The Wizards 2: Wizard at Work Read online

  I certainly wasn’t happy that she’d gone off to stay with a cousin and had ended up sleeping with an old boyfriend. How we would work past that, or if we could do so at all, remained to be seen.

  Whatever relationship remained would depend on how we adjusted, first to what she’d done with Javier, second to the fact that she’d been slaughtering cartelistas as the Chupacabra.

  Javier was no longer a consideration; the drug cartel had seen to that. I wonder if he ever knew what he had done with that first killing? Or if he had realized that his newfound ability wasn’t enough to protect him when several members of the gang surrounded him?

  I had no idea how Ana Maria would adjust to Javier’s death…and the fact that she would at some point realize that his death had come about because she had slept with him.

  I had one thing left to try after Ana Maria’s amazing revelations.

 

  I waited, but nothing happened. Either Ana Maria’s Talent was limited to PK, or I wasn’t the one to wake any further Talents she might have. My own Talent was mostly PK and the two variations we knew about, the protective bubble and levitation. I could comm with Shezzie and T, but as for picking up anything from strangers, that had only happened when strong emotions were involved.

  I tried to comm Shezzie.

 

  I waited, but got no answer. Had something happened to affect my own Talent?

  There was only one other person I could try to connect with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

  I dropped the connection and glanced at Ana Maria.

  I don’t think she had even realized my attention was diverted. Still sunk in her own misery, she sat huddled in the chair. Maybe she hadn’t been able to process the things I’d shown her, the Talents I now possessed.

  “Ana Maria? There are some other things to tell you.”

  She finally looked directly at me.

  “Ray, I don’t expect you to forgive me. I think I had better go now. I’m even having hallucinations. Maybe I imagined killing those men. I wanted to! The drug cartels killed my sister, even though only one or two of them actually did it. They murder people with no thought. And the more terrible they act, the better they like it.

  “I’ve got to go. I’m sorry, Ray. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. You gave me love, and I gave you nothing but pain.”

  She stood up, a little wobbly, but with more expression on her face. Maybe she was coming out of the hysteria I’d seen.

  “Not yet, Ana Maria. I can’t help with your problems, but I have friends who can. You met T already. Did you meet Shezzie?”

  “I don’t remember. I think you talked about her, or maybe it was your friend T. But if I met her, I don’t remember.”

  She laughed, a bitter sound with no amusement at all.

  “I remember things that can’t be true, and I forget the little things.”

  “Shezzie’s one of us. She and T live up in Jemez Springs, and we’re all people of Talent. You are too, now, even though you don’t yet know it. You’ve got at least one Talent, maybe more. You don’t yet understand it or have control over it, but it’s there. Shezzie and T will help, and we’ll show you that there’s no devil involved. We’re just ordinary people who can do some things that other people can’t do. Three of us, and now with you, four. You’re not alone.

  “I’ll get the travel cups ready and we’ll be stopping in Bernalillo to pick up food for Shezzie and T. You should probably eat something first. It’s a long trip, probably four hours or more, even if I hurry.”

  I involved her in fixing a lunch for us and got things ready to go.

  The thermos got filled with coffee, travel cups went into the Volvo with the thermos, and I checked the oil and tires. You learn to do that before leaving on a trip of three hundred or more miles, when your next stop is perhaps fifty miles away, with no services in between…and sometimes distances between services were greater even than that!

  We ate sandwiches, locked up the house, and headed for the Interstate. I had driven the route so many times recently that I had no need to consult a map; the routes to take, hazards to be aware of, service locations and prices for fuel, all of these were firmly fixed into memory.

  The tank was half full, but I didn’t want to have to stop before Socorro. There are no easy-off, easy-on stations after you’re into southern New Mexico, but there’s one at the state line. It’s usually cheaper than the stations further along, too. I topped off the tank, got back on the Interstate and watched for police as I headed north.

  Interstate 10 runs northwesterly until it branches at Las Cruces, with 10 continuing west from the junction to Los Angeles and I-25 going north. I changed to I-25 and as soon as I was well out of the city I increased speed.

  I kept the speedometer just under the century mark for most of the way, slowing for the occasional truck or other traffic obstacle, until I approached Socorro. I slowed, crossed an overpass into the town, and stopped at the first station. I filled up while Ana Maria visited the bathroom, then took a minute to do the same. We were soon headed back onto the Interstate.

  I tried several times to get Ana Maria to talk to me, but whenever I mentioned something, she replied in monosyllables. She spent most of the time looking out the window at the passing desert. It was probably just as well; I needed to keep my attention on the road.

  The long trip had become routine by now. Work through Albuquerque’s traffic, leave the Interstate at Bernalillo, pick up food at one of the several fast-food outlets, then on to Walatowa. Gas up again and push the speed limits north on state road 4.

  I saw something that I might ordinarily investigate. Just past Battleship Rock was a relatively large parking area. Usually there would be at least half-a-dozen car
s or trucks parked here, but now there was also an ambulance and police car, both with flashers going. I glanced up the mountainside above them and saw what appeared to be a wisp of steam rising.

  Perhaps the hot spring up that way had become more active? The steam might explain the police car and ambulance. T might have heard something, and I could ask him when we got there.

  T had mentioned damage, but I saw none of it as we went through Jemez Springs. Finally, I pulled into the parking area in front of their cabin. T’s Chevy truck and Shezzie’s Subaru were already parked there.

  I went around and held the door for Ana Maria. She looked downcast still. Hopefully, Shezzie would be able to help. Maybe we can do the meld soon, if the two of them aren’t too tired.

  The melding of our minds presented a minor problem. Ana Maria’s past actions would become known to Shezzie and T during the process, and I didn’t know what they would make of it all.

  But T had secrets that still haunted him, and Shezzie had seen terrible things while serving as an Army nurse. I might have a harder time than either of them, coping with a more detailed-knowledge of what Ana Maria had done. I’d had only a brief flash when I picked up her thoughts. I would now get the full details.

  Perhaps it would be best if I remained apart from the melding.

  It would have to be done, even if the embarrassing facts would come to light. Ana Maria had already tried suicide; she might be more successful next time. I knew of no other way that a latent psi could be made to understand what had happened.

  Ana Maria had to learn to control her Talent. So far, she’d only harmed people who deserved it. What if she lost her temper with a driver on the road?

  A thought intruded: suppose she couldn’t learn control? What then? Could we face the knowledge of a powerful, wild Talent who could kill in seconds? Who could rip people literally limb-from-limb?

  Was this what T had been talking about at the Cattle Baron, the possibility that the Talent might become available to someone who might misuse it? Was this the worst-case scenario, where the watchers would have to not only watch but act?

  If T and Shezzie decided that Ana Maria was just too dangerous to live, with the strong but uncontrolled Talent she’d demonstrated, what would I do? What could I do? I was strong, but not nearly as strong as T had become. Could I stand by and watch Ana Maria killed?

  That was a danger, but at the same time, Ana Maria was a danger to herself. I could only hope that my two friends could do what I hadn’t been able to, make Ana Maria understand what she’d become and help her bring her Talent under control.

  I walked Ana Maria up to the door, one hand under her arm and the other filled with the bags of burgers we’d bought in Bernalillo. T opened the door just before we got there.

  “Glad to see you, Ray. Welcome, Ana Maria. Come on in. We’ve had a rough day. I’m just glad it’s over now.”

  Rough day, T? You have no idea, I thought. I’ve had a terrible day, too, my friend.

  And it just might get worse.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ray:

  Ana Maria was looking better now, less haunted. Not back to normal, but not the woman who’d been near collapse when I came home from my journey to the top of the mountain.

  Shezzie made conversation with her as T and I linked our minds.

 

 
 
 

 

  He looked at me thoughtfully.

 

  The whole communication between the two of us hadn’t taken long; you can pass information much faster if you’re not slowed down by controlling the muscles used for speech. T had paused once, briefly, and I thought he was passing information to Shezzie when it happened.

  I was reluctant, but finally I agreed with him. Ana Maria’s eyes followed me as I left, but Shezzie kept her involved in the conversation they were having. Perhaps it’s like hypnosis in a way, give the subject something to concentrate on and relax before the melding attempt takes place. At any rate, I already knew enough about Ana Maria’s problems to understand that my learning more was likely to be painful for me.

  No one was nearby. I was unseen as I lifted a few feet above the scrubby vegetation and drifted up the canyon.

  The canyon narrowed, sides becoming steep and heavily forested, before finally ending in a ridgeline that continued up the mountain. I could see the blackened trunks that had been green forest only a short time ago.

  Green forest is alive, a place of mystery and scurryings and noise as the birds, insects, and animals live out their short lives. Now that was all gone; only a faint stirring of breeze moved through the destruction and death. The trees had died and few of the animals or insects had survived. Most of the birds had probably flown away, but the wild turkeys would have perished. Somewhere under the ash would be the bones of deer, bears, coyotes, and all the other animals of a complex ecosystem. This place had been alive before, but no life remained now.

  T and I had done a good thing when we aided the firefighters who finally brought this fire under control. This thought relieved a bit of my anxiety. T was more than a friend, a brother now who would understand my desire to help Ana Maria. If I wasn’t quite as close to Shezzie, I could also trust her to do everything that could be done to help.

  The forest would return, some day. Rain would soak the ash and a few opportunistic plants would soon take root. These would not be the great pines and firs of the mature forest, but weeds which could live on the poor soil that remained. As they died in turn, the remnants would begin building soil that could support the aspens, and they in turn would give way to the pines and firs again. The process might take a century or more to complete.

  Meantime, stretches of aspen grew in the scars and turned bright gold and scarlet in the early fall, evidence of fires from fifty or a hundred years before. The forest was a place of life, but also of change, of destruction and rebirth.

 

 

 

 

  I might have gone faster, but I hadn’t brought the goggles, so I kept my speed within my comfort zone and made it back with minutes to spare. An astonished raven croaked at me as I passed; perhaps he’d never seen a human join him in his element before!

  might have happened if you hadn’t brought me here. I’ll forever be grateful to Shezzie and T, and to you also.>

  I glanced at Ana Maria and had a difficult time not smiling. She was floating six inches above the floor while comming me.

  T and I had a lot to catch up on. He described what the two of them had done before Ana Maria and I had arrived, and clearly their Talents had helped to keep a bad situation from getting worse.

  The steam vent in the Valles Caldera was worrisome. It might be only a small readjustment, but it might be much more. For that matter, there had been activity at several places near the great rift. Valles wasn’t the only supervolcano associated with the zone of weakness in the crust.

  Further north in Wyoming lay Yellowstone, more active than Valles Caldera and for that matter more active than the entire state of New Mexico. The hotspot that underlies Yellowstone had produced not only exceptionally violent eruptions but also frequent swarms of small earthquakes in recent years as the magma deep beneath the caldera changed position.

  Of more concern was the recent uplifting of the caldera floor. In the years between 2004 and 2008, the land had moved upward more than eight inches. It seemed to have stopped…for the time being.

  Yellowstone too was dormant, not extinct. The hotspot was still there, and the next eruption would be likely to happen somewhere in the northeastern part of the caldera. The track of previous eruptions, and the ages when those had happened, indicated that the North American plate was drifting southwest over the hotspot. A similar hotspot under the Pacific Plate had produced the Hawaiian Island chain.

  I had done a great deal of online research into vulcanism. It was difficult to reconcile the violent past of this part of the Earth with the sunny, placid landscape that was all we could now see.

  “T, are you coming back to El Paso now? And what about Shezzie?”

  “Ray, I think we’ll stay here at least a little longer. We have options that others don’t have. Given time, I can lift myself and Shezzie out of danger. In the meantime, we’ve been helpful to people and it’s a good feeling.