a finely-tuned engine. As the headlights snapped off, Haley strode stiff-legged in annoyance toward it. "Hey, genius!" she yelled. "This isn't anyone's house? What's your problem?"
"The problem is that we wanted to see if we could trust you," Sheng shot back. With Uncle Pao following, he came up to Windcatcher and thrust his fists to his hips in a pugnacious stance. "If you think you have a chance of joining the KDF, you're going to have to learn to work as part of a team."
"Oh, you devious little guy," she snapped. It was true that Haley at five foot eight stood a few inches taller than Sheng but mentioning it just showed her lack of tact. "Working with the Dire Wolf is much better. At least I can trust what he says."
"Young lady, if I may speak without offending?" asked Uncle Pao. "I see that both you and my nephew are both strong-willed and independent. But even proud generals and kings are wise enough to work with those they may not like. Will you not join us? Please come with us and we will find this burglar quickly."
"Hmmmm," she growled. "I suppose. Although I don't need you guys. I can handle things perfectly well on my own, I'm not a baby."
"Look, I'm sorry about calling you a kid," Sheng offered. "But honestly, Uncle and I could use your help. You're wielding one of the greatest talismans in the Midnight War and I would feel better having you beside us."
Haley folded her arms and tapped one foot. "Oh, all right. Wait. Let me see some ID first, for all I know you're the bad guys."
Standing in front of the Italia's headlights, she carefully examined Sheng's leather billfold. There was his New York State Private Investigator's license, membership card for the Kenneth Dred Foundation ("a non-profit research organization"), a folded civilian consultant document from the NYPD as well as a standard driver's license. "I'm convinced," she conceded, handing the billfold back. "I'll try to get along as best I can."
Haley had thought the red sports car was a two-seater but it turned out to have two rear passenger seats with slightly limited leg room. Settling into the posh interior, she could not help asking, "How much do these wheels cost anyway?"
"I got my baby for two hundred and twenty thousand, although she did have one previous owner for eight months," said Sheng as he eased out onto the highway. "Of course, our Trom member has made some modifications. Bullet-resistant acrylic windows and Kevlar panels, some advanced communications systems, that sort of thing."
"No hidden machine guns, though?"
"Heh. No, and I did ask a few times. I can remotely trigger jets of our anesthetic gas from the sides and rear, but I've never had to use that. Haley, I wanted to ask about the Heirs of Buliwyf. Mind telling me how they are?"
Windcatcher had gotten comfortable and resigned herself to being polite. "They're all alive and well. My mom had the Air Gem. That's how I got it. My cousin Jimmy lives up in White Plains, he still has the Fire Gem. Uncle Charles and his wife Cathy have the Earth and Water Gems. But they haven't used the jewels for ages."
"That's one of the unsolved mysteries of the Midnight War," Sheng said tentatively. "For a few years, the Heirs of Buliwyf were very active. They weren't fighters but they did valuable exploration of the adjacent realms and some rescue work. Then they dropped out of sight."
"I wish I knew what happened," Haley admitted, leaning forward. "Mom changes the subject and says she'll explain when the time is right. I don't know what to think."
Uncle Pao put unusual gentleness in his voice. "It is hard for parents to know the right thing to do and to say. Many times they must bite their tongues and hold back words. Even uncles know the difficulty."
"I guess. I just hate hearing, 'when you're older...' It bugs me. So, anyway, where are we going?"
"We just passed it," Sheng said. "See that house with aluminum siding?"
Swiveling to look out the back window, Haley muttered, "Yeah."
"That's Schoeber's place. I kept going because I saw a white van parked by the house. His file says he drives an old blue Hyundai. So I didn't slow down because if Babe Lincoln IS there, she might see us and get nervous and run for it."
"What? Really? So, aren't we going to go back and grab her?"
Sheng had pulled over to a flat area beneath an impressive maple tree. "Yes. Now, Uncle Pao, I will need you here. If the police stop to see why you're parked here, tell them you wanted to make a phone call. You think quickly. If I call you, though, that means we're in trouble and you need to come get us. You're our back-up."
"I will find a better radio station while you are tip-toeing through the dark with this young lady, nephew."
Squeezing out from behind the steering wheel, Sheng raised one accusatory finger. "Oh. And I know how fast this car can accelerate, there is no need to test it."
As Uncle Pao got out to cross over to the driver's side, Haley also emerged from the car and straightened out the long cloak she had wrapped around her lap while riding. She was almost hopping up and down in excitement. "I'll go to the far sie of the house where she can't see me land. There's woods close enough to hide me." A swirl of accelerating gale force air whipped around her feet.
"Hold on, Haley. I have to mention it. I'M the one who can turn bulletproof. It'd be safer if I approached her first."
"Too much wind. Can't hear you!" she called down as she plunged up into darkness.
"She wasn't spanked enough as a child," grumbled Sheng. He drew on his Argent power to enhance speed and tore off along the highway as fast as his Ferrari could have matched.
At one hundred feet up, Windcatcher passed over Schoeber's house, which was lit by a single cast iron lamp over the front door. Kind of a dump, she thought. That lawn looked like it had given up on life and the small patio had all kinds of clutter. But more interesting a sight was a tall figure in dark clothes who was doing something to a window on the side away from the highway.
Forgetting what she had said about stealing up unseen in her enthusiasm, Haley dropped down with a whoosh that sent stray leaves and small debris whirling away. She landed well enough, if a bit too hard for her arches' comfort, and threw back in her cloak in her favorite dramatic pose.
The woman whirled around at the rush of air which swept over her. In the gloom, she was revealed as tall and lean in a black long-sleeved shirt and tight pants. A deep canvas satchel was slung from a strap across her chest. Under dark red curly hair, a long face gaped with visibly startled eyes. "Where did YOU come from?"
"Oh, you know, dropping down from the sky," Haley answered. "Babe Lincoln, right? I hear the police would be all excited to ask you some questions."
"Listen to you. What, are you fifteen?"
"SEVENTEEN!" shouted Haley. "Ooooh, you rubbed my fur the wrong way."
Babe Lincoln laughed easily. "I'll do more than what. Here, take a good look." The thief held up her left arm to reveal a small dark object which burned with five tiny flames. It was grisly, the dried withered hand of a hanged man made into candles with tallow from the man's melted body fat.
As Haley took in a breath to make a disgusted noise, she froze into place. Paralyzed as if bound tightly with invisible ropes. It was terrifying, her arms and legs did not respond to the way she wanted them to move.
"This is the Hand of Glory!" taunted Babe Lincoln. "Deeper Black Magick than anything you have heard of, little girl. When I enter a house, all its occupants lie still as statues so they won't get in my way."
"I hadn't thought of that," Haley managed to gasp. She was still able to breathe and to move her eyes, but the rest of her body felt numb and stiff beyond hope. "But you're using the talismans you've been stealing."
The master thief held the gruesome talisman higher. "And now, I'm sorry to say, you've gotten a good look at my face. That won't do. I have no idea who you are but it doesn't matter now." With her other hand, she reached down a small holster on her belt and unsnapped its fastener to yank up a black .32 revolver. Without aiming or hesitating, Babe Lincoln blasted off three shots directly at the helpless Windcatcher.
V.
For one hellish split-second, Haley was certain she had been killed as she was slammed down hard to the gravel. But something big and heavy was on top of her. And her chest didn't hurt. She gasped and realized Sheng was jumping up off of her and getting on his feet. She was alive! She hadn't even been shot.
For the moment, her mind couldn't quite process what had happened. Then she saw Sheng frozen awkwardly into place with one arm raised and his knees bent. He must have seen that horrible Hand of Glory thing. Sight of it had paralyzed him as well, and now they were both helpless with Babe Lincoln free to kill them.
She did not need to be able to move to use her Windcatcher abilities. Her panicky mind tapped the ancient Air Gem and summoned a burst of freezing air from the Antarctic. Hundred mile per hour winds at forty below zero roared over Babe Lincoln to send her flying off her feet and crashing against the house as if she had been struck by a speeding bus. Snow whirled everywhere in the whiteout.
Just like that, she could move again. It was freezing. That small area around her had been gone from warm Summer night to the bitterest depths of winter in a flash.
Haley rolled over on her hands and knees to get up. It was just beginning to sink in how much had happened in a few seconds. Sheng was moving again. She was him hurry over to yank the satchel free off Babe Lincoln, then seize the Hand of Glory and thrust it inside.
She could see her breath, but already the normal air of the area was drifting back in and it was getting warmer. "She shot me. She shot me. But you showed up... andv then what happened?"
"I took the bullets." Sheng pulled his suit jacket open to reveal three ragged holes in his shirt high up on his chest. "I told you I could become bulletproof. It's my gralic power. You're just damn lucky I ran here in time to intervene! You'd be dead right now otherwise."
"Don't yell at me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry," her voice cracked as she got a bad case of the shakes realized how close she had come to being killed. "Thank you."
Sheng's voice softened. "Good thing you hit her with that blizzard. She's unconscious from the shock but I think she'll be all right." As Haley watched, Sheng tugged off Babe Lincoln's belt and deftly tied her wrists together behind her back with it. Then he removed her shoes and socks to tie her big toes together with the shoelaces. Once he was satisfied she was secured, he relaxed a little.
"Whew," he said. "That was a busy few minutes. Her breathing is clear and her pulse is steady. She seems to be about thirty and in good health. My bet is she'll recover in a minute. But we need to get out of here."
Humbled for the moment by her close call, Haley wrapped her cloak around herself for warmth. The thin layer of snow she had brought was already beginning to melt. "What was that awful thing she used?"
"Oh, it's called a Hand of Glory. It's Black Magic, all right. I see a few other occult talismans in this bag, here hold it."
As she reluctantly took the satchel by its strap, she watched Sheng quickly frisk the moaning Babe Lincoln and then go over to search her van. "Nothing else. I guess she kept all her talismans on her. Come on, we better get walking."
"I could... No, you're right. Let's walk. We're just going to leave her there?"
"For right now. As soon as we get back to my car, I'll put in an anonymous call to the police reporting an intruder. My Link can't be identified or traced. There's all kinds of burglar equipment in her van and they've been looking for her. We'll hear about her arrest in the news."
Up ahead, Haley spotted the red Ferrari sitting where they had left it. The tousled white-haired head of Uncle Pao was protruding from the driver's window, watching them approach. Finally, a feeling of relief and safety flooded over her. "Everything worked out, I guess. You caught the bullets and saved me but then I blasted her while you couldn't move. That's teamwork in action, you know?"
"You might work out with the KDF after all," Sheng admitted. "Sometimes I forget what I was like when I signed up. I wasn't much older than you and I thought I knew everything."
Already regaining her spirits, Haley was beginning to swing the satchel as she walked. In it, the Hand of Glory and other mystic talismans were safely out of Babe Lincoln's possession.
5/15/2023
