All or Nothing in Magic City (Magic City Chronicles Book 8) Read online

  All or Nothing in Magic City

  Magic City Chronicles™ Book Eight

  TR Cameron

  Michael Anderle

  Martha Carr

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2021 LMBPN Publishing

  Cover by Fantasy Book Design

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  Version 1.00 August, 2021

  ebook ISBN: 978-1-64971-957-7

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64971-958-4

  The Oriceran Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-21 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.

  Dedication

  For those who seek wonder around every corner and in each turning page. Thank you choosing to share the adventure with me. And, as always, for Dylan and Laurel.

  — TR Cameron

  The All or Nothing Magic City Team

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Wendy L Bonell

  Larry Omans

  Dave Hicks

  John Ashmore

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editor

  Skyhunter Editing Team

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Thank you!

  Author Notes - TR Cameron

  Author Notes - Martha Carr

  Other series in the Oriceran Universe:

  Books By Michael Anderle

  Connect with The Authors

  Chapter One

  Ruby traveled along the rooftops a few blocks southeast of the Strip, looking for trouble. She said, “Nothing here so far. What about you all?”

  Her boyfriend, Demetrius, was the first to reply. “The drones don’t have anything interesting, other than some drunk tourists wandering around.” His eyes were all over the city, courtesy of a small horde of commercial drones that his advanced AI bots ran for him. They would alert him to any unexpected deviations from the norm, including but not limited to those related to overambitious alcohol consumption.

  Her sister asked, “Are the tourists cuter than Jewel?”

  As always, the mocking use of her callsign irritated Ruby. “Shut up, you. D, do not answer that.”

  Idryll, Ruby’s companion, replied, “Nothing here in the south, either. Unless you want to count the pair of drunk dwarves singing an off-key duet. Frankly, that could be considered criminal, given the volume and the utter absence of skill.”

  Ruby laughed. “If a day ever passes when you don’t have something to complain about, I’ll be sure to mark it down on my calendar so we can celebrate each year. I’ll record it in my journal for the sake of future Mirra, too. On this day, my companion did not complain once. So, there’s hope.”

  The shapeshifter countered, “Anyone forced to spend as much time with you as I would be in a perennial bad mood, too. Frankly, I’m an absolute joy to be around, considering.”

  Morrigan replied, “Having grown up with you, I can verify the truthfulness of that statement. Also, nothing yet to the southwest, either. I wonder, will it be a quiet night in Magic City?”

  Ruby said, “With friends like you, who needs the Paranoid Defense Agency?”

  Idryll laughed. “At least we don’t have to worry about them anymore.”

  Morrigan's voice was full of doubt. “I’m not sure of that.”

  Ruby paused to rest, perched on the edge of a building and surveying the street below. Anyone looking up would see a woman in black leather, with a dragon face mask and a sword hilt sticking up over her shoulder. They might also notice the bulletproof vest and the pistol on her thigh. Her other weapons, both arcane and not, were less obvious but at least as potent. “Andrews and his sidekick were afraid. I saw it in their eyes, both of them.”

  Idryll replied, “Scared of me, I’m sure.”

  Ruby smiled at the boast. “Who wouldn’t be, really?”

  Morrigan laughed and seemed about to say something when Demetrius broke in. “An alarm is going off at one of the power plants I monitor. It’s directly south of the center of the Strip. Idryll's closest.” He didn’t talk about his work much, but Ruby knew he had gigs providing cybersecurity to a substantial number of businesses around town, including several industrial sites.

  Morrigan asked, “Do we care? Last I checked, we weren’t utility people.”

  Demetrius matched her sassy tone. “I think you might make an exception in this case. Internal cameras show the intruders are all Drow. There are a bunch of them. I’m sending drones down to get a better look.”

  Ruby had enabled the infomancer’s drone fleet by hiring him through her family’s casino, Spirits. She had a certain latitude, now that bringing Daphne into the business had proven to be lucrative, and she used that flexibility for all that it was worth. Plus, since I’m still working there one day a week unpaid, it’s almost fair. She said, “Thank goodness. This patrol was getting downright boring. Glad to help out. Barb, can you get us there?”

  Her sister replied, “Of course. I’ve been to all of them as part of my day job. You know, if you did any work, you might have portals to useful places, too.”

  While she waited for Morrigan to arrive, Ruby asked, “Any sign of the Hat?”

  Demetrius laughed. “Is that his super villain codename now? The Hat?”

  “Do you have anything better?”

  After a pause, he replied, “Actually, I guess I don’t. Anyway, no sign of the Drow in the fedora.”

  Idryll muttered, “That hat will be mine. Then I shall be known as the Hat.”

  A couple of minutes later, they were under cover outside the fence that protected the site. The plant was of the solar variety, and the central building was some distance away. Rectangular panels surrounded the structure to gather in the sun. Even the building’s roof was covered with them, preventing their usual means of ingress. Ruby asked, “What do you remember?”

  Morrigan
cut a striking figure in the red cowl that complemented her magical mask and the impressive bow in her hand. She replied, “Pretty normal stuff. Huge building filled with lots of mammoth unfamiliar equipment, with tons of power lines running all over the place.”

  “It’s not like a gas or oil plant, right? It’s not particularly explosive, I mean.”

  Demetrius confirmed, “That’s correct. There shouldn’t be anything that would directly lead to an explosion in there. But there’s a lot of electricity, which carries its own danger.”

  Idryll asked, “Who does this station supply?”

  “It’s the primary source of power for the Strip.”

  Morrigan sounded doubtful. “Really?”

  Ruby could picture Demetrius nodding in what she considered his “professor” mode. He replied, “Really, really. If I remember right, the casino owners and the Council all have an ownership stake in the place. Lessens the possibility of someone extorting them for power, I guess.”

  She nodded. “That’s on-brand. Pretty smart business decision too, especially if it’s not particularly volatile, which lessens liability issues since they’re inexpert in the field. So, let’s get in there before the Drow start breaking important stuff.”

  She led her partners on a quick jog through the solar panels, moving in a slight crouch to stay below the tops of them. The lenses in her mask flipped automatically through scanning modes, looking for traps. She didn’t expect to find any. The invaders had no real reason to place traps this far out unless the whole operation was one big ploy aimed at them, and she wasn’t so arrogant as to think she rated that high on the local criminal element’s to-do list. They reached the building without detecting any opposition, Morrigan fooling the cameras with her newly learned illusion trick. Ruby hadn’t yet had time to get the details but knew that she was pretty good at spoofing visual sensing.

  Her sister asked, “How do we want to play this?” Her bow had been in her fist from the moment they exited the portal, and the fingers on her free hand clenched and unclenched like she was limbering them for a speedier draw from the quiver at her back.

  Ruby said, “Any more information from inside, D?”

  He sighed. “No. I’m pretty sure they’ve got an infomancer blocking me. The images I can access are too static to be trusted.”

  Ruby frowned. “As if they let us see they were in there, then cut off what they were doing?”

  “Exactly as if.”

  Okay, maybe we’re higher on that to-do list than I thought. Dammit. “We should assume they’re ready for us. Still, let’s go in quietly if we can.”

  Morrigan replied, “Given that there’s only one door unless we want to try to enter through the loading docks, that’s going to be difficult.”

  Idryll said, “I vote for the loading dock.”

  After a moment of thought, Ruby nodded. “Here’s what we’ll do. Barb, you stay here. When I call for it, make some noise, bang on the door, something. Then Cat and I will sneak inside.”

  Good-natured sarcasm dripped from her sister’s words. “Wow, did you have to go to school to become such a brilliant strategist?”

  Ruby replied, “Shut it,” and ran with her partner at her heels. Upon arrival at the heavy garage door, she gestured for her companion to take the lead. The shapeshifter grew as she moved toward the garage door handle, her body bulking up but not losing its humanoid form. Ruby said, “Barb, go.”

  When the noisy distraction sounded from the front of the building, Idryll gave the handle a solid yank. The lock holding it broke, and she lifted the door. Ruby covered herself in illusionary invisibility and rolled inside as soon as there was space to do so. She came up in a defensive crouch, ready to fight.

  The area was filled with crates on pallets, wooden boxes with stenciled letters and numbers that meant nothing to her, some of them partially covered by tarps. Sounds emanated from deeper into the building, and she caught a faint thermal signature to her left. She crept toward it, ready to attack, but discovered only a uniformed security guard lying on the floor unconscious. She checked his pulse, which didn’t seem right. “Dammit. Downed security guard. Cat, see what you can do for him. Barb, get in here.”

  Another thermal plume was visible a dozen feet away, and she approached under her veil. Ruby got behind the Drow sentry, who held a rifle in a position that indicated he knew how to use it. She slinked in close enough to discharge a dart into the back of his neck, then caught him before he could hit the floor and make noise as the tranquilizer overwhelmed his system. She dragged him out of the way, pleased with the success of that particular maneuver.

  A minute later, laughter came from high above. Male laughter. The male laughter of the hat-wearing Drow. “Magic City’s would-be heroes have arrived. I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show up.” Then, without changing his mocking tone, he said, “Beat them down.”

  Chapter Two

  “Well, hell,” Ruby said. “All right. Spread out, do what you can, try not to kill anyone. Barb, unless you get up high, I doubt you’ll be able to use your bow. And going up there probably makes you the most obvious target.”

  Her sister complained, “That’s no fun. Magic it is. And knives.”

  Ruby rounded the corner, fully aware that a pair of enemies awaited her. She grabbed the pile of crates behind them with force magic and pulled it over, causing each of her foes to jump aside in opposite directions. She used more force magic to leap over the barrier she’d created and landed beside the first, a Drow woman who was already scrabbling to her feet encased in a protective sphere of shadow magic.

  Ruby deemed herself close enough to trust her accuracy. She drew her pistol and fired at a downward angle. The anti-magic bullet penetrated the shield and continued through to break the other woman’s shin. Her foe screamed, and her magical protection fell. A dart to her muscular bare arm took her out of the fight.

  Idryll shouted a warning. Ruby dropped into a crouch and spun in time to see the shapeshifter tackle the other one of the pair, who’d been aiming a rifle at the back of her head. “Thanks, partner.”

  The shapeshifter’s arm pistoned down, and a moment later the rifle went flying toward the open garage door. “No problem at all,” she growled.

  Demetrius said, “Did some research. The part of the company our folks don’t own is in the hands of a human corporation. That didn’t seem particularly problematic at first, but then I traced their corporate philanthropy. They’ve been giving money to politicians who have taken hard public anti-magical stances.”

  Ruby shook her head. “At least the Hat is consistent.”

  Demetrius gave a dark chuckle. “So, you’re seriously going with that, then? No kidding? The Hat. Please take him out so I don’t have to hear you say that name anymore.”

  She growled, “Count on it.”

  Morrigan crept forward with a knife in her off-hand and her main one empty. Her target faced away from her. She took him out without a fight, tapping him on the side of the neck with her stun knuckles. He fell awkwardly, and she failed to catch him, allowing him to land with a clatter.

  An instant later, a second guard ran into view, already firing. Morrigan dove aside, cursing herself for not noticing the second of the pair. “Watch out. They seem to have decent discipline and are watching out for one another.”

  Confirmations came from her partners as she grabbed a pair of discs from her belt with her left hand. She raised her right arm and shot her grapnel up into the rafters. The tiny motor attached to the device lifted her, and she cast the grenades as soon as she was high enough to see over the obstructions. They discharged a second later, taking out a few more of the surrounding Drow.

  A scrape from the side gave away another enemy, and her head snapped around, finding a rifle pointing up at her. Morrigan released the line, dropped to the floor, and threw herself sideways to hide behind the nearest stack of crates. “There are a lot of these jerks here.”

  Ruby replied, “Yeah, which
makes you wonder where he got them. I thought we knocked him out of operation for at least a while after we took out all the people at the warehouse.”

  Idryll said, “Lots of Drow around on both planets. Maybe he has deeper connections with them than we assumed and used whoever was available as a matter of convenience before. Now we’ve forced him to turn to his people as a resource.”

  Morrigan rounded the next corner and discovered another pair of enemies waiting. She reached out with her magic and yanked on the rifle strap of the nearest, jerking the man forward and ruining his shot. That forced the other to lift his rifle skyward to avoid shooting his companion.

  She blasted the first with force magic, sending him hurtling back into his partner. They dropped in a tangle, and she ran ahead to finish the battle, only to skid to a stop before reaching them. A canvas bag was bound to a nearby post. A familiar canvas bag. She swore, then said, “I have a satchel charge here.”

  Ruby quipped, “Did you bring enough for the whole class?” as Idryll somersaulted over the electrical blast her opponent had fired at her. She kicked backward as soon as she landed. The blow caught her foe in mid-turn, slamming him on the hip and knocking him off balance. She turned and slashed with her claws, cutting into the arm he raised in a panicked defense and slashing along the part of his chest it failed to protect. She finished him with a jump kick to the face.