Chapter 27: Chapter 27: House of cards

Today was the day. Toby had gotten the call that the poison was ready to be picked up.

He needed to check on a few things before heading over to Gail’s to pick it up.

Anna was indeed still in her room. Not that he went up there to see, he just pulled out his phone and checked the tracking app he had installed on hers. With GPS not working since the fall, it would normally not work but Toby used a skill of his to link the app to his phone. So long as both phones had power, the app would tell him where her phone was in relation to his.

Since Anna was a teenager, she would rather be caught dead, than without her phone. And that hadn’t changed after the fall. Even though she didn’t speak with many of her previous friends anymore.

With Norman, he had done something a bit different, since his skill only let him tether one item to another. He had simply sewn a short-range radio tracking chip into the man’s clothing. The tiny device was easily inserted into the seam of a pocket with Norman none the wiser.

The range was limited to ten miles but Toby had never seen Norman go outside the city so it was more than enough. The tag wasn’t all that useful, only allowing Toby to see where Norman had gone. And the device used to scan for the chip was rather bulky. So no sneaking up to spy on what he was doing in person. Toby would just mark the area on his map, then check it out when Norman was asleep at home.

When he first came across the blood scene in the forest, it came as a bit of a surprise to Toby. Mostly because it was so out of place for Norman. Toby couldn’t quite figure out what had occurred at the first site. But then he came across the second site he wanted to check out. The overgrown field contained a few patches of dead grass along with the smell of death, courtesy of liquified animal remains. Or so he hoped they were from an animal.

Nothing normal would cause a scene like that so Toby assumed it was magical in nature. It was a clear sign that Norman was escalating his spells. That was not a prospect Toby wanted to consider but that should be handled soon enough.

The van gave a soft whine as Toby backed it out of the driveway and set off to meet with Gail’s minion.

***

Eugene watched the blip move on his tracker. The device was practically archaic, but it worked well enough for what they needed it for.

“He’s on the move, Boss. You want us to secure him?”

“Nah, let the kid hang himself. He needs to learn that playing both sides has consequences. I wanna know what deal he made with the witch. Besides, we got bigger fish to deal with,” Thomas Sin replied as he watched his men gear up for what looked like war.

Eugene grunted in the affirmative. He should thank the guy. If it hadn’t been for that Toby character, they never would have discovered Gail’s little hidey-hole. After that discovery, the Boss had sent men to keep tabs on the building and monitor it with acoustic amplifiers from hidden locations.

They knew a deal was going down between Toby and Gail, they just didn’t know what it was. But they would know soon enough.

“The men are ready. How’s the target?”

Eugene checked the radio scanner, but also his phone. It showed two missed calls. “Two of our spotters picked up his van heading towards Gail’s.”

“Alright, boys!” It’s time to get some payback, and secure our rights to this city once and for all.” There was a roar of agreement from the gathered men at the Boss’s words.

Each man either hopped onto a motorcycle or piled into a van or pickup truck. This mission would cut into their stash of fuel but it was worth it if it meant getting rid of the witch.

***

Toby pulled up outside the closed boutique building and looked around before getting out. Everything was clear, but Toby was still strapped just in case. He didn’t have the speed or strength that a physical classer had, but he had his own strengths.

He didn’t have to wait around long. Soon the same man Toby had helped home exited the side of the building. The big dumb idiot was carrying a milk crate full of bottles filled with black liquid. Toby almost smiled at seeing them. But he managed to restrain his emotions.

Careful to keep a neutral face, he opened the doors on the back of his van.

The man gave Toby a goofy smile as he waved at him. This time, Toby did force a fake smile onto his face.

“Hey, Mister!” The guy practically shouted the words as he jogged over, making the bottles tink together loudly.

The volume of the man’s greeting made Toby wince and he glanced around to ensure they weren’t attracting attention. But the streets were still empty. It wouldn’t be until later that Toby would realize how out of place that was.

“…Hey… you.” Toby didn’t know the man’s name and didn’t care.

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That fact seemed to fly right past the excitable man-child as he finally reached Toby. He held out the crate and Toby wasted no time grabbing it from the man.

“Oh, I almost forgot, Gail said she wanted to meet you before you left. Said she had a present for you.”

‘I’ll bet,’ Toby thought. “I’m kinda in a rush, can’t this wait?”

The man twisted his foot in indecision for a moment before responding. “Gail said not to let you leave without seeing-.”

The man’s words were cut off as something slapped into the side of his head, followed shortly after by the loud retort of a gunshot. Toby wasn’t sure what surprised him the most, the fact that someone had just shot at them, or the fact that the man was alive enough to respond.

“Ow, owie, ouch!” Gail’s flunky cried, rubbing at the side of his head and spreading blood along the side of his face.

Toby didn’t wait around to see what was happening. Taking advantage of the man’s distraction, he tossed the crate into the van as another gunshot rang out. This time the man went down. But it was like that single act had kicked a hornet's nest.

Jacked dudes boiled out of Gail’s building, carrying mostly improvised weapons. Only a few had guns. That wasn’t true for the people approaching on a group of motorcycles and trucks flying down the road towards him.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on. And that Toby knew he was in a bad spot. He jumped into the back of his van, slamming the doors closed behind him. He wasted no time as he stepped on the accelerator and sped out of there, taking a side street. No sooner had he turned the corner when a thunder of weapons fire erupted from behind him.

Toby didn’t stop, he didn’t even slow down. He took turns at recklessly high speeds and cut through streets normally reserved for pedestrians now. Why? Well, it had to do with the truck following him.

He didn’t let off the accelerator, veering through stalls and blaring his horn the entire time. People scrambled to get out of his way as his van tore through the crowded city streets. When he looked back, the pursuer had come to a stop and was backing up.

He may have lost them, for now, but it wouldn’t be long before they caught back up or tried to cut him off. It was clear his plan had just fallen apart. The timing was too perfect, it meant they knew he would be here. Toby couldn’t rule out that they had tracked him and knew where he lived.

All of his careful planning, his years of prep work wasted. Sin’s men would have seen him at Gail’s and the sniper would be able to relay to them what Toby had picked up. That plan was out the window and the most Toby could hope for is Norman to get picked up and hidden away to produce potions for the rest of his miserable life. That was an unacceptable outcome for Toby. It was time to cut and run. Saving this city was not worth his or his sister's life. But he would ensure that Norman would be off the table one way or another before he left.

Toby punched the accelerator when he neared the gate out of the walled section of the city. The guards waved for him to slow but they soon realized he wasn’t going to heed their advice and they dove out of the way moments before he would have run them down. Toby was sure his antics would get the police involved sooner or later. But that would help him more than it would hurt, assuming they weren’t all responding to the massive gunfight going on.

Soon his home street came into view and Toby skidded to a halt in front of his house. He threw the van into park and leaped out of the seat. He spotted Norman relaxing on his front porch with a look of concern on his face. Toby cursed, he had hoped the man was asleep in his house. He didn’t need this added complication right now.

Ignoring the man, Toby raced into his house while checking the tracking app. Anna was still upstairs. Her door would be locked most likely but he didn’t have time to cater to her teenage privacy concerns as he kicked the door in.

“Toby? What the hell!” she screamed.

“Get dressed and pack anything you can carry, we gotta leave.” Toby grabbed a nearby bookbag, dumping the contents out and throwing it to his sister.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“NOW, ANNA!” Toby roared, leaving the girl to pack as he raced to his room to grab a few things.

Toby grabbed a duffel bag and started tossing clothes inside. It didn’t matter to him if they were clean or dirty. Last he grabbed the two boxes of ammo he had for his pistol. It wouldn’t last forever but it was better than nothing.

With that bag packed, He ran past Anna’s room. She was packing, but not quickly enough. He ran into her room and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her along as she complained about him being too rough. He would apologize later, but it was better to be rough now than to end up dead, or worse, in the hands of Sin and his goons.

He wanted to grab food but they just didn’t have time.

With bags in hand, Toby kicked open the front door, only to find Norman standing there looking concerned.

“Toby, what’s going on?”

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