Marcus contemplated not opening, but the knock came again a few seconds later. Then again. Finally, he stood and cracked the door open. Ophelia shivered from behind the threshold, waving at him sheepishly.
"Thin walls." She pursed her lips and tilted her head as if to look past him to make sure he was alone. "May I come in?"
Fuck.
"Look, I don't know what you heard, but everything is fine. I'm just gonna get some sleep." Marcus rubbed the back of his neck.
Ophelia smirked slightly, one eyebrow raising. "Move." She said flatly. "I want to help."
He waited for a moment longer than was probably polite, expecting to see her break into the familiar grin she got when she and her brothers were toying with him. She just shivered.
"Sorry?" He dug his finger in his ear, but moved to the side and let her walk in.
"I want to help." She surged into the room, closing the door behind her like she was afraid he might close it in her face. "I only got one side of the conversation, but I heard something about disabling equipment and somebody taking credit for it." She spun around, the floral skirt swishing beneath her puffy coat. "You're looking for eco-terrorists."
"Did you have a glass pressed to the wall?" Marcus shook his head and leaned back against the now closed door.
"No." She plopped onto the bed, springs creaking in protest. It was difficult to tell, but he thought he'd seen her frosty pink cheeks flush. "Your voice carries."
"Uhuh..." Marcus crossed his arms. "Assuming I was going to do something, why would you want to help?"
"Numerous reasons." She shrugged, gnawing at the end of her thumbnail. "The most important presently being that if I don't help you, you either get arrested or shot."
"And you've got that hardened criminal experience?"
Ophelia rolled her eyes. "When I was with Magical Investigative Services, we did a lot face time with eco-terrorist groups. If there are any on this mountain, I shouldn't have any problems finding them."
Marcus had hoped the uninterrupted eye contact would break her. Send her back to her room, laughing at the funny joke. She still didn't budge, just stared up at him expectantly. "I still don't get it. Even if you are some kind of terrorist whisperer...why risk it?"
"You..." Her eyes met his, and the words seemed to get caught in her throat. Not exactly normal for someone so well spoken. She swallowed and continued, "You're not the only one who cares about the griffons, Marcus. Just let me help."
She was obviously hiding something, but he wasn't in a position to press. At least this way he didn't have to involve James. She'd be able to draw the runes to activate his suit when the time came.
"I don't know what to say." Marcus admitted, rubbing his face before sliding his fingers through his hair.
"You don't need to say anything." She visibly relaxed after he relented. Pulling a map from the pocket of her puffy coat, she spun onto her knees to spread it over the bed. "Shall we find where our friends are?"
Marcus knelt beside her to look over the map. Tracking was one of the hardest parts of his job, but he and James had become very proficient at it over the better part of a decade. Despite being comparatively intelligent, tracking humans was apparently completely different.
Ophelia identified a few spots on the map around the griffon nests that were likely campsites for groups they sought, before she got up to slip into the bathroom to change. Marcus stripped down and pulled on his own suit. He strapped the stun gauntlets to his fists, then pulled gloves on over them before pulling on the rest of his clothes.
"Come here." Ophelia called from the bathroom as the door creaked open.
"Uhh...I'm good?" Marcus screwed up his face.
"You don't want me to activate your jumpsuit?"
"Oh." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Right...yeah."
She was on her hands and knees, finishing drawing out the runes in charcoal on the laminate floor. Marcus swallowed as he watched inert symbols light up one by one along her shoulders and then down her spine.
"Your turn." She jerked her head.
He stepped onto the ritual circle, and she reactivated it without looking down, the charcoal lighting up the same color as the runes. This bathroom was not meant for two, but he was doing his best to give her the space she needed to complete the ritual. Whatever discomfort he was feeling, Ophelia clearly was not. The runes weren't bright enough to see through his clothing, so when she finished the process, she got up and lifted his shirt to make sure they'd all lit.
Marcus' mouth suddenly went dry, a reaction coming over him he hadn't quite expected. She dropped his shirt again, her cheeks flushed, and she waved her hands at him. "Alright, shoo. You're active. Let me finish getting dressed."
Early spring, this high in the Rocky Mountains, meant about a foot of snow as far as the eye could see. They kept to the roads and trails as long as they could, enhanced speed and stamina from the jumpsuits making it mercifully easy to traverse the deep snow, before being forced to trek up the mountain itself.
The first two spots they stopped came up completely empty, though the fresh snowfall would have covered any trace of anyone more than a day ago. The third, however, gave Marcus a hint of hope. Snow had been cleared recently. A dug out firepit sat exposed with the spent coals still visible.
Finally, on their fourth stop, the dim glow of a fire shone ahead of them. Ophelia snatched his hand on his way to march right in. "We don't know how extreme this group is going to be...or it could just be some off-grid maniacs. Keep calm, let me do the talking." She whispered to him.
"What am I supposed to do?" He'd not considered they might come upon somebody just living out here. With how deep the cold was biting him, he'd have to question anybody's sanity that chose to live in a tent on this particular peak.
"Look pretty." She gave him a little wink, patting his chest. "And if things go wrong, run."
Look pretty? He narrowed his eyes at her, but she was already trudging through the snow toward the fire. Once they got within twenty yards, Ophelia raised her hands and called out. "Anybody home? We don't mean you any harm."
The familiar hum of magrail carbines spinning to life sounded all around them as the trees lit up in a dull orange glow from their rotating barrels. Marcus slowly brought his hands up as well, eyes scanning the bushes at least a half dozen people were slowly emerging from. Ahead of them, a young woman with thick braids tied up in a bun stepped out of a tent, long johns hiding very little from the freezing air.
"You feds?" A tattoo just beneath her collarbone, shaped like a flame lit up bright orange.
"No, we work for the Appalachian Magical Wildlife Reserve," Ophelia spoke, her hands still up in the air. Marcus was more than happy to let her take the lead here, though he was concerned her accent made it far less convincing.
"Your Pride and Prejudice lookin' ass?" The woman scoffed and walked around the fire to approach them. "Sounds like bullshit to me, but I'll bite. What are you doing in my camp?"
Ophelia cleared her throat and gestured toward the top of the mountain with her chin. "We were hoping to find some like-minded individuals to help us with a problem."
The woman slowly circled them, her bare feet sizzling as they sank into the snow. "What kinda problem is that?"
"Our boss wants us to move a group of griffons from this mountain to another so a company can mine out the mountain. We'd prefer not to do that." Ophelia stayed facing forward as they were stalked like prey animals.
"Uhuh, and what was your plan to stop them?"
"Take out their mining equipment." Marcus finally spoke up, dropping his hands.
The woman stopped in front of him and cocked her head, her eyes dragging over him. He probably looked ludicrous to her in his giant parka and multiple pairs of pants. "If it were that simple, we would have already done it. You got a bomb stashed in there someplace, Frosty?"
"Sort of." He made a movement to pull off his gloves, but the whirring of the surrounding carbines got louder so he held his hands up. "Electrified gauntlets."
The woman raised both eyebrows and let out a barking laugh. "You just gonna walk in there and fry em up, huh?" She lifted her hands and made a gesture to the others to lower their guns. "Sounds like you've got everything you need, what do you want from us?"
"We..." Ophelia cleared her throat again, stepping closer to Marcus. "We don't know exactly where they are keeping the equipment, or how to get in." While all that was technically true, the look the woman gave Ophelia said she wasn't buying it.
"We want to keep our jobs." Marcus interjected again. "We were hoping that your group was the sort that would take credit for a little destruction of corporate property?"
A wide grin grew along the womans lips as she looked between the two of them, finally stopping on Marcus and pointing at him. "I like you, Frosty. No bullshitting with you." She turned and headed back to the fire. "Come on, have a seat. Let's discuss."
The woman refused to give her name or take theirs. Anonymity, which he was totally fine with. She and Ophelia went over the map, showing the spot where Arcanex had set up temporary storage for their equipment. Apparently, it was under heavy guard around the clock. So much for mall cops. Getting in was going to require a two pronged approach. Distraction and infiltration.
"We can handle getting around the enchantments." Ophelia folded up the map, stuffing it back into her pocket. "Can you all handle the distraction?"
"Shouldn't be a problem." She glanced around, getting nods of affirmation from her group that had joined them around the fire. "When are you wanting to do this?"
"Now?" Marcus nodded to the snowmobiles parked beside the tents. "We're supposed to be going up the mountain in a few hours."
"Let me go get dressed." The woman stared at him for a moment longer before standing up and disappearing into the tent. He glanced down at his hands, flexing his fingers around the gauntlet's switch. No turning back now.
Marcus and Ophelia were dropped off a few hundred yards from the facility, the sounds of the snowmobiles fading off in the distance. He wasn't sure exactly what the distraction was going to be, but she said they'd know when it was happening.
"We are really doing this. Bloody hell, it's exciting." She whispered to him as they crept toward the chain-link fence that housed several temporary buildings. The amount of glee in her tone was a little unsettling, given the circumstances. "Are you not freaking out right now?"
"Trying not to." Marcus shivered.
They'd shed a couple of layers in order to be more mobile, but in sacrificing that, the cold was starting to bite through. They got within twenty or so feet of the fencing where the treeline ended and waited. The wait was not long. There was a loud crash from the other side of the facility.
"Let's go." He said as shouting filled the otherwise quiet early morning air.
They sprinted through the clearing to the fence line. Ophelia took a moment to make sure there was no enchantment before they hoped it and pressed against the side of the first building. Sidling around, Ophelia pulled a piece of charcoal from her pocket and drew several runes in a pentagonal shape. The efficiency with which she worked was impressive, and for a moment his brain saw through the long-time friend of his kid brother's filter to see the truly remarkable woman beneath.
"After you, Mr. Tenneson." She whispered as the runes lit up and fizzled away.
Marcus flipped the switch on the gauntlets, squeezing them to charge them up as he slipped into the building. Florescent lighting filled the room, and it took more than a few blinks for his eyes to adjust.
Three enormous vehicles straight out of some video game were up on ramps like you'd see outside a car dealership. Each of them was on tank treads, but instead of an enormous cannon up top, they were equipped with cartoonishly large drills.
Marcus pumped his hands to the point they started to burn from the heat of pent up energy. He jumped onto the treads, reached into where the driver would sit, and started tearing. He ripped off panels, knobs, and switches, firing off pulse after pulse of electricity into the device.
He rinsed and repeated with the other two mining vehicles in this building and the next. As they approached the last of the storage buildings, things turned for the worst. The shouting had escalated into trading gunfire.
"Get the door open and get out of here." Marcus said, peeking around the building to watch the fight ensuing.
"What? No, I'm not leaving you here," Ophelia hissed at him "Don't be stupid, just hurry up." She dispelled the enchantment with practiced ease, pushing the door open for him. They stepped inside and were immediately met with gunfire. Vibrant blue bolts of energy pierced the thin aluminum wall of the building, others bouncing off the steel door.
Marcus grabbed her by the coat at the back of her neck, forcing her head down as he ran for the first piece of machinery. Some kind of air filtration system, maybe? The firing stopped, but the moment he peaked his head around it started again.
"I'm going to get his attention, and you are going to run." He commanded in a hushed tone. "Don't argue with me." She gave him a hard look, but didn't speak.
The jumpsuit would not make him faster than the magnetized rounds of the magitech rifle, but he only needed to be quicker than its user's reaction time. He was pretty certain he could do that. He took a deep breath, gave her a nod, and took off.
The rifle fired as he ran, lines of super-heated projectiles feet and sometimes inches behind him. Heart hammering, Marcus ducked between two of the machines, and the firing stopped. The rifleman didn't want to hit the mining equipment. Good to know. He took a moment to look back and make sure Ophelia got out, only to find her in the same spot he'd left her. She was hunched over the ground, furiously drawing something onto the concrete.
Great.
He needed to take care of this idiot gunman before he repositioned and got sight of her. With a grunt, he threw himself atop the tank-like miner he'd been behind and started sprinting for the scaffolding. The rifle was leveled on him immediately, but before he had the chance to fire, the filtering machine that concealed Ophelia flew from one side of the football field building to collide with the back wall. The whole structure swayed as the wall crumbled.
While it hadn't put either himself of the gunman in any real danger, aside from the building possibly falling on them, it caused just enough chaos to allow him to jump from the tip of the drill without getting shot. His charged, gauntleted fist slammed into the man's chest, sending him unceremoniously rolling down two levels of scaffolding to land in a heap on the ground floor.
He glanced back at the wall of earth that shot up where the air filtration machine used to be, glaring at her. Ophelia peeked around the corner of the wall, giving him a grin and a coy little wave. He hurried through the rest of the machinery, overcharging anything that looked important. They'd long worn out their welcome, so he was going to finish this up and get them the hell out.
The eco-terrorists and the corporate security were still trading fire outside the building, but with the new exit Ophelia made, they were able to sprint out the back of the building and over the back gate without anyone else seeing.
The pair arrived back at the hotel just before dawn, Ophelia clearing the sealed glyphs off the bathroom floor to deactivate the speed enchantment on their gear. "That was exhilarating!" her voice was hushed, but the excitement was obvious. "I can't believe we just did that."
Still winded from the run back, Marcus dropped his jacket on the bed and bent, resting his hands on his knees. He actually needed to quit smoking. After a moment he stood up straight again, his eyes landing on her and the big grin on her face. He moved in and wrapped her in a hug, lifting her petite frame easily off the ground and squeezing her through her thick coat. He didn't know how to thank her. All he knew was affection was bubbling out of him and he absolutely had to get it out. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tight to her. Her warm breath tickled down the side of his neck, that same mysterious scent entering his nose through her hair.
Marcus sat her down again, hoping that he hadn't made it awkward with how long he'd held her. "I really don't know how to thank you, Ophelia. I uhh...I couldn't have done it without you."
"Nope, you definitely would have gotten yourself killed." Her pale skin had a slight flush to it, though he assumed it was just due to the cold. "I hope the others are alright." She said, as if having thought about it for the first time since they'd left.
"Me too." He swallowed, looking down at his boots, then back up at her. "I'm glad you're okay, though. I was...a little pissed when I saw you hadn't run."
Ophelia let out a breathy chuckle and shook her head, still incredibly close to him. "I told you I wasn't going to leave you." She reached up like she was going to rest a hand on his chest, then froze. The flush on her cheeks grew deeper, and she transitioned into playfully hitting him. "I should get back to my room. The others will be awake soon."
Marcus hesitated for a split second, staring down into the bright blue eyes. His breath caught in his throat for just a moment before he stepped back to allow her to walk by him to the door. Her lips curled into a smile before she bounced toward the door.
"Hey," Marcus called out as the door opened. She looked over her shoulder at him, and he smiled wide. "Thank you again."
She gave the slightest nod. "Thank you for letting me help." She said before disappearing behind the door.