Dark Heart by Margaret Weis;David Baldwin Page A

Kalzar, and I will enjoy the aftermath. If you think you’ve found some way to travel the mirror without his knowing it, you’re a fool.”
    “I really don’t think so. I’m telling you the truth, you see.”
    “I don’t believe you.”
    “You wouldn’t.” Kalzar smiled thinly. “But you’re growing more sloppy every day, and the master knows it. Perhaps he hoped I would check up on you. Your recent actions endanger us all. Even I, isolated from you for a century, far away in Libya, know this. Imagine my surprise when I received a report from Omar saying that some female detective has been tracking you, and you have not yet killed her.”
    “I know about the detective,” Justin said. “She knows nothing I don’t want her to know.”
    “Oh, she doesn’t, does she? How pleasant. Omar says she knows more than she should. So when are you planning to kill her?”
    Justin shivered with rage. “Your oaf Omar has given the Dragon and his disciples a far bigger risk of exposure than I ever will. Like you, he talks about things to others who should not know. I have covered for him so far. His murder of Carlton Wheeler, which I planned for him, was flawless in every way, or at least it would have been if Omar had been capable of keeping his mouth shut. But he babbled about it, a piece of carelessness that would have led straight back to the Dragon had I not taken steps to prevent it. The woman detective knows nothing compared to the information Omar has dropped. I have followed Sandra McCormick’s progress on the Baxter case closely. She’s gotten nowhere with it, but tonight Jack Madrone, the policeman investigating Omar’s murder of Wheeler, almost discovered everything, thanks to Omar’s loose lips!”
    “Omar is young, Justin. He is learning. It is your job to train him.”
    “If he does something stupid like that again, he’s not worth training. I will kill him then. Lesser disciples must obey or the punishment is death.”
    Kalzar’s eyes flashed and he gestured to the needle. “You have no room to talk. You are the one who lacks discipline. You have too many weaknesses. Serving the master, spreading his lesson should leave you no time, no room in your heart for your needles, your pitiful drawings, or your women.”
    “If the master had not decreed against it, I would have your heart in my hand, Kalzar, and I would squeeze it to dust before your eyes as you passed from this world. Perhaps the master has eased his mandate about this, too. Shall I test it?”
    Justin walked toward Kalzar.
    The Arab’s eyes narrowed but he held his ground. He wanted the fight, but he wanted Justin to start it.
    “I want you out of Chicago,” Justin said. “And I want you to take Omar with you.”
    “Omar is here to learn, and he will remain here. Those are the Dragon’s orders, not mine. I have, however, sent him on a small errand tonight, one needed to clean up the loose ends you left behind.”
    “What I do, I do for a reason,” Justin said. “If Omar interferes with anything I have set in motion, I will destroy him. And then you. We shall see which one of us the master chooses to burn when he takes us both beyond the mirror.”
    Kalzar paused, waiting for something, perhaps a sign from the Dragon. No such sign came. Turning, he stepped on the dais. The mirror shimmered as he walked through it and was gone.

six
     
     
    S andra woke up for the third time that night, chased from sleep by nightmares. As she sat up, yawning and rubbing her eyes, sirens screamed beyond her windows. She looked at her clock—it was 4:45 in the morning. Her white gauze curtains glowed, lit by the flashing red lights of emergency vehicles. She kicked off the covers, winced as her bare feet hit the cold oak-planked floor, stood up, and stretched. Finally she walked to her window and pushed back the curtains.
    Her bedroom faced the street—she’d chosen the room for its southern exposure and large expanse of glass. Fire trucks were