Josie watched the young lovers break away and head off where they could have their


    own space. She sat in her chair, hoping she was doing the right thing. She should


    have used the book of knowledge to take everything she wanted from Todd Fain to


    make sure his story was true.


    “You’re gonna have to move your lazy bones to the lazy bones couch,” said Jack. “I


    have to take the ring apart and move the table back inside where it belongs.”


    “I have done a lot of work today,” said Josie. “Killed a lot of people. I can be a little


    relaxed right now if you don’t mind.”


    “You’re gonna have to be relaxed somewhere else so I can shut everything down so


    the watches recharge like normal,” said Jack. “These spells interfere with the recharge


    function on our Omnis.”


    “All right,” said Josie. She watched the street. Some of the neighbors waved at her.


    She waved back. She wondered why they were waving. She couldn’t remember ever


    talking to them.


    Josie stood and stepped out of the ring. She went to the wall of their place and


    watched as Jack transformed just long enough to pull the ring surrounding the table


    up from its place in the ground. He raised it high enough so it wouldn’t touch the


    table before he shrank it down. He walked inside it to store it.


    “What do you think the Shemmarians gain from buying women from here to take


    back across the border?,” she asked.


    “What do mail order brides get?,” asked Jack.


    “I don’t see the connection,” said Josie.


    “Foreign women ask for Americans to marry them,” said Jack. “Once they have their


    green card, they leave the husband.”


    “Except the women can leave in this case,” said Josie.


    “Same principal,” said Jack. “Someone over there wants more women for some


    reason. Let’s say he wants to be like Genghis Khan and spread his seed everywhere.


    He doesn’t have enough homegrown women. He needs women from somewhere else.


    He turns to an organization that sells women. Both sides know that they can’t be


    caught so they have to keep things as secret as they can. Boom, here you are kicking


    over the chemistry shelf.”


    “All right,” said Josie. “I like that as a theory. The nobles must be getting paid a ton


    of loot to risk the King dropping the axe.”


    “They also don’t just sell women,” said Jack. “They have diversified into other things.


    The women trade is just something they do on top of everything else.”


    “A shadow government opposed to the real government could be a thing,” said Josie.


    “And again it was bad luck they grabbed you on our first day here,” said Jack. “And


    while the Society was giving me flack, I don’t think they care other than this is


    something we are doing when we could be doing their business faster.”


    Jack moved the table into the dining room with a flick of his hand. He stepped inside


    and made sure it was lined up the way it should be.


    “So Rick said there was trouble in Lorelei’s duchy?,” asked Josie. “I should go over


    and see what they need. How bad could a dragon be?”


    “I already told him that I was going to look at it,” said Jack. “And I will. I know some


    things about dragons.”


    “You know some things,” said Josie. Her tone was unconvinced.


    “Yes,” said Jack. “I know some things. The problem is always going to be can we


    negotiate, or do we fight. I can do either, but hopefully I can just swoop in, bargain


    with big crusty, and swoop out with no one being hurt by the massive collateral


    damage that we could inflict in a major fight.”


    “I don’t think it is going to want to be called big crusty,” said Josie.


    “Use your big brain to find the Lich Queen, and Sawtooth,” said Jack. “I know you


    can do it. I am going to make sure the icebox won’t explode, and then I am going to


    sit and think for a bit.”


    “If you talk to the Society, see if you can find out why the Shemmarians need the


    women,” said Josie. “Their answer might help us stop the slave trade across the


    border.”


    “I’ll ask,” said Jack. “I don’t think they’ll lie about it, but they might not give me the


    answer we need to the problem. They seem big on us figuring out how to solve things


    on our own.”


    Josie made a shrug. She had dealt with plenty of people like that. She found that


    straight answers prevented more problems. Telling someone to figure it out


    themselves was just passing the buck in her opinion.


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    “I think I am going to move into Elaine’s room, or maybe shift things around,” said


    Jack. “I don’t know what I am going to do right now.”


    “We all noticed the Deadpool shirt you gave her,” said Josie. She smiled as Jack


    waved at her. “The kids asked me for their own.”


    “He’s okay for a Rob Liefeld creation,” said Jack. “Probably better than Wolverine.”


    “Are you and Elaine planning to get a separate place of your own?,” asked Josie. She


    had been around Jack off and on for years. She could see the gears moving in his head


    as he considered what the next step should be.


    “Elaine and I will have to talk about it,” said Jack. “It’s obvious that you will set the


    girls on fire if we aren’t here.”


    “You set one guy on fire, and it follows you around until you die,” said Josie. “I


    didn’t give them to the elves, just because I have dealt with Lorelei and Bob for a


    while.”


    “Don’t say that like it’s a cookie earning thing,” said Jack. “The next thing will be


    staying out of jail.”


    “I’m going up to the office and sit in my chair and think,” said Josie. “The dinner was


    fine.”


    “It was better than that,” said Jack. “Would you like some hot chocolate?”


    “No,” said Josie. “I’ll go over and look at this dragon with you.”


    “One of us has to go,” said Jack. “The other should work on the other quests. I think


    your model building is better for that than what I do.”


    “We’ll see,” said Josie. “Don’t fall asleep down here.”


    “Sleeping is the last thing I intend to do,” said Jack. “Elaine is great for me.”


    “I don’t think I need to know anything about that,” said Josie. “I am going to my chair


    and I am going to think really hard.”


    “Okay,” said Jack. “I am going over to the duchy and look around the land of the


    elves for a bit. Maybe I can deal with this dragon, maybe I can’t.”


    “You better call me if you need help,” said Josie. “I’m not going to be happy if you


    get killed.”


    “I’ll think about it,” said Jack. “See if you can make a model of the country. No, do


    the continent. That way we can show these screwheads what airdropping a nuke looks


    like.”


    “We are not dropping a nuke anywhere,” said Josie. “That is way too much overkill.”


    “There is no such thing,” said Jack. He dialed up his main magic user and stepped


    across the veil to the land of the elves with a wave of his abstract hand.


    Josie went up to the office. She looked at the model of the city as she sat down in the


    chair. The model of Cairn was still in the quinjet. She probably wouldn’t have another


    use for it, but maybe she could adapt it to a second map if she wanted to redesign the


    thing.


    She studied the model and wondered how many people were being hurt inside the


    walls with no one to help them.


    She couldn’t help everyone, but she could do things if she wanted. She had that


    ability with Zatanna and her scry birds. Did she want to make things so easy for


    people they resented her when she couldn’t help them at all?


    What would Captain Marvel do?


    She decided that she needed to keep her mission narrow. She could do things, and


    help people, solve crimes, set people on fire. She could do those things, but she


    needed to concentrate on finding the objects of her quests and dealing with any


    Montrose elements in the city.


    The more she took on, the more she would lose when she failed. No one batted a


    hundred all the time. And she wanted to be ready to help her new family out if they


    needed her. She couldn’t do that if she was trying to help the whole city at the same


    time. The day doing quests for the Adventurers had shown her that much now that she


    sat in her chair and considered the problem.


    She changed into Zatanna and fiddled with the model so it would change like a


    Google Map. The more zoomed in it was, the more detail would be rendered. She


    smiled at the result. Pulling the view back added in the continent in sparse detail.


    “Show me the remaining Montrose members,” said Josie. Red sparks lit up all over


    the continent from Hawk Ridge to the oceans surrounding the coastlines.


    She pulled back on the map and saw more sparks on the oceans. Did the Montrose


    reach other continents? Would she have to chase them overseas when she was done


    with this side of the planet?


    She dialed back down to Hawk Ridge. There was a rough circle around the city. She


    might be able to swoop down and set a bunch of them on fire before they knew what


    happened to them.


    How many had women they were getting ready to move out of the city to somewhere


    else to force them to do things they wouldn’t have agreed to do?


    She asked for Montrose victims who needed her help in the city. She saw a spot on


    the other side of the city from the Hole in the Wall. It looked like another major


    building operation. She marked the place with a bird. She could look it over before


    the girls came back and talked to her about Beatrice’s beau.


    Josie wrote a note for the girls and left it on the dining room table so they wouldn’t


    worry. She locked the place up and turned into a hawk to fly across town. She glided


    to a landing next to her red scry bird sitting on a roof of a cube a street over from the


    West Gate.


    She thought about what she wanted to do. She wanted them to open the door for her


    without them knowing it was her. She had a few people on her watch that could get


    her in. She decided on the Mist. He was an old Starman foe that had been brought


    back to modern times through the League/Society team-ups, and then Robinson’s


    Starman. That should be enough to get her inside the building and let her have a


    lookaround at the security before she started doing things.


    She could probably get everyone out with Zatanna and her new trick of teleporting


    with her birds. Then she could set the rest on fire.


    Then she could head home and think about if her model could find the targets of her


    quests without any problems.


    She still needed to get inside to mark the women for her teleportation. She considered


    some of the things that might go wrong. Most of them could be countered if she acted


    fast enough.


    She decided she would feel better if she had people to help her, but everyone else was


    taking care of their own businesses. She would have to do the best she could and hope


    that she didn’t get killed in the attempt.


    She waited on the roof for her watch to charge up to full power. She nodded when it


    dinged at her. She could just turn into Zatanna and walk through the walls, but the


    Mist could get in and be invisible for however long the watch’s charge lasted.


    Then she could change into someone more capable of using deadly force.


    Bulletgirl would do what she needed as long as Josie didn’t have to punch through


    someone to get things done.


    Josie crept under the door and flowed around in her foggy body, taking in the scene.


    She decided that she needed cover to change into her deadlier persona. Then she had


    to go to work.