Robert Weinberg - A Logical Magician

Swiftly, Jack outlined his theory to the Amazon. She remained silent until he finished.

“Not bad,” she said. “But, if that’s the case, why doesn’t cold iron hurt Dietrich von Bern still? He’s definitely a creature of chaos. As are the Border Redcaps.”

“Because iron ceased to be symbolic of order a long time ago,” said Jack. “The same applies to fire. Once, they both worked as forces of good in the world. Fire destroyed the worst evils; iron weapons killed terrible monsters. But Fritz hit the nail on the head when he said they became too common. Iron and steel were used not only for good, but for evil. Innocents as well as villains were burned to death by fire. Good people as well as bad were put to the sword. Each crime, each outrage, lessened their powers. Humanity no longer thought of cold iron being used only for righteous deeds. Once mankind realized that steel was neither good nor evil, but merely an extension of the user’s desires, it lost all power as a symbol.”

Jack shrugged his shoulders. “Guns don’t kill people, as we’ve been told again and again. People kill people. Cold iron doesn’t defeat evil because it no longer is symbolic of the triumph of order over chaos. In modern times, cold iron serves both law and chaos.”

“Then nothing can defeat the Wild Huntsman,” said Cassandra, her face ashen. “Nothing in this modern world is symbolic of the supremacy of order over chaos.”

Jack smiled. He felt almost lightheaded, as revelation after revelation filled his consciousness. Unexplained mysteries suddenly made perfect sense.

“That’s not true,” he said cheerfully. “There are lots of things that fill the bill these days. We’re surrounded by things that bring order to a chaotic universe. You merely have to change the way you’re thinking. Von Bern is powerful and he has powerful allies. But I have a few surprises for our German friend.”

Jack laughed out loud. “Everything fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Order versus chaos. The Wild Huntsman has a Sword of Chaos, a Great Beast, and the Border Redcaps. That’s a pretty awesome force. But we have logic on our side.”

Jack was glowing with energy. “And, let me tell you, in the entire universe, nothing is more powerful than logic. Nothing at all.”

“You want to go where ?” asked Simon, late that afternoon.

“Back to campus,” said Jack. “Tonight.”

“That’s what I thought you said,” declared the changeling. “At least, now I know I’m not going crazy. You are.”

Jack laughed. He and his friends sat clustered around Witch Hazel’s tiny kitchen table. The addition of Fritz Grondark made conditions even more crowded than before. But, somehow they all fit in the front room of the mobile home.

“I’m tired of being chased, Simon,” said Jack. “Ever since Merlin and Megan were kidnapped, I’ve been on the run. Von Bern and the Border Redcaps have kept me off balance so I can’t interfere with their devilish scheme. Well, the time has come to stop running and start fighting.”

“That’s my type of talk,” said Cassandra.

Fritz Grondark grunted in agreement. The dwarf, who had followed them back to the trailer camp in a massive tow truck, carried an immense monkey wrench hooked to his belt. Fritz made no secret of the fact he intended to use it on the skulls of any Border Redcaps, distant relatives of trolls, he encountered.

“The other day,” Jack continued, “Hazel remarked that perhaps science and sorcery are actually the same but we’re just too ignorant to realize it. There’s a great deal of truth in what she said. I know how to defeat Von Bern and the Border Redcaps. But the equipment I need is at the college.”

“Can’t we buy the stuff?” asked Simon. “Or build it?”

“If we had the time,” replied Jack. “But we don’t. Tomorrow evening is Beltane. Trust me, Simon, raiding the college laboratories is our only chance to obtain the proper tools.”

“For what?” asked Hazel. “You still haven’t told us what weapons you intend to use against the Huntsman.”

“Light defeats darkness,” said Jack, smiling. “Order defeats chaos.”

“Water washes mud,” said Simon. “Which is about as clear as you’ve been lately. What does it matter, anyway? We still don’t know where to find the German and his prisoners.”

“Oh,” said Jack. “I forgot to tell you. Right before von Bern attacked us on the highway, I figured out where he’s holding the women captive.”

For a moment, no one said anything. Then, the trailer rocked with the collective shout, “WHAT?!”

“Sorry,” said Jack. Actually, he wasn’t the least bit ashamed. After all the half-told stories, hints, and unexplained remarks made by the supernaturals, it felt pretty good to catch them completely by surprise.

“Once I combined all the clues, the location was obvious. January told us that the Huntsman bragged that his prisoners were beneath the feet of the police. That implied an underground hideaway. Megan mentioned a huge chamber, so I knew it couldn’t be the basement of a warehouse. All of the kidnappings took place in the Loop and nowhere else, so it seemed logical to assume there was a reason for that. It was then that I remembered that when Merlin was kidnaped, no one saw his captors leave the building. Combining the two facts, it was obvious that they hadn’t.”

“Huh” said Simon. “Where did they go, then? Underneath?”

“Exactly,” said Jack. “The Border Redcaps carried Megan and her father to the basement of the tower and then below it. As they did with all the women they captured.”

He drew in a deep breath. “I phoned the main library information center an hour ago and had them do a quick search for me. Each and every one of the Loop buildings where a disappearance took place was once connected to the old underground tunnel transportation network beneath the Loop. That’s where von Bern’s hideout is located.”

“The same tunnels that flooded a few years back?” said Hazel. “The ones used in the 1920’s to bring goods into the Loop from the railroad yards?”

“That’s them,” said Jack. “The tunnels are all but forgotten now, but at the turn of the century they were considered an engineering marvel. The dirt excavated in their construction was used as landfill on Lake Michigan and became the site of the Field Museum.”

“Excuse me,” said Cassandra, “but I’m lost. I’ve only lived in Chicago for a few years. You’re not talking about subway tunnels?”

“Those were constructed years later,” said Jack. “These tunnels preceded them by decades. They were narrow passageways, just wide enough for a railway handcar. Barely lit, they were not intended for commuters but for commercial goods.”

Jack paused, putting his thoughts in order. “At the end of the 19th century, traffic in the Loop was so bad that merchants were having difficulty getting their goods from the railroad yards on the south side into downtown. The abundance of wagons, carriages and trolley cars on the streets made deliveries nearly impossible. Goods could only be transported late at night, which made most store owners quite unhappy. That all changed when a system of underground tunnels were built, linking the railroad yards with the Loop.

“Goods were unloaded from the incoming freight trains, transferred to handcars, and then sent from the train station to a central receiving depot deep beneath the central commuter railroad station downtown. There, the products were sorted and forwarded to their final destinations, again by handcar, through branch tunnels that snaked all through the Loop. Nearly a hundred different buildings were serviced by this unique underground delivery service. Each stop had its own receiving dock, located in the subbasement of the structure.