In Plain Sight

“If you’re suggesting a disguise rune,” Alex said, trying hard not to roll his eyes. “You know those never work, and even when they do, any magic at all disrupts them. I couldn’t even ride the crawler while using one.”

Iggy did roll his eyes — and shook his head.

“My dear boy,” he said in his most professorial tone. “You haven’t used one of my disguise runes yet. They’re as solid as Gibraltar.”

Alex’s jaw dropped open for a moment, then he snapped it closed so hard his teeth clacked.

“Why didn’t you teach me that?” he protested. “Do you know how useful that would have been whenever I was tailing someone, or doing something questionably legal?”

“That’s exactly why I didn’t teach it to you,” Iggy said. “It’s so useful, you’d justify using it all the time.”

Alex was beginning to see the problem. “How much does it cost to cast?” he asked.

“Forty dollars a rune,” Iggy said. “Lots of expensive materials.”

Alex whistled. He’d have burned through everything he had in less than a week. He might anyway, if he wanted to get into The Emerald Room.

“I figure you’ll need four separate runes,” Iggy said. “One for your clothes, one for your face, one for your money, and another one for your face when you leave.”

“Why don’t you do them all in one rune?” Alex asked, doing the math in his head and feeling his wallet groan.

“Illusions work best when you don’t ask them to do too much,” Iggy said.

“So why do I need a new face when I leave?”

“Because, if you’re seen leaving, you don’t want anyone to be able to identify you later.” He waved a hand at Alex. “Now go away,” he said. “It’ll take me close to ten hours to do all four castings, so you’ll have to go tomorrow night.”

“That doesn’t leave me much time,” Alex pointed out.

“Can’t be helped,” Iggy said. “On the bright side, it gives you time to figure out how you’re going to get the Broker fellow to talk. Now leave me be; I’m going to my workshop and don’t wish to be disturbed.”

The word workshop hit Alex like a runaway cab and he suddenly realized what he’d been missing.

“Thanks Iggy,” he yelled as he sprinted down the stairs and out into the street.

* * *

Ever since he’d searched Thomas Rockwell’s apartment, something had been bothering him. Runewrights like Iggy and Alex had their workshops inside their vaults, but now that Alex thought about it, Thomas didn’t have a vault rune in his lore book. That meant he had to have a workshop in the real world, somewhere he could keep his supplies, write his runes, and research his craft. Runewright work tended to involve toxic and caustic substances, something no landlord would allow in an apartment building, so runewrights usually did their work elsewhere.

All Alex had to do was find where Thomas did his work.

As he rode the crawler south, he wondered what he might find in Thomas’ workshop. Would Sorsha’s missing rune diagrams be there? Had he found the Archimedean Monograph and fled with it?

More likely the only thing there is Thomas’ shadow burned onto a wall.

That thought soured Alex’s mood. It was further soured when he exited the crawler a few blocks from Thomas’ building. The FBI still had the building under surveillance. He wondered what Sorsha and her goons would do if they heard he was back?

Pushing that thought aside, Alex entered the building and followed the signs downstairs to the basement where he found the apartment of the building superintendent.

“What can I do for ya?” he asked in a brogue that could only have come from Scotland. The super was a short, slight man of about fifty. He had a mop of graying blond hair that looked like it resisted any attempts he might have made to tame it, and bright blue eyes over an infectious smile.

“I’m a private detective.” Alex handed the man his card.

The super took out a pair of wire spectacles and scrutinized the card for a moment.

“Now how can I be helping a shamus?” he asked, handing the card back.

“I’m looking into the disappearance of one of your tenants, Thomas Rockwell.”

“Thomas is missing?” he said. The super’s smile evaporated.

“His sister said he’s been gone for almost a week.” Alex nodded. “Asked me to help find him.”

“That’s terrible.” The super’s voice dropped to a whisper.

“Did you know Thomas well, Mister…?”

“Flynn,” he said. “Michael Flynn. And yes, I knew him. He was a simple, kind man, kept his apartment clean, always paid his rent on time. I liked him. He even helped me with the accounts from time to time and didn’t ask a penny for it.”

“Did you know that Thomas was a runewright?”

“He had a rune that helped with my rheumatism.” Michael nodded. “I paid him for those, of course; I don’t take charity.”

“Do you know where he did his work? He would have had a workshop, probably nearby.”

“He had to fix up a rune for me one time,” he said, nodding. “He left and came back about an hour later.”