The Woodward Academy, Year 6

Chapter 6: November

 "This happen every year?" David asked Joe.

"Without fail. I don't know if they just stop caring for one night, or if they're dumb enough to think that they'll get lost in the clutter. All I know is that we invariably end up arresting several dozen people for doing shit they shouldn't have been on Halloween."

"At least you let me enjoy Halloween before we had to go get them."

"Do something special, did you?"

David shrugged. "I took Lydia around. It was her first Halloween on campus. Lydia's one of the vampires I met down in Travaysal."

"New girlfriend?" Joe asked.

"Not as such. I mean, I wouldn't mind, but I think right now, because I'm the only one on campus, other than the dean, who knows what she is, I'm more comfortable to talk to for her."

Joe nodded. "Cute?"

"Oh, yeah," David said with a grin. They were driving down the highway toward Rhode Island, which was where their first arrest would be made.

"So, do we stop in at the police department again?" David asked.

"Not for these. Our stops for this stuff are so brief that it's just not worth the time."

"My truck's gonna get awfully full. How do you guys normally haul them back to the gate?"

"We would rent a vehicle."

David nodded in understanding.

The drive didn't take too long. Soon they were parked outside of a Walmart. As an unlicensed wizard, there was a permanent trace on their target, so finding him was easy. They approached the front door and stood, letting others pass by while they waited for their perpetrator.

"We know what he looks like?" David asked. Joe passed over a picture. David studied it, then handed it back. "We could be here a while if he's shopping in there."

"Think we could find him inside, with all those people?"

"We could ask customer service to page him..."

"They do that?"

"If you ask nicely."

"Let's try it, then. Beats standing out here all damn day."

They entered the store, and David led Joe over to the customer service desk. They waited quietly in line until another rep was available.

"How can I help you?" the lady asked politely.

"Could you please page Chris Griffin?"

"Is it important?"

"Yes, ma'am. We really need to find him. We know he's here, but not where."

"Okay, sure." The lady stepped over to the public address mike, and said, "Chris Griffin, please come to the Customer Service desk. Your party is waiting. Chris Griffin, to the customer service desk, please."

David nodded to the lady, and then they stepped out of line.

"Let's move over there," Joe said, pointing to a rack of tourist stuff. "I don't want him to see us right away."

David agreed, and the two looked through the crappy items on the display stand for a few minutes. Finally, they saw their target step up to the customer service desk. A woman was with him.

"Someone had me paged?" Chris asked the lady at the desk. She just motioned behind him. Chris and the woman turned to see the two Rimohrs standing there.

Joe said, "Chris Griffin, you're under arrest for unlicensed use of magic."

The woman said, "See? I told you it was going to get you into trouble! You never listen! Why can't you ever listen to me! Now they're going to cart you off to jail, you'll be gone for-"

Chris interrupted by saying, "Shut up, Meg."

The woman gave him the raspberry, then growled at him and stormed off.

"Women," Chris said.

"We can't cuff you in here," David said. "You try to struggle or run, and you'll be in a world of hurt. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it."

Each of the Rimohrs took him by an arm and began to escort him out of the store. Before they made it outside, however, they were accosted by one of the store customers.

"Hey, why you two hasslin' him? Let go of him!"

"Sir, step out of our way. Now."

"Or what, pipsqueak?" the man, who was a good five inches taller than David, demanded.

"Or your nuts will be leaking out of your pants leg," David said in a low, dark voice. "I have a job to do. You're interfering with it. That usually ends up with the person in your position having deep regrets about ever having met me."

Surreptitiously, David pulled out his wand. He didn't perform a spell, but he allowed enough magical energy to leak out of the end that the man could feel it. David aimed his wand at the man's crotch without anyone - even the man - being able to see it.

"I'm not going to ask you again," David said. "Get out of my way, or live the rest of your life sounding like Mickey Mouse."

The guy looked into David's eyes, and could tell that this kid - which was what David still looked like - was not bluffing. The sudden discomfort around his favorite body parts was also rather obvious. He backed off.

Without another word, David put away his wand, and they continued to lead their prisoner outside.

"Would you have really hurt him for getting in the way?" Chris wanted to know.

"Not as badly as I threatened to. He's just a techno; he doesn't know who we are. But yes, I'd have planted his butt on the floor if I'd had to."

"I'm in deep trouble, aren't I?" Chris asked.

"That's up to the magistrate," David replied. "Come on, the truck's this way."

It took them two days to round up all of the Halloween miscreants in their division. Finally, however, they'd gotten them all.

"I guess we have to go to court for each one of these, huh?" David asked.

"No, not us," Joe told him.

"What? Why not?"

"What testimony do we have that would be of any use? We didn't see them using magic. We were just the delivery guys. The trace on unlicensed wizards is so well established that no one testifies to anything in these cases. One of the people from the Office of Outlawed Magic will be there, to verify the right person has been arrested, and to tell the magistrate what was done. There really isn't a defense possible, unless you can show you used magic to protect yourself from serious harm. In most cases, people just have to accept the magistrate's sentence."

"Oh. Well, at least I don't have to waste my time in court, then."

"Nope. You heading back to the school now?"

"I think I'd better, before Tanya realizes she can run the department better than I can."

Joe chuckled at that.

"Give Zyla a hug for me."

"Will do. Take it easy."

 

"Are you sure it's okay to ride this?" Lydia asked. "I don't want to get into trouble..."

"This is what they're here for," David assured her. "Besides, who's going to catch you, school security?"

Lydia giggled at that. The two were riding one of the awks through the Monster Moat. The giant duck-like bird swam along as if they weren't even there.

David held onto Lydia gently, more to cuddle than in any need to keep her steady on the awk, which was such a good swimmer it was almost hard to tell they were moving.

"So," David said, finally ready to ask a question that had been bugging him since she'd arrived, "you said you weren't very happy with things at home. How come?"

"It's Mychel. He's overbearing. And he's creepy."

"He's a vampire," David objected lightly. "He's supposed to be creepy."

"Am I creepy?" Lydia asked, concerned.

"You're still growing into your creepiness," David said lightly. "Give it a couple centuries."

"Uh-huh. Well, all I know is, Mychel seemed particularly intent on making me uncomfortable. One time, he even kissed me without asking. For a full minute. With tongue!"

David nodded. "So, does he treat the entire family like his own private harem?"

"No. But he does treat us like his servants. And I'm nobody's slave. I couldn't wait to get out of there."

"And you figured you'd go just as far away as you could," David said.

"That was part of it. Plus, everyone knows that Woodward's the best school in the kingdom."

"You'll get no argument from me," David said.

"And there was also this cute guy going here, who I met a couple years ago, and he seemed nice," she said, smiling back at David.

"Oh? Do I know him? Perhaps I could fix you two up."

"I think you might have met him a time or two," Lydia replied. She shifted on the awk, so that she was turned sideways, and it was easier for her to look at David. "And I wouldn't mind being fixed up with him."

David gently pulled her close, and their lips met. They kept the kiss soft, but it lingered for a long while. Finally they sat back from each other, each of them smiling softly at the other.

"That was nice," Lydia said. David just hummed. They leaned in again, and their second kiss was even longer.

After that, they sat back, Lydia leaning into David's chest, her head resting against him. David held her close, and they sat quietly, watching the sunset, which the awk had brought them to see.

"So what's the problem, exactly?" David asked as they were driving in his glidecar across the Dugerran countryside.

"Well, there's a man who owns some property. On this property is a small river. Over the small river is a bridge. The man built the bridge to allow people to cross the river. Unfortunately, living under this bridge is a river troll who is collecting tolls from those who pass. Since the owner of the bridge hasn't authorized this, it's illegal."

"So it would be legal, if the owner had okayed it."

"Right."

"So... can we arrest trolls just like humans, or is there something different to do?"

"We can, if it's absolutely necessary. But we tend to prefer to just make them move on. River trolls aren't all that problematic. They don't tend to get violent or even terribly pushy. They rely on their appearance, which isn't very pleasant, to get their way."

"Yeah, the one river troll I've met was pleasant enough."

"You've met one?"

David related his experience with the river troll he and Olissa had encountered on their way to Mirelia.

"That one was more polite than most, but then again, I don't think too many people show interest in river trolls, so he probably just enjoyed being considered more than a nuisance."

"Could be."

The drive didn't take them too much longer, and they pulled to a stop a few hundred feet from the bridge over the river. It was a small bridge, designed for foot traffic only. They stepped out of the glidecar, and walked up to the river's edge. As their feet touched the wood of the bridge, the troll jumped up from his spot on the river bank and landed in front of them.

"Five granas to cross my bridge!" he snapped.

"But it's not your bridge," David objected.

"Who says it's not?" the troll demanded.

"The man who built it," David replied. "The man whose land it's on."

"Well... what's he know, anyway? He's never here. I've never once seen him. Can't be his bridge. In fact, no one else ever comes to take care of the bridge. Only I do. So it's my bridge!"

"How do you take care of the bridge?" David asked.

"I keep an eye on who crosses. I make sure they don't misbehave or damage my bridge. I keep the piers firmly surrounded by rocks, to keep them in place. I apply slime, to keep the wood from rotting. That so-called owner of yours never does these things! He has no rights to my bridge!"

"Why do you care who crosses the bridge?" David asked curiously.

"I don't care who it is. I merely like to know where the people in my neighborhood are. Should anyone come along and wish to know where such person is, I can tell them, 'He crossed to the east yesterday, and has not returned.' Or I can say, 'he hasn't come this way since last week, when he crossed to the west.'"

"For which information, you charge a fee, of course," Joe interjected.

"If they need to know that all-fired badly, then I think my information is worth a few granas."

"Uh-huh," Joe replied.

David said, "Unfortunately, while you claim this as your bridge, the law says otherwise. You're going to need to move off this property."

"And what of all the work I've done to this bridge? I've spent a lot of time and energy here!"

"And been well compensated, I'm sure," Joe replied.

"Hmph. Humans. Always think everything has to be your way, with all your laws and regulations."

"No society can function without rules," David replied.

"I'm functioning just fine!" the troll barked back.

"But one person doesn't make a society," David told him patiently.

The troll harumphed. "You can keep your society, if it means having people tell me what to do all the time."

"Please, sir, just move along."

"I need to pack my things," the troll said.

"Go ahead," Joe told him. "We'll wait."

The troll jumped down beneath the bridge. They could hear him rummaging around. Finally, he reappeared on the river bank, away from them. He had a large, apparently heavy, sack on his back.

"I hope the bridge collapses beneath you," the troll snarled at them, and then he turned and walked off.

"What's to keep him from just coming back here after we leave?" David asked.

"We'll make sure he walks out of sight, but generally, once a troll has been dislodged, they go looking for a new home. If he does come back, we'll have to actually arrest him."

The two stood and watched until the troll was out of sight, around a bend in the river. After that, they turned and started walking back to the car.

"Too bad that troll doesn't live in Winding River," Joe said. "He might have been able to tell us who our serial killer is."

David stopped so fast he almost fell over. Joe looked at him in concern. "You okay?"

"E-ZPass," David said.

"What?" Joe asked, confused.

David turned to him, and then started walking back to the car, quickly. "E-ZPass. It's the electronic payment system they use on the Mass Pike and the New York State Thruway."

"Okay, whatever that means... why's it important?"

"Look, our guy, he's going to and from Albany to Springfield all the time. That's gonna be costly enough that he's probably going to have an E-ZPass to reduce the cost, and to be more convenient."

"Back up. I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Okay. You know how we go through those booths when we're driving to Albany? The ones where I have to pay?"

"Yeah..."

"They're toll booths. You pay to use that road, just like our friend back there wanted to charge a toll to cross the bridge. Okay, although I've always paid with coins, you can pay electronically... it's like... well, it's the techno version of paying by transfer."

"Okay, so, in other words, somehow, they're able to pay the toll without using money."

"Without using physical money, right. They still use money, it's just handled a different way."

"I don't see how that helps."

"Electronic systems have to keep track of who has traveled through the toll booths, in order to charge them for their trip. In other words, there's a record. A record that we can maybe get our hands on, to see if we can figure out who our killer is by who was traveling the Pike at those times."

"But, c'mon, that road's busy as all hell. There've got to be thousands of people..."

"Probably, but we have other things that narrow that way down. We have seven events, and our car has to be traveling from west to east during each of those seven nights. Our car has to go through both Albany and Springfield. And, our car is being driven by a wizard. I'm not saying it's going to point us right to him. I'm just saying it's a lot better group of people to look at than we currently have, which is... well, every male wizard in New England."

"Right. How do we get that information, though?"

"We need to contact Agent Deline. I'm sure the FBI would have a far easier time getting that than we would."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's get going. There's no point in waiting around."

David started up his glidecar, and they were soon speeding back to Gorumshead, so they could get David's truck.

"Hey, Joe. What's up?" David asked the face in his mirror.

"David. Two things. We just got a package from Agent Deline. It contains the information you wanted from that E-ZPass thing. What did you want me to do with it?"

"We need to tease out the necessary information. Did he send you a paper printout?"

"Yes. It's thicker than hell."

"We're going to have to go through and pull out what we need."

"I'm going to send it up to you, so you can work on it. You know what you're after better than I do."

"Okay. So, what's the other thing?"

"I'm sending Vivian your way. Bridget, at the Mystic Wolf, called in and said someone is trying to start a protection racket in town. You'll need to go investigate."

"Okay. Not that I mind, but how come you're sending Vivian, instead of coming yourself?"

"I have a date with my wife. I don't think she'd appreciate me canceling to go to a bar."

David snorted. "No, probably not. Okay. You going to send the paperwork with her?"

"Yeah."

"In that case, I'll wait for her here. Say hi to Zyla for me."

"Will do. Good luck with the case. Both of them, in fact."

"Right," David said, then fogged off. He settled back in his chair for a second, then he waved his hand at his work table. It had been covered in folders from various things, but they suddenly stacked themselves neatly into a pile, then turned themselves on their edge. They slid across the table to fit between two bookends, which snugged down to hold the files secure. David grinned; he still got a kick out of the little uses of magic like this one. He knew he was going to need his work table for the information from E-ZPass.

That done, David returned to his paperwork while he waited for Vivian to arrive.

"Hey, handsome," Bridget said when David showed up. "You here about my call?"

"Yeah. You want to talk out here, or do you have an office?"

"Might as well do it here. Only got the two customers, and they're already too wasted to pay attention."

David smirked. "Okay, so, you said someone was trying to extort money from you. Can you fill in the details?"

"Two guys came in last night. One of them looked like he was half ogre, from his size and musculature. The other was a slick talker, very smooth. He was dressed in formal clothes, even wore one of those tie-things, you know, that goes around the neck?"

"I'm familiar with them," David assured her with a grin.

"Anyway, they come in, and the big guy goes and leans against that post, crossing his arms and looking... well, fairly menacing. The slick guy is the one who did all the talking."

"And what did he say?" David asked.

"Well, first he compliments me on the place, says how nice it looks, good atmosphere, all that crap, you know?"

David nodded.

"Then he says how it would be a shame if the local gang were to damage the place. He says that he can prevent that from happening, but that it'll cost me."

"How much did he want?" Vivian asked.

"Two thousand granas a month."

David whistled. "Pretty steep."

"Steep enough that, even if I was willing to pay it, which I'm not, I couldn't afford it. My profits on this place really aren't that high. Paying him two thousand would eat up all my profit, and cut into what I pay myself so I can eat."

David nodded. "Did he say when he wanted your decision?"

"Said he'd be back next week to get the first installment."

"Did he say whether he'd come on the same day?"

"No."

"So he could be in here any day next week." David turned to Vivian and said, "Someone's going to have to be up here with me for the entire week, if we're going to catch these fuckers."

"I'll let Joe know. Knowing him, he'll send me."

"Sorry about that," David said.

"Don't be. I don't mind. I don't have any family to miss me. That's why I get a lot of the out-of-town assignments."

David nodded. Turning back to Bridget, he said, "Okay, what time was he in yesterday?"

"Seven-thirty, thereabouts."

"Okay. We'll be in here, undercover, of course, all next week. When they come in, you'll need to let us know."

"I don't think you could miss them, but I'll tell you when they're here."

"Don't worry. We'll catch these bastards."

"I have all the confidence in the world in you, handsome," she told him.

David grinned, and then turned to Vivian, gesturing for her to lead the way out.

Once back on the street, David said, "I really am sorry that you'll be stuck up here. I mean, okay, you've got no family, that doesn't mean you like being away from home."

"It's okay, David, really. Someone's got to be here to supervise you, you and I get along, and this sounds like an important case. I'm just glad the Rimohr office has to foot the bill at the inn."

"Yeah, that'd suck, wouldn't it, if you had to pay it yourself?"

"They don't pay us enough for that," she confirmed.

"Well, anyway... will you fill Joe in when you get back, or do you want me to call him?"

"I'll let him know. It gives him his opportunity to send me back up here immediately."

"What's it like, having him as a superior, instead of a partner?"

"Mostly it doesn't change much. Except with things like this, where he has to play administrator. What's it like for you, to go from civilian observer to officer?"

"You mean, as Joe would put it, from interloper to investigator?"

Vivian chuckled. "Yes."

"Well, it's nice not to get the 'stay the hell out of our way' speech anymore. The rest is about the same, I'm afraid. Still very frustrating."

"It can be. Well, I'll let you get to work on that pile of paper I brought with me. I've got to get back to the office... and then probably pack."

"Okay. Well I'll see you... um... when I see you."

Vivian grinned. "Take it easy, David. See you soon."

"So, are you making any headway with all that paperwork I brought you?" Vivian asked. The two were sitting in the Mystic Wolf Pub, drinking non-alcoholic drinks and munching on pretzels while they waited to see if the extortionist would show up.

"Some. It's slow going. I probably should have just had the FBI process this crap on their computers."

"Why didn't you?"

"Well, they didn't actually ask us how we wanted the information, and I forgot to explicitly tell them. Once we had the paper... eh, I just didn't feel like going back to them to explain it."

"Saving face instead of saving time," Vivian said with a chuckle.

David would have blushed if he could. "Something like that."

"Are you making any progress at all?"

"Some. I've gotten about halfway through it. I have some five thousand cars, so far, that have appeared on every important night."

"That's a lot to go through."

"True. But the number will come down as I keep going through them. Plus, not every one of them is important to us."

"Why not?"

"Not all of them are wizards."

"True."

The two sat in silence for a while, just watching the other patrons. Finally, David asked, "So where do your parents live?"

"In Genoa."

"So how did you end up in Callamandia? Shouldn't you be in the Dugerran version of Italy?"

"Not since I didn't really want to live among orcs."

"Are there any human nations in Chasco?"

"No. Most of Chasco belongs to the elves. There's a small part claimed by the orcs, and another part claimed by dwarves. Human settlements are in Socorlee."

"Where is that, in Earth terms?"

"West Asia. The Balkans, the Baltic states, western Russia, that area."

David nodded. "Who lives in Scandinavia?"

"Bufergara, you mean," she said with a grin. "The ice giants and the ice dragons claim that land."

"I really ought to learn more Dugerrean geography."

Vivian smiled slightly. She asked, "Why did you want to know about my parents?"

"You said you have no family to miss you. I just wondered where they were. You're not married, have a boyfriend, anything?"

"Never found a guy I gave enough of a damn about to put up with his crap," she said.

"Ouch," David replied.

Vivian shrugged. "We all give crap, David. You, me, Joe... all of us."

"I guess."

"Anyway, I just never found the one. I've tried several times, it's just never worked out. Right now... isn't one of those times. Now, why are you so concerned with my love life?"

David grinned in serious embarrassment. "It just seems like you're unhappy, and I wondered why. You don't like your job, you don't have a family, you don't have a partner..."

"You're my partner, right now," she objected.

"Not the kind of partner I meant," David replied.

"Oh."

"I guess I was just curious why you're still traveling down this road when you clearly don't like the route."

"Haven't found an exit ramp that looked any more promising," she said, extending the metaphor.

David nodded, then let the subject drop.

"All right. From this point forward, there will be no sparring to practice new technique. We will continue sparring to keep your skills honed, but the techniques we will be learning from this point forward cannot be tried safely on another person. Magical charms to protect you from each other would be so cumbersome as to inhibit the actual act of using the spells. As such, you will practice in competitive form, trying to outdo each other on the practice dummies, but you are not to direct these techniques at each other at any time. Do you both understand fully?" Prof. Teller said. David wondered when the man breathed.

Both David and JoAnne nodded at him, indicating his instructions were clear.

"Very good. Now, we're going to learn a blast technique which can be fired from either your sword or your staff, but controlling it is a little easier with your sword, so we'll start there. Please pull your swords. Feel free to do some mild sparring to warm up."

David turned to JoAnne and bowed to her. She did likewise, and then the two of them went at it. For three or four minutes, they clashed, not really putting their strongest effort into it, but still trying to win the match. It came out a draw, as a great many sparring matches did between them.

"Good, good. Now, let's move on. What you will need to do is to point your sword at the practice dummy, concentrate, and think the charm. The charm is, 'smazit parchanta'. Now, eventually, you will not need to utter the spell, the visualization will be sufficient, but this may take some weeks or even months of practice. Just so you're aware, we choose to practice with sword first because you can easily extend your arm forward to aim along your sword blade. With the staff, it is much trickier to aim visually, and so your visualization must include your target point rather exactly."

"So the energy can go in any direction, not just the direction you're pointing?"

"It will always be strongest if the beam goes straight, following the path of your weapon. However, it is possible to deflect it into any path you choose. This can be useful if you're faced with several enemies at once: you can sweep the beam without moving your body. Now then, JoAnne, you go first. Point your sword, visualize, and 'smazit parchanta'."

JoAnne performed the charm, and a blast of gold energy spewed out of her sword. The beam was roiled and unfocused, but it impacted the practice dummy, ten feet away. The dummy reeled back from the impact, then gave her a thumbs-up sign, to indicate she'd done the charm correctly.

"Not bad," Prof. Teller told her. "Your beam wasn't as clean as it could have been. You'll need to work on your concentration and visualization for this. Okay, now, David. Give it a go."

David turned to face the dummy, raised his sword, took a deep breath, and uttered the spell in his head. A beam of blue light so intense that it was painful to look at spewed from his sword, impacting the dummy. The dummy went rolling along the ground for twenty feet before it settled. It raised one arm, its thumb lifted in confirmation, then its arm thumped back down onto the ground.

"Well, then," Prof. Teller said. "I think you've got a fairly good handle on this particular process, David. Yes, I do believe you'll have no trouble carrying this forward. So, we're going to let JoAnne practice the most today, so that she can become as good at it as you already are."

David nodded. Prof. Teller went over to revive the practice dummy, and David sheathed his sword.

"How did you do that?" JoAnne asked, surprised at how strong David's beam was.

"Highly focused negative emotion," David replied.

"Who are you mad at? Not me, I hope..."

David shook his head. "Not mad, just frustrated. Case work. I just took all of that frustration and focused it into the beam. I imagined that the target was all the crap that's frustrating me."

JoAnne nodded in understanding. "But I'm not that frustrated."

David shrugged. "I guess you have to learn to do it the hard way, then," he replied with a grin.

"Hmph."

 "These bastards had better show soon.  I have a date later," David said.

"It's already seven.  If it's not a really late date, I'm afraid you're going to miss it."

David harrumphed, but didn't say anything further.

"So has Joe begun to complain about all the time away from the office yet?" David asked a little while later.

"No, he knows that cases can go like this.  He teases me about being on vacation, but other than that..."

"Oh, you're on vacation?  Sorry you're not seeing much in the way of sights.  And your touring companions leave something to be desired."

Vivian grinned.  "At least my tour guide is friendly," she said to him.

David smiled in embarrassment.

Shortly after, two men entered the pub.  One was a huge man, at least seven feet tall, muscular and dumb looking.  The other was a slick man, wearing a three-piece business suit, complete with tie.  He walked over to Bridget and began talking while the big man merely walked to a post and leaned against it.

Bridget didn't show agitation, but they'd watched her long enough to know that she was concerned.  Setting two drinks on a tray, she left the bar and walked to their table.

Setting the drinks down, she said, "Here you go, folks.  One Peppermint Giant for the lady, and a Slick Willy for the gentleman."

The code phrase was hardly needed, but it at least gave them official notice that the suspects were in the room.  Vivian quietly chanted a hearing charm on both of them.

"So, Miss Bridget, have you considered my offer?" the man said when she returned to the bar.

"Considered and rejected," she said coldly.  "I can't afford your 'help'."

"I'm not sure you can afford to forego my help," the man said smoothly.  "Gorumshead's a dangerous place these days."

"I'll just have to take my chances on that score, I guess."

"I see.  Well, that is, of course, your prerogative.  I won't trouble you further this evening.  If you don't mind, I may stop in at a later date, to see if you've reconsidered."

"I won't," she assured him.

"Never say never," the man told her, his tone remaining friendly, even if the look in his eyes did not.  He motioned to the large man, and the two left the bar.  David and Vivian rose as soon as the door swished shut, and they followed the two men out into the street.

Vivian grabbed David's arm as they began to walk.

"Excuse me?" he asked quietly.

"If you don't want to draw suspicion, we need to look like a couple, not a couple of cops," she whispered to him, leaning in so that he could hear her, and to look even more like a dating pair.

"Gotcha," David said.  The two walked arm in arm down the street, following the slick man and his thug without appearing to take any notice of them.  One of them was always looking at the other, as if deep in romantic conversation.

The men turned into an alley, and Vivian and David sped up, so that they wouldn't lose him.  When they reached the alley, they saw the two men, halfway down, talking to a group of people.  Vivian's hearing charm was still in place, so they could hear what was being said.

"She's being stubborn," the man said to one of the others.

"She's always been a stupid bitch," one of the others replied.

"You want me to teach her a lesson, boss?" the huge man asked.  His voice rumbled out of his chest.

The slick man chuckled.  "You'd break her in half before you had any fun with her, Mongo."

"What you want us to do?" the unidentified man asked.

"I want you to turn that place into a pile of rubble."

"Right.  We'll take it down to the ground, right after closing."

"No, not tonight."

"Why not?"

"I was just in there, you nimrod.  If something happens to it right after I show up, then people talk."

"Well, how long you want us to wait, then?"

"Give it till Tuesday.  She'll be off-guard by then."

"You know, boss, she lives there."

"So?"

"We take the building down, she's going with it."

"And that's all the less trouble we'll have with others in the future, now isn't it?" the slick man asked.

The other men murmured in amused agreement.

After that, the meeting broke up.  David and Vivian moved across the street before anyone came near the end of the alley.  David moved Vivian into an unlit doorway.  He pushed her up against the door, and tilted his head just so, that it would look as if they were kissing.

"See anything?" he asked quietly.

"Just everyone leaving.  Our buddies are walking into the restaurant across the street.  The others are wandering back down toward the Mystic Wolf."

"Let's follow them, and make sure there's no trouble."

"They said they were going to wait until Tuesday."

"Yeah, that doesn't mean they don't plan on having fun with her before that."

"Good point."

The two "lovebirds" wandered back up the street, following behind the group of young men.  The men passed right by the Mystic Wolf, and though a few of them laughed, nothing else happened.  They made their way into another pub, further down the street.

"I guess we can call it a night," Vivian said.  "Don't you think?"

"Yeah.  I don't think they'll do anything tonight.  We're going to need backup on Tuesday, though."

"You really think so?"

"I don't want anything to happen to the pub.  In order to make sure of that, we can't be outnumbered five to one."

"That's true.  Okay, I'll let Joe know."

"Okay.  You want me to walk you back to the inn?"

"You worried about my safety?"

David snorted.  "I'm reasonably sure you can take care of yourself.  But it'll look weird if your 'date' abandons you on the street."

"True.  C'mon.  I wouldn't want to make you late for your real date."

David smirked, and then the two turned and walked back toward the Slyther Inn.

"This is nice," Lydia said.  "I've never seen the ocean before."

"Not even the Gulf of Gthark?"

"No, we never traveled down that way.  Truthfully, we never traveled much at all.  I spent my whole life within a hundred miles of Travaysal until I came to school."

David nodded.  The two were currently walking along the beach, barefoot.  They'd left their shoes on the blanket David had brougth with him.  The moon was hidden behind the trees that ran along the shoreline, but the stars were bright above them.  The wet sand squished between their toes as they walked together, chatting about school and other various topics.

After a while, they returned to the spot where David had laid out the blanket.  They dropped down onto the blanket, with Lydia on her back, looking up at the stars, and David on his side, looking down at her.  He rested his hand lightly on her stomach, rubbing softly back and forth.

Lydia looked up at him and smiled.  She didn't say anything, but the invitation in her eyes was clear.  David leaned down and kissed her, his tongue sliding smoothly into her mouth.  As they continued to kiss, his hand slowly moved upward until he was cupping her breast.  Lydia moaned softly, the sound almost drowned out by the roar of the waves. 

For a long time, the two kissed, David gently fondling her tit and pleasantly assaulting her tongue.  Finally, however, David slid his hand around to her back and pulled her to him, rolling onto his back so that she was now on top of him.  This way, both of his hands could play, and he started to massage both her breasts at once.

Lydia enjoyed that for more long moments, but then she broke their kiss, looking into his eyes and smiling.  David let his hands leave her tits and slide down onto her ass.  He squeezed her butt for a little while, but then he grabbed the hem of her shirt and began to pull it gently off her.  Lydia's smile grew a notch wider as she realized what he was doing, and she maneuvered to help him remove her shirt.

Lydia reached back herself and unfastened her bra, pulling it off her arms and dropping it onto the blanket beside them.  David's hands returned to her chest, gently fondling her mounds, occasionally sliding his thumb over a nipple.  Lydia mewled at that, enjoying the feel of his hands on her body.

David's hands finally left her tits and slid downward, unbuttoning her pants and then unzipping them.  Lydia smiled, encouraging him to take whatever liberties he chose.  David pulled her down against him and they kissed as David rolled them over, putting her beneath him now.

They broke their kiss and David pushed himself up onto his knees.  He grasped hold of Lydia's jeans and her panties, and he started to tug on them.  Getting the idea quickly, Lydia raised her legs in front of him, allowing him to more easily remove her clothes.  They were quickly off her legs and dumped on the blanket with the rest.  Lydia was now completely naked.  David held her legs together, running his hands up and down them for a long moment before he let go.

As Lydia parted her legs, resting them back on the ground, David removed his own shirt.  Lydia ran her hands over his chest, and then pulled him back down to her so that they could kiss some more.

David rolled them over once again, and then started to work on his own pants.  Once he had them undone, Lydia helped him to get them past his hips.  She lay on top of him, her body straddling his, as he worked to free his legs.  She could feel his hard cock pressing into her stomach, and she rolled her hips slightly to massage his shaft, keeping it nice and hard.

Now that they were both naked, David rolled them one last time.  He shifted his hips so that his cock slid across Lydia's clit.  She shivered at that, but he didn't stop.  He moved his dick so that the head of it was pressing against her opening.

"Go easy on me," she pleaded.

"Been a while?"

"Like never," she confirmed.

"You're a virgin?"

"Mychel always scared away any prospective boys.  One of the things I hate about living there."

David nodded, then he leaned down to kiss her.  As their lips moved against each other, David slowly pushed forward with his hips.  His cock slipped into her pussy without much trouble, but the going from there was tight.  He didn't force it, however.  He pulled back a little, and then pushed forward again.  He went further this time.  Another try, and he was able to push his way fully inside of her.

Lydia had whimpered at first, but she'd not asked him to stop.  Now he broke their kiss and pushed himself up slightly.

"Are you all right?" he asked softly.

"Uh-huh," she said, her look a little dazed.  "You're... really big," she told him.

David would have blushed, if he were able.  He stroked her cheek gently.  "Are you ready for me to move?"

"I'm not sure.  You'll just have to try it and find out."

"Okay."

David slowly withdrew from Lydia's pussy, and then just as slowly pushed his way back in.  Lydia's dazed look took on an amazed quality.  David decided not to stop this time, but to continue moving.  He slowly slid in and out of her, and Lydia's gaze grew more and more astonished.  He could see, however, the hints of her arousal rising.  He began to move just a little faster, and Lydia let out her first moan.

"Oh, god," she said.  "I'm not sure exactly what I'm feeling."

David leaned in and started to nibble on her ear as he increased his pace just a little more.  Lydia's hips started to move almost of their own accord, trying to push him further into her with each thrust.  She was sighing and groaning now, her body clearly heating up.

In only a short while, Lydia shuddered and her back arched, pushing her tits deep into David's chest.  She cried out in pleasure, and her pussy gripped David's cock strongly.  He pushed all the way into her and stopped, letting her ride out her climax.

Finally, after a long time, Lydia came down from her high, but was still somewhat breathless.

"What... the hell... was that?" she asked between breaths.

David looked down at her in shock.  "You've never had an orgasm before?"

She looked up at him.  "We weren't encouraged to experiment sexually," she said.  "Mychel would publicly humiliate any teen caught touching themselves.  I never wanted to take the chance."

"This guy sounds like a real dirtbag."

"He can be."

"Are you sore?" David asked.

"Honestly I don't know.  Right now, all of me is tingly."

"Would you like me to pull out?"

"Not especially," she said with a smile.

David ran his hand gently over her side, and up to her breast.  She quivered at that sensation.  When he lightly rolled her nipple between his fingers, she moaned.

"Oh, that feels nice."

David rocked his hips slightly a few times, keeping his moves small.

"Ooh, that feels nicer," Lydia said.

David smiled, then leaned down to kiss her.  He kept the kiss short, however, then he pushed himself up on his hands and started to thrust into her.  His moves were smooth, but deep.

"Oh, fuck, yes," Lydia said.  "God, do it."

David continued to thrust into her.  He knew that her heat was rising again, and he could feel his own climax approaching.  He moved faster, trying to drive her over the edge.

Lydia was twisting beneath him, her hips bucking up against him.  Finally, she cried out in pleasure, her hips bouncing off the blanket rapidly as her body was gripped by her orgasm.

David couldn't take the pleasure of that, and he blasted a torrent of cum up into her, grunting repeatedly as he did so.  It took a long time before he calmed down.  When he did, Lydia was still caught up in her own high.  He gently slipped out of her, rolling to one side.  She didn't even yet notice his absence.

It took a couple minutes before Lydia was able to respond to anything.  She rolled to her side and laid her arm across David's chest.

"That was awesome," she told him.

David grinned.

 "This guy's really starting to piss me off.  Today's supposed to be my day off," David said.

Joe snorted.  "Mine, too, but apparently he has no qualms working weekends."

The two were on their way back to Winding River.  Another girl had been reported missing from the University of Albany, and everyone was fearing the worst.  David knew they were too late to catch the bastard dumping the body.  In fact, no one had, as yet, found the body, but the likelihood was that it was either in Winding River, or in Springfield.

David parked the glide car next to the travel gate, and they both stepped out.

"What was the girl's name?" David asked Joe.

"Christina Robbins."

David pulled out the Dalmajak Cynosure and asked it to find Christina Robbins.  Sure enough, it pointed the way.  David sighed and they started walking.

"I have to give this motherfucker credit," David said.  "He's not leaving us anything to go on."

"Yeah," Joe agreed.

Nothing else was said until they reached the spot that the cynosure was pointing to.  Lying there, in the tall grasses, was the body of a young blonde woman.  David looked closer, to see that she had green eyes.  Joe looked at the picture of her that he had, and compared it to the body before him.

"It looks like her," he said.

David grunted.  He took out his wand to capture the usual images of the scene.  Joe started to sweep the area for any clues.  The killer hadn't left any at the other scenes, but playing for breaks was all they had at this point.

"We should have brought the glide car over here," Joe said.  "Now we have to carry her."

David raised his wand, tracing a triangle in the air, and he intoned, "Aki yofier bolt."

"What was that for?" Joe asked.

David just pointed.  In the distance, they could already see the glide car approaching.

"It comes when called?" Joe asked incredulously.

"If it can easily figure out the path.  It couldn't navigate a city all by itself.  But here, it can drive in a straight line right to us."

"Damn, that's cool."

David opened the trunk of the glide car and removed one of the magically sterile sheets he'd put in there when they started this investigation.

Joe levitated the body, and David was about to start wrapping it, when he noticed something.

"Hey... there's something in her hand."

The victim's left hand was closed into a tight fist, and David could see something sticking out from under her fingers.

"What is it?" Joe asked.  He continued to levitate the body while David carefully opened her fingers.  A scrap of paper fell out.  David picked it up.

"Well?" Joe asked.

David looked at both sides.  One side had no writing on it.  The other merely said "Time Din".  He showed it to Joe.

"No idea.  You think it's important?"

"She did," David pointed out.

"Right.  That makes it important enough."

"But what the hell does it mean?"

"I don't know.  I'd think she's trying to tell us something, but what?  The only phrase I can make out of that is 'timed in", and that doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe it's the paper itself that's important, and not the words on it," Joe said.

David looked at it.  "It's just paper, far as I can tell.  We can have the examiner look it over, but I don't see what could be special about it."

"Well, she tore it off for a reason.  It has to mean something."

"Wait... yes, tore it off."

"Right..." Joe said.

"Maybe she didn't get all of what she wanted in the tearing."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning she was trying to give us a message, but when she ripped the paper, this was all she was able to get."

"Okay, I'd buy that... but how does it help?"

"Well, it means we need to find something that includes what we see on the paper.  Probably the name of a business, like a club or something.  Maybe where she met the guy who killed her."

"Good thinking.  So... businesses in Albany?"

"Yeah.  Let's go drop the body off with the examiner, then see if we can't run this down."

"Okay."

They wrapped the body carefully in the sheet, and did their best to be respectful as they were putting it into the trunk of the glide car.  It was hardly an ideal way to transport the body, but they didn't have anything else available.

David and Joe got in the car, and David had to keep himself from racing across the terrain.  They had a clue, which meant he could actually do something other than guess at what was going on.

David's enthusiasm was short-lived, and had turned almost immediately to frustration.  They hadn't found any clubs or other businesses in Albany that had the word "Time" followed by the letters "Din" in their name.  They had then checked in Springfield, with no better luck.

David tacked a copy of the scrap of paper up on the board in his office he was using to keep track of the investigation.  So far, all he had was the one scrap of paper, and eight pictures of dead girls.  He also had a list of some three thousand cars that had completed the trip from Albany to Springfield at the required times.  He would first narrow that list down to the few dozen wizards it probably contained, and then see if any of them were eliminated by this latest killing.

He couldn't do that just yet, however, because it was now Tuesday, and he had a pub to protect.

"David, give us a rundown," Joe said.  They were all gathered in a back room of a restaurant that was a few doors down from the Mystic Wolf.

"Okay, we're looking at an extortion case here.  Bridget has twice been approached to pay money for protection from the local gangs.  The last time we saw our suspects, we followed them.  They met up with some other hoodlum-types, and made plans to basically destroy the pub in retaliation for her lack of cooperation, and as a message to anyone else who might resist."

"So, tonight, we're... what?"

"Stopping the hoodlum-types from destroying the building.  I should also point out that all of these people are aware that Bridget lives and sleeps upstairs.  They mentioned it at their meeting on Friday.  They expect her to die in the destruction."

"They said that?" Joe asked.

Vivian confirmed.  "The 'business' guy said that would make it less likely anyone would ignore them in the future."

"Okay, and that makes it premeditated, guys," Joe said.  "We're not just looking at extortion now.  Now we're looking at attempted murder.  And we want it to remain attempted murder, so let's not fuck this up."

"Could we move Bridget out to another building?" one of the other Rimohrs asked.

"Too risky.  The hoodlums might be watching the pub already."

"Any way we can keep her safe, then?"

"I've asked her to stay just inside the back door.  That way, she can get out quick if the building starts to collapse.  One of us should be protecting that door," David said.

Joe nodded.  "Tom, you take care of that.  Your primary job is to keep Bridget safe.  Once the gang shows up and starts to act, get her out of there to safety."

Tom nodded.

"What do we have to let them do before we can take them down?" another Rimohr asked.

Joe replied, "We have to let them damage the building.  It sucks, but unless we see a positive act in that direction, they can say it was all just talk."

There were murmurs among the group.  They didn't like that.

Joe said, "Any further questions?"

"How aggressive are we allowed to be in stopping them?" David asked.

"Try not to kill anyone.  Injury is acceptable.  Use the minimum force needed to stop them, however."

David nodded.

"Anything else?"  There was nothing.  "Okay, let's move out.  Be aware of your surroundings.  Pay attention to whether anyone is watching you.  David, Vivian, you two go ahead on to the pub."

They nodded.  Before they left the building, they were once again arm in arm.  Neither of them was currently in uniform.  Their job was to observe from inside the pub, to see if anything happened.  They were once again putting on their "loving couple" routine.

"Welcome back, you two," Bridget said as she came over to them.  Her voice was clearly nervous.

"Just relax, Bridget," David said in a low voice that only the three of them could hear.  "We've got this covered."

She nodded at him, trying to smile.  They ordered dinner, and she went off to fill their order.

"You're awfully confident in us being able to stop them."

"As long as she makes it out of the building, it doesn't really matter."

"Be a pretty big loss for her if they're able to destroy the place."

"If we can't do our jobs well enough to prevent that, I'll rebuild the pub for her out of my own damned pocket."

Vivian looked at him in surprise.

"There are seven of us on this case.  If that's not enough to stop a bunch of punks, then the entire group of us need retraining."

"Fair enough," she said.

The two chatted about little things while they ate.  It was after midnight, and the pub would close soon.  They would not leave the building until the attack happened.

Once Bridget had officially shut the pub for the night, David and Vivian escorted her to the back door.  They stayed with her while they all waited.

After about a half hour, David pulled out his mirror and contacted Joe.

"Anything?" he asked.

"We've seen some movement, but no gathering yet.  Go ahead and keep this connection.  That way I can let you know as soon as anything goes down."

David nodded, setting his mirror on a nearby table.  They waited for another hour before anything happened.

"David, you there?"

David picked up his mirror.  "Yeah."

"We've got a group of guys coming down the street.  They look like they might be the ones we're waiting for.  Come on to the front door.  Tom's already watching the back.  He'll get Bridget out as soon as the shit starts."

"Okay."

David put his mirror away.

"We've got to go now," he told Bridget.  She nodded jerkily.  "You'll be safe.  Just stick by this door... but don't stand right in front of it.  If necessary, Tom will blast through it to get you out of here, and you don't want to get hurt being rescued."

Bridget nodded again, too nervous to talk.

"Okay.  You ready?" he asked Vivian.

"Let's do it."

They made their way toward the front door.  They weren't quite to it yet when the first blast hit the building.  The ceiling shook, and dust fell, but the structure was a tough one, and it didn't even crack under the impact.

David and Vivian both morphed their clothes back into their uniforms, and then they prepared to open the front door.

"You open it while standing behind it.  I'll go through, and you can follow me," David said.

Vivian nodded.  She knew he was protecting her with his own body, but she accepted that, for the moment.

"Now!" David said.  Vivian yanked open the door, staying under cover.  David stepped out onto the walk in front of the building.

"RIMOHR OFFICERS!  DROP YOUR WANDS IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL BE HEXED!" David shouted at the top of his voice.  This invited three serious energy balls in his direction, but he was able to duck those.  The other Rimohrs fired from cover at those who had attacked David, and they were down quickly.

Vivian emerged from the building to nearly have her head blown off.  David pushed her sideways at the last second, and fired a heavy lightning bolt at her attacker, who went down shuddering and twitching.

The battle didn't last very long.  The hoods weren't skilled, and the Rimohrs had better position.  In a matter of seconds, all of them were lying on the ground.  Most were not injured, but a couple would require trips to the infirmary.

David walked over to the apparent leader of this group, reached down and hauled him to his feet.  He then grabbed the man's sleeve and pulled it up, exposing his forearm.  Sure enough, the tattoo of The Clan was found there.

"You know, I would have thought with Kendall out of the loop, you idiots would have gone away."

The guy snorted derisively.  "Kendall wasn't anyone.  He ran things up at the school, and he couldn't even do that right."

"So, if Kendall's not the leader of The Clan, then who is?" David asked.

"Wouldn't you like to fuckin' know," the guy sneered.

"That's why I asked the question," David replied calmly.

"Go blow yourself."

"Don't have to; your mother said she'd do it."

"You son of a bitch," the guy snarled, and swung on David.  David nailed him with a vicious right cross that put the guy firmly on the ground, his head spinning with the impact.

"That... could be considered provoking him," Joe said with a grin.

"Yeah, well... he's already given us one important piece of information.  Actually, two."

"Two?"

"First, The Clan is branching out into racketeering.  Second, that Wendell Kendall wasn't the leader of The Clan."

"Perhaps he's just saying that to screw with us?"

"Maybe, but I doubt it.  The way the comment came out, it didn't sound rehearsed."

"Okay, fair enough.  But it doesn't really tell us much that we didn't already kind-of know.  Someone else is calling the shots now."

"Yeah.  But it gives us something else to ask them about during interrogation.  Maybe someone will slip."

"Do you mean that literally, or figuratively?" one of the other agents asked derisively.

David looked at him crossly.  "How many people have you busted this year?"

The man walked away scowling.  The answer to the question was "none", which was why David had asked it.

"No way to make friends," Joe warned.

"His kind of friend, I don't need.  I got stabbed in the back by one of my colleagues twice last year.  I'm not letting it happen again."

Joe nodded.  Raising his voice, he said, "Okay, let's get these assholes rounded up."

David went back into the pub, to make sure that Bridget was all right.

When she saw him, she hugged him tightly, then gave him a strong kiss.

"Thank you," she said unnecessarily when she let go of him.

"My pleasure," he told her.  "You're okay?"

"Yeah, nothing happened back here."

"Okay.  Report any damage to the building.  We'll need it for the case files, and the government will reimburse you for the repair costs, since we essentially caused them by waiting for The Clan to attack."

Bridget nodded.

"I've gotta go.  Paperwork to do," he said.

Bridget smiled at him.  "Okay, handsome.  You take it easy."

"You, too."

 David was working on the serial killer case when he was interrupted by Tanya again.

"Hey, David?  Someone out here to see you.  Says he's your little brother.  I didn't know you had family here."

"Not that kind of little brother," David said with a grin.  "Show him in."

Rick walked in and looked around.

"Hey, Rick.  What's up?"

"I've never been in your office before.  Cool.  Um, anyway, I was wondering if you had a minute.  I'm having some problems with one of my teachers, and I wanted to get some advice."

"Okay, sure.  Take a seat."

Rick sat down while David closed the office door.  He came back, sat down in his own chair, and asked, "So, who are you having difficulty with?"

"Prof. Rutherford."

"Okay.  Is the problem personal, or academic?"

"I'm not sure.  She seems to be riding me awfully hard in class.  I don't know if I'm just doing that bad, or if she doesn't like me."

"How badly are you doing?" David asked.

"About a C."

"About a C?"

Rick blushed.  "Okay, it's a D+."

"Have you asked her for additional help, to get a better understanding of the material?"

"I don't really care that much about the material.  The class is boring.  I thought we'd be doing some really cool stuff, moving around boulders and making huge waves.  So far, we haven't done anything except sit and read."

David nodded, then rose from his chair.  "Come on," he said.  Rick followed him out of the office.

David looked to Seth and said, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Rick followed David out to the front of the building.  They then walked over toward the river.

"So, you figured that you'd be doing stuff like this," David said, and moved his hand.  A column of dirt thrust up from the ground and then arched over until it met the ground again, forming a perfect half-circle large enough that they could walk through it.

"Or maybe this," David said, and waved his hand at the river.  A column of twisting water erupted, spiraling upwards and then blossoming into a series of rings that adorned the outside of the column.

"Yeah!  That's cool!" Rick enthused.

David let the water column collapse.

"I didn't learn to do that until my fourth semester of TEM.  I didn't learn to do the arch this well until my third semester, but that's because I had problems.

"TEM is a hard subject.  If she tried to have you do terramandy right now, you couldn't.  You don't yet know enough of what you have to know to make it work.  She warned you at the very beginning of the year, I know, that you wouldn't be doing fancy stuff in this first semester."

"Yeah, but... this feels like damned high school algebra all over again!"

David chuckled.  "If you want to get to the fun stuff, you have to work through the boring stuff.  In fact, if you don't take in the boring stuff well enough, you'll never be able to do the fun stuff."

"Ugh.  You mean, I really do have to know all this shit?"

"Yes.  And know it well, if you want to be any good."

"Dammit."

"If you didn't want to work that hard, why in the world did you come to Woodward?  You had to know its reputation..."

"I want to be a really good wizard."

"Being a really good wizard means working your ass off," David pointed out.  "In my first year, I was probably putting in eight to ten hours a day on school work."

"And now?" Rick wondered.

"About six.  The rest of my time is spent working."

"When do you have any fun?"

"Rick... at my level, schoolwork is fun.  I'm learning what I want to learn, discovering the things I want to know.  But if you mean, when do I cut loose and just relax... six hours of schoolwork, eight to ten hours of real work, and four hours of sleep, that's only eighteen to twenty hours of the day.  I've still got four to six hours to have fun."

"You only get four hours of sleep a night?"

"I'm a demighost.  That's all I need."

"Damn, that must be nice."

David chuckled.  The line was very reminiscent of his classmates in his first years at the academy.

"It has its benefits."

"So, back to my problem... what do you think I should do?"

"If you're not interested in working that hard, you should change your class to something else next semester.  Prof. Rutherford is only going to get more demanding as time goes on.  On the other hand, if you put forth the effort, she will do everything she can to help you understand the subject.  I should know; she had to put up with me while I was taking classes in TEM."

"But... you can do that shit," Rick said, motioning to the arch.

"I can do that now.  I had a lot of trouble in the beginning.  But that's what I mean about school being fun.  I'm doing Elemandy as directed study now, and I'm discovering all sorts of interesting things I can do.  Of course, you don't get to that point until at least your fifth year, but it's something to look forward to."

"I guess.  I just don't know if I want to spend my time staring at equations and theories for the next six months."

"Well, that's a choice I can't make for you.  If you're really that unsure, I'd suggest you not take TEM next semester, and think about it without having the classwork to weigh you down.  Besides, then you might discover something you like even more.  And if you decide you do want to learn Elemandy, you can simply start taking TEM again."

"Yeah.  That's a good idea.  I think that's what I'll do.  Thanks, David."

"No problem.  You want to go to lunch?"

"Sure."

"Okay, let me go get Jailla from the office."

The two came back into the security office.  Rick looked around while David put away a couple folders he'd been dealing with.  He didn't like leaving anything open on his desk when he wasn't around.  He then motioned to Jailla, who hopped up onto his shoulder.

While David had been dealing with his files, Rick had been looking around.

"You keep pictures of naked women in your office?" Rick asked.

David looked at Rick balefully.  "They're dead, Rick."

"What?  Oh, gross."

David smirked, knowing that Rick was ogling their bodies.  The killer had left them pristine enough that it was hard to tell, at a cursory glance, that they were dead.  "These are part of the investigation I'm doing as a Rimohr."

"What's this?" he asked, pointing to the scrap of paper with "Time Din" on it.

"The last victim had that in her hand.  We're trying to figure out what it means.  We figure she was trying to tell us who her killer was, but we think she wasn't able to tear off enough of whatever it was to give us the entire name.  We tried figuring out what the place was, with no luck."

"Time Din," Rick said.  "Doesn't make sense.  What do you figure it belongs to?"

"We think it's probably the name of a club or something, where she met him.  Unfortunately, there are no clubs in either of the two cities with names that have 'Time Din' in them.  Anyway, let's go to lunch."

"Time Din," Rick muttered to himself.  After a moment, he asked, "Have you looked in the dictionary for words that start with d-i-n?"

"Uh... no, we hadn't thought of that."  Idiot, David thought about himself.

"Maybe you can figure something out that way.  I mean... Din... ding... dinosaur... dinner... hey, maybe it's a restaurant?"

David stared at him incredulously.  "Not a restaurant, Nick.  A diner.  Fuck, why the hell didn't we think of that?  This is probably from the top of a menu!"

"So... Time Diner?  Weird name for a restaurant."

"That's probably not the whole name," David said.  "Thanks, Rick.  You've just given us a lot of help.  Now I'll buy you lunch."

"But lunch is free," Rick objected light-heartedly.

"Which means you can have just as much of it as you want," David told him with a grin.

God, what a fucking idiot I am!  Why didn't I think of that?

 "Charles Faggioni, Gulbort Duganyiy," David said.  Behind him stood three other Rimohrs.  They were in the Mystic Wolf Pub, where the two men had just come to try, once more, to "reason" with Bridget.

"Yes, officers?" Faggioni asked.

"You're under arrest," Vivian said.  She was one of the Rimohrs with David, along with Tom and a man named Deke.

"What's the charge?" Faggioni asked coolly.

David said, "Extortion, racketeering, and conspiracy."

"My.  That sounds nasty."

"Hands out."

"As you wish, officer," Faggioni said.  Both he and Gulbort put their hands in front of them.  Faggioni saw the look on David's face.  "Did you expect us to resist?"

"Oh, please do," David replied.

"Yes, I know how you officers would enjoy that.  No, my friend and I will accompany you willingly.  We'll be out in a couple of hours, anyway."

"Not likely," Vivian said.  "The magistrate isn't even in this district this week."

Faggioni frowned.  "No matter.  A little rest for the two of us.  I'm sure this matter will all be cleared up quickly.  We haven't broken any laws, officers.  Merely offered some assistance to our local shopkeepers."

"Yeah, under threat of violence," David replied.

"Oh, that would be nasty of us, wouldn't it, officer?  But that is something you will never be able to prove."

"Wanna bet?" David asked.

The man looked at him calmly, but David saw a hint of worry behind the facade.

"Let's take 'em downtown," David said to Vivian.

"Gorumshead doesn't have a 'downtown', as such," she objected.

David rolled his eyes.  "It's just an expression.  Sheesh."

Vivian giggled, and then they followed as the other two Rimohrs led the suspects out of the pub.  This had gone far more easily than David had expected it to.  That worried him.  If they were this cooperative upon arrest, it stood to reason they had an expectation of winning in court.  What could they have up their sleeves?

David was in a staff meeting with the dean and other non-faculty department heads, when he received an urgent call on his mirror.

"Excuse me, Ma'am," David said.  He pulled out his mirror, and answered the call.

"Yes?" David asked.

Healer Hall was on the other side of the mirror.  "David, I have a young lady here in the infirmary.  She has apparently been raped."

"On my way," David said.  Healer Hall nodded, and then they fogged off with each other.  David stood.  "If you'll excuse me, ma'am, duty calls."

"Keep me informed, David," Dean Lengel ordered.  He nodded to her, and marched out of the room.

As the meeting was in Beckett Hall, it didn't take David long to get to the infirmary.  He stopped in at her office to talk to Annie first.

"What's her physical condition?"

"Bruised.  Apparently, she was tied up, then he started getting violent.  Nothing really serious, but she's going to be sore for a few days."

"And emotionally?"

"She's pretty shaky.  You might want to walk softly."

"Do my best."

Annie nodded at him, and then David went to the indicated room in the infirmary.

David was busy pulling out some parchment to make notes on as he started to speak, and he didn't see who he was talking to.

"Okay, ma'am, my name is David Stroud and I'm the Chief of... Rose?" he said, interrupting his spiel.

Lying on the infirmary bed was Rose Waters, David's sex-ed partner.

Rose started crying, and then reached out for David.  He bent over and hugged her tightly, letting her cry it out for a long time.  He rocked slightly and rubbed her back.  The case could wait; she needed to be supported just now.

Finally, Rose was able to pull herself together.  She let David go, and he straightened, but stayed close to her.

"What happened?" David asked softly.

"That... fucker... beat me!"

"Annie said you were raped."

"Can you call it rape, if, when we started, I was willing?"

"That depends on if you told him to stop at any point."

"I did."

"Then it's rape.  Who was it?"

"His name is Dennis Waldrop."  She gave David a description of the guy.

"Is he a student here?"

"I guess so.  I mean, he wore our uniform, and he acted like a student.  But I've never seen him in any of our classes throughout the years."

David nodded.  "Are you up to telling me what happened?"

Rose sniffled, then nodded, wiping her nose.  "Well, he'd been getting friendly with me for the last few weeks.  Finally he asked me out.  Well, I said yes.  We had a couple dates, then he asked if I was ready for us to have sex.

"I agreed with that, and so we made a date for last night to do it in my room.  When he showed up, he had a bag with him.  I asked him what was in it, and he started to try to convince me to try bondage."

David smirked.

"Yeah, exactly," she said, seeing the look on his face.  "I told him I was already into that kind of thing, and I was perfectly happy to be tied up.  I shouldn't have been so goddamned eager.

"Once he had me bound, he started to get violent.  He was slapping me and choking me.  He even punched me once when I told him to stop.  I was pleading with him to just untie me and leave.  I told him I wasn't interested in this kind of bondage, and that he needed to just back off."

"Had you agreed on a safe word?" David asked.

"Yes, but he ignored it when I used it."

David nodded.

"Anyway, when he was good and ready, he got undressed, cut off my clothes with a knife, and then... he..."

David pulled her close, as she was obviously near tears again.

"He penetrated you?"

"Many times.  He was there for like four hours."

"And you told him, verbally, to stop."

"Yes.  At least a couple dozen times."

David nodded, making notes.  "You said the date was last night.  Why are you only reporting it now?"

"He left me tied up!" she said.  "He finished what he was doing and just... left!  If it hadn't been for Tina, I'd still be there."

"Tina?"

"My friend.  We had planned to go to the concert tonight.  When she couldn't get a hold of me, she asked maintenance to let her into my room."

"Maintenance let her in, without contacting security?"

Rose shrugged.

David nodded and made a note.  "The ropes he tied you with, are they still in your room?"

"Yeah.  The maintenance guy used a spell to cut me loose, and then they brought me here."

"Okay.  That's enough for now.  I'm sure we'll need to talk more about this in the next few days."

David put away his parchment, and looked at Rose, his demeanor changing from official to friend.

"Now... are you okay?  Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Catch this motherfucker," she said.

David hugged her, and she gripped him tightly.  Finally, they separated.

"If you want to talk, just mirror me."

"Thanks, David."

"I've got to go get started on this now."

Rose nodded, and then David left her.

David returned to Beckett Hall, making his way to the Dean's office.  He knocked on the door, and then entered.

"What's going on, David?" she asked.

"Can you check to see if there is a Dennis Waldrop attending the academy?"

Dean Lengel pulled out her ledger and opened it to the right page.  She looked down the list, and then closed it.  "No one by that name."

"Shit."

"What happened?"

"Rose Waters was raped by a man claiming to be a student of the school, and using the name Dennis Waldrop.  Let me check with the Rimohr office real quick, and see if they have anything on the name."

David checked in with the office, but the only Dennis Waldrop they had on record lived south of Senesty, and did not fit the description that Rose had given.

"So our perp was using a fake name.  If he lives in Gorumshead, he'll be easy to track down.  Rose gave us a full description, right down to his.. uh... 'size'."

Dean Lengel blushed.

"I'm going to go down to her room now and look for evidence.  I'm also going to have to have a talk with the maintenance chief."

"Why?"

"Apparently, when Rose's friend was concerned about her well-being, she called maintenance.  Maintenance let her into the room without contacting the security office."

"That's the way we used to do it," Dean Lengel told him.

"Yes, but not how we do it now."

"He probably forgot."

"I'll make sure he doesn't forget in the future."

Dean Lengel nodded.

"Is there anything more you need from me?" David asked.

"Not right now.  Keep me in the loop on this one, David."

"Will do."

David left Beckett Hall and rode the rock lifts down until he was at Thunderbird Dorm.  He entered Rose's room and looked around.  There was no sign of anything in the living room or kitchen area.  The bathroom looked as though it had been used to shower recently.  The bedroom was a disaster, however.  The bedclothes were twisted and pulled free from the matress.  The pillows were on the floor.  A pile of rope lay next to the bed.  David crouched and picked up one of the ropes.  The knot was a basic square knot; anyone with even basic rope knowledge would know how to tie it.

David pulled out his mirror, and he contacted Tanya.

"What's up, Chief?" she asked.

"Bring the evidence kit down to Thunderbird Dorm.  Room C2, if you would."

"What have we got?"

"A mess," David replied.

"On my way."