Reality Hack

by Niall Teasdale

  Nisa giggled. ‘Well, take it easy, and don’t take any lip from Alexander. You’re his PA, not his whipping girl.’

  ‘Oh yeah. If I’m letting anyone whip me it’s you, and I was thinking more of–’

  ‘A good spanking?’ Nisa asked before she could stop herself.

  ‘How did you know I liked…? Now I’m blushing. We’ll discuss that, at length, when I get back. I need some breakfast, gotta go. Love you. Bye.’

  The connection went before Nisa could reply and she sat there, her stomach fluttering. Love? Did she really, or was it just a cute thing to say before hanging up? And now was not the time to worry over that given that the woman was thousands of miles away.

  ‘Back to work,’ Nisa grumbled, and leaned forward again, peering at her screen.

  November 26th.

  ‘How is your analysis going?’ Faline asked as she walked in from the bedroom, straightening the shift-like dress she had agreed was ‘not too bad.’

  Nisa gave her a quick smile, mostly to encourage the clothing use. ‘I got everything onto the PC at the office. I mean, it’s more like a small server. Way more powerful than my laptop.’ She frowned. ‘Maybe I should have asked Spike about multithreading the thing. Anyway, as it stands it’s going to be days of processing before it spits out results. It’s doing a pretty complex regression analysis–’

  ‘Nisa, I may be quite bright, and I am knowledgeable about many things, but mathematics is not one of them. I have no idea what a “regression analysis” is.’

  ‘No, probably not. You and most of the population, to be honest. Doesn’t really matter; the point I was making is that it’s going to take time so I’m waiting.’

  ‘Oh… Perhaps that’s why I thought you should look at this again.’ Faline raised her hand and flipped the coin toward Nisa.

  Nisa watched it twirling, turning end over end, as the world seemed to slow, and she saw the glyphs marking the surface flickering in the overhead light, and… Everything snapped back to normal as she reached up and plucked the coin from the air. ‘This thing…’ Her thumb slid over the sigil which drew out the pattern she recognised as belonging, somehow, to energy magic. ‘I still don’t really…’ Her brow furrowed as she moved her thumb and another pattern sprang up. Something new, another intricate, multidimensional shape which seemed to pull at her mind… Mind? Something about it felt like the spell she used to speak to Faline in cat form.

  ‘Nisa?’ Faline sounded a little concerned.

  ‘I think… Somehow I’ve opened up more of this thing. Maybe it’s all the practice with that telepathy spell.’

  ‘You can see more?’ Faline settled down beside her friend, peering at the coin, even though she could not see the patterns Nisa could.

  Nisa moved her thumb and another pattern rose from the coin. This one was somehow more solid, harder, sharper, though it was just as complex as the other ones and it was twisted into more than three dimensions as they were. Matter. This was the pattern of matter and it was right there, waiting for her to discover just exactly what it was.

  ‘Yeah, I can see more. A lot more.’

  Westminster, December 1st.

  Kellog’s birthday was marked by a small departmental outing to the pub at lunchtime, and that was only because there was not much going on and Hanson thought they could all do with the amusement. The amusement was largely that of watching Kellog squirm at turning thirty-one and having his nose rubbed in it.

  ‘I tell you what,’ Nisa said in consolation, ‘I turn twenty-five in a couple of years. I’ll let you embarrass me horribly then.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Kellog replied, an eyebrow shifting slightly. ‘So kind of you. You’re looking… oddly enthused. There’s something of a confident quality about you which I don’t believe I’ve noticed before.’

  He was, she thought, changing the subject. ‘Well…’

  ‘He’s right,’ Sandra said. ‘He’s trying to change the subject from his advancing age, but he’s right. I’d say it was down to this Alaina, but she’s not here and I think that’s only part of it.’

  ‘The statistics program I’m running may actually turn up something,’ Nisa said, ‘and I’m quite jazzed about getting it working. I think my studies with more arcane forms of manipulation are coming along too. I had… an epiphany.’ She was still unable to mention the agents, and the coin seemed to be part of that. At least she could skirt around it and sound like she was being obscure for anyone listening who might not be in the know.

  ‘A very big word,’ Norbery said, ‘especially considering it isn’t a very big word.’

  ‘You seem to suffer from them,’ Kellog commented.

  ‘Yeah,’ Nisa agreed, ‘but this one didn’t require a week in a coma. I guess I’m starting to feel more confident. That’s good, right?’

  ‘It can’t hurt,’ Norbery replied. ‘Now, Brandon, old man, have you considered making a will yet? What with your advancing years and such?’

  Nisa giggled, mostly because of the way Kellog’s shoulders sagged, and the conversation was refocussed on ribbing their American colleague.

  ~~~

  ‘Is she ready?’

  ‘Soon she will have to be.’

  ‘She hears us clearly now. That was not–’

  ‘She hears but does not remember. And she must be ready.’

  Nisa rolled over in her bed and, for a second, thought she saw shadows in the corners of her room. The fear that gripped her pulled her up from sleep, but…

  ‘They are not here.’ The assurance sent her tumbling back into deep sleep. ‘But they are waiting…’

  Tower Hamlets, December 6th.

  Nisa was lying on the sofa with her laptop actually in her lap, her eyes glued to the data her analysis program had dumped out, when the phone rang. She picked up almost absently and answered without looking. ‘Hey.’

  ‘Nisa? It’s Alaina.’

  ‘Hey! Sorry, I’m distracted. I’ve got a load of statistical data to go through. Where are you?’

  ‘Berlin.’ There was a weary quality to the blonde’s voice. ‘We got in this morning, but I barely slept on the flight and I crashed when I got in.’

  ‘You sound like you’re apologising.’

  ‘Do I? Yeah… I guess I do. Sorry. I just seem to be doing it a lot recently.’

  ‘Maxim giving you Hell?’

  ‘Oh… He’s just stressed.’

  Turning, Nisa sat up and focussed properly on the call. ‘You’ve been saying that since you got out there.’

  ‘I know… I know. He’ll be better once we’re settled into this circuit. He’s been sleeping badly.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Uh… I need to go. We’ve got a meeting with some guy about… Oh, I need to find the notes. I’ll call. Bye.’

  Nisa stared at the phone for a few seconds. Maxim had seemed like a nice enough sort of guy with an edge of the control freak Kellog had suggested was there, but maybe Kellog had been closer to the mark after all. ‘Just another week, Alaina,’ she said to the quiet phone. ‘Then you can forget about him for a bit.’ She looked back at her laptop. ‘I, on the other hand, can’t forget about this, even if I want to.’ And she returned to studying correspondence figures.

  Westminster, December 8th.

  Nisa pointed meaningfully at what looked a lot like a scatter-pattern of dots on the screen in Hanson’s office. ‘You see it?’ she asked, and Hanson, Norbery, and Kellog stared at the screen.

  ‘I see…’ Norbery said.

  ‘Some dots,’ Hanson added when he seemed like he was not going to finish.

  ‘That,’ Nisa said, ‘is an indication of a dependent relationship between sightings of the shadow figures and currently unexplained disappearances. The Pearson coefficient is zero-point-six-seven. Spearman’s rank coefficient is zero-point-eight-nine. We’re not exactly talking perfect, but–’

  ‘But we have no idea what that actually means,’ Kellog interrupted. ‘What is a “Parson coefficient?�
�’

  ‘Pearson. It’s a statistical measure of how… linked two apparently random sets of data are. Rank coefficients are the same, but they are less sensitive to linearity… And that’s not the point. The point is that people seem to vanish in places where these shadow sightings occur. More people vanish in those places than would be expected given the general background cases of missing persons. So there is a tendency for missing persons to rise with a rise in shadow sightings. That’s a dependency.’

  ‘You’re saying that the shadow figures are kidnapping people?’

  Nisa sagged a little and blew out air. ‘No. If I’m going to do this, I should do it right. I am not saying that. Correspondence does not indicate causality, and even if it does, it doesn’t indicate the direction. Maybe the people are turning into shadows, and so they vanish and we get more sightings. I can only say that there is a mathematically valid connection between the appearance of these things and a rise in missing persons.’

  Hanson gave her a nod. ‘Actually, that makes it all sound far more reasonable. You’re not assuming. This is evidence.’

  ‘Yeah! That’s exactly right.’

  ‘But we can go further,’ Kellog said. ‘We can give a direction to the… causality, if there is one. Lisa Anne May became a missing person after the shadows were sighted near her home. If the two things are causal, it is the shadows causing the vanishing people, not the people causing the shadows.’

  Nisa grinned. ‘Yeah, I had thought of that.’

  ‘You said the dependency was imperfect?’

  ‘There are areas where we have shadow sightings and no increase in missing persons. I don’t think more than one or two people are taken in an area so there are several random spikes in missing persons in places there have been no sightings.’

  ‘Of course. It makes sense. They may be seen somewhere and decide their target was unsuitable.’

  ‘It’s possible they were not seen in places where there are spikes in missing persons,’ Hanson said, sounding grudging but interested. ‘So… Let’s assume that we have evidence for causality. I think this on top of the evidence from the May case suggest it. These things are turning up and then kidnapping people. Why? And where are they taking them?’

  ‘And why did they stop?’ Nisa added.

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘The cases around London peter out before Halloween, but there are some others around the country. They spread out in late September. I followed them because Kellog mentioned sightings in Scotland and Wales. Then it all just stops during the second week of November.’

  Hanson looked at Kellog. ‘It spread out, and then stopped?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Nisa confirmed. ‘That’s what the data–’

  ‘Or spread out further?’ Kellog suggested.

  ‘I’ll make some calls,’ Hanson growled, reaching for her phone.

  December 11th.

  ‘It’s rather circumstantial,’ Hanson said, peering at her monitor as she spoke, ‘but there have been reports of “unusual, shadowy figures” in the US and Europe recently. They believe it’s a new phenomenon, but they weren’t especially concerned about it. I’ve requested that they check missing persons cases in the areas.’

  ‘Where and when?’ Nisa asked.

  ‘We have… The largest concentration seems to be the north-eastern coast of the US, starting around the seventeenth of last month. Those seem to peter off after ten or twelve days and there are a few others. The north-west, but those were put down to vampire fans, New Orleans, also put down to vampire fans, and a burst in California. The European ones are more recent. Berlin and Venice.’

  ‘I’ll see if I can find a pattern in…’

  ‘Nisa?’ Kellog frowned at her as she trailed off. ‘Is something wrong?’

  ‘Uh… You know Alexander Maxim’s out of the country? Alaina’s with him. Some sort of lecture tour.’

  ‘We noted him leaving the country,’ Hanson replied. ‘He’s not required to tell us why he’s travelling.’

  ‘I’d have to check, but I’m almost sure that the places he’s been to match up with the places you mentioned. A-and the dates sound right. I mean, I did some checks and the sightings in the UK fall to nothing around the thirteenth of November and you said the sightings in the US start on the seventeenth. I saw Alaina off from Heathrow on the fifteenth.’ When she looked up, Kellog’s eyes were the most animated she had ever seen them.

  Hanson broke into his reverie. ‘That’s not enough to do anything major. It’s an extremely circumstantial connection. I’d need far more before I could make any sort of move on the High Grand Master of the Order.’

  ‘See what the missing persons search comes up with,’ Kellog replied, ‘and we need to do a thorough track of his itinerary and the sightings we have.’

  Nisa nodded. ‘Send me the locations and dates. Alaina gave me their itinerary before she left. I’ll see what I can match up.’

  Tower Hamlets, December 12th.

  Nisa glanced at the phone number and did not recognise it, but it looked European and she had a feeling she knew who it was. The voice on the other end was urgent but whispering. ‘Nisa? It’s Alaina. What’s going on? Alexander’s in a real rage.’

  ‘Uh…’ They had got enough evidence together for Hanson to arrange a watch order that afternoon. Wherever Maxim went, someone would be keeping an eye on him. Officially this was a protective measure since they did not want the head of the Order vanishing. ‘I…’

  ‘He keeps muttering something about Interpol and “officious bloody coppers.” It has to be something to do with you guys.’

  ‘Uh… We found evidence that you’re being chased around by kidnappers. We’re worried about his safety. I’m worried about yours.’

  ‘Kidnappers? Who would want to–’

  ‘Supernatural kidnappers, Alaina. Ghostly things, maybe some sort of Da’at entity.’

  ‘Oh… I… I’ll be careful. I have to go. Love you.’

  ‘Damn it,’ Nisa muttered, hitting the address book and locating Kellog’s number. ‘Come on… come on… Kellog! I just got a call from Alaina. Maxim’s found out about the watch on him.’

  ‘Fast, I agree,’ Kellog said, sounding calm. ‘I expected he would, though this suggests he was tipped off.’

  ‘Alaina sounded really worried, Kellog.’

  There was a short pause and then, ‘I’ll speak to Hanson. Maybe we can bring him in. Protective custody sounds good. I can’t promise anything.’

  ‘No, but we could try.’

  ‘I’ll let you know what happens.’ The line went dead.

  Westminster, December 16th.

  There had been no more calls from Alaina, no sightings of Maxim, and Hanson was looking almost as grim as Nisa was. ‘We have had three people vanish in areas Maxim visited,’ Hanson said. ‘That wouldn’t be a major matter if it was not for the fact that these shadow things have actually been seen around the victims at the time they went missing.’

  ‘You’re saying they’re getting bolder,’ Kellog said.

  ‘I’m saying someone claims to have seen… Hang on, let me read… “I saw her shadow just fold into her, like it was being sucked up. And then she just walked away, got in her car, and left. But I swear she had no shadow when she got in her car.”’

  ‘Some form of possession. That’s how they’re kidnapping them.’

  ‘That’s what it looks like. Meanwhile, Maxim and Peters have vanished, and I don’t believe they went via possession. Well, him anyway.’ Hanson’s eyes flicked to Nisa, sitting very upright in her seat.

  ‘If she calls again, I’ll let you know,’ Nisa said. ‘I’ve had no more contact. They were due to get back into the UK tomorrow.’

  ‘And we have watches on all the ports, air and sea, but…’

  ‘But he may not come back at all,’ Nisa grumbled. ‘We missed him. If I’d found the connection before he flew out–’

  ‘We might have been able to grab him, but we would have been wadi
ng through the Order and he would have had plenty of time to make a break. You actually spotted the connection. I don’t suppose there’s anything else in that data we should know about?’

  ‘Huh? Oh… uh… I found some evidence for a slow rise in supernatural activity in the south-west over the course of the last eight months. Barely perceptible and it could be just a random shift.’

  ‘Any particular part of the south-west?’

  ‘Mostly coastal areas along the Channel, as far east as Bournemouth. It’s ghostly fog banks, unusual radar echoes, one report of a ghost fishing boat, but the witnesses were so drunk it’s probably nothing.’

  ‘I’ll call Exeter and mention that we noticed something,’ Hanson said, jotting down a note. ‘Considering what’s happened following your first discovery, I’d rather not take anything else for granted.’

  ‘Huh. What do these things, or Maxim if he’s behind this, want with these people anyway?’

  ‘Good question. Thoughts?’ Hanson looked specifically at Kellog and got a shrug.

  ‘I doubt it’s good. The obvious possibilities are hosts or sacrifices. They may not be able to survive well in their native form. They may need people of a certain type as hosts, or they may need them as sacrifices. Ritual sacrifices often have specific requirements. Either way, I expect we’ll find out soon.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘There’s a correspondence Nisa has missed. It will be the solstice on Sunday. Just after eleven in the evening, to be exact. If Maxim, or anyone else, is planning some form of high-powered, dark ritual, that would be a very auspicious time to conduct it.’

  Hanson bit her lip, nodding. ‘Start looking into potential locations for a sacrificial ritual. Maybe we can stake out a few potentials if we don’t spot him sooner.’

  ‘Difficult without knowing what he plans.’

  ‘I know. Get Norbery on it too and get me a list. If I have to, I’ll get authorisation to have every potential site in the country watched. I don’t have to be a magician to have a really bad feeling about this.’

  December 19th.

  Hanson looked a lot like she had had no sleep in the last couple of days, and Nisa could not say she was surprised. Having spent much of the night before sitting up with Faline because sleep just brought weird dreams of dark shapes and voices speaking nonsense, Nisa was not looking rested either.