And now was not the best time to be hearing voices again. Especially when he couldn’t tell who was talking.
‘This changes things.’
‘Does it?’
Jaime waited for more but that was it. Either he was paranoid or someone had nefarious plans. Someone possibly on his team. He went to the personnel files, loading them all up and hitting play. He would listen to the cadences of their voices until he could pick them out of a shouting crowd. He needed to know who was plotting and why.
He started with Jordan Adity, the least suspicious of the lot simply because he was cursed, to be honest. He placed earphones in his ears and leaned back in his seat, listening intently.
∞
Jordan lifted his weights, thinking furiously about his mission. He had the names and locations of the people who might be able to help him, assuming the Brotherhood hadn’t changed contacts since he left. It was very likely they had because he was the first to admit he was a liability. All he knew was fair game for anyone who asked him the right question. The fact that no one had yet to ask didn’t take away from the possibility that they could.
“Paz, 3847653 syliv Anders pain,” he murmured into his phone and a new message opened, a green face staring at him with annoyance.
“Jordan…that is your new name, right? Why are you calling me?”
“I need passage.”
“I thought you were out of the business.”
“I am. This is a matter of Federation security.”
“And why should I care about Federation security?”
“Well you might not care about that but you’re in imminent danger of losing your biggest customer if you don’t help me.”
“There are always new customers, Jordan.”
“Not like the Brotherhood, Azloic; you have dealt with each other for centuries. They are steady income you’re going to need. The Federation is about to cut your planet off.”
“Ha! Why?”
“Like I said, it’s a matter of Federation security. I can’t say more than that.”
“You can if I ask you the right questions.”
“I have to tell you the truth. I don’t have to tell you what’s going on.”
“Unless I ask.”
“This isn’t getting us anywhere. Are you going to help me or not?”
“Hey, I’m just the gatekeeper. I have to take this to the higher-ups.”
“You do that. Get me an answer in twenty-four standard hours?”
“I’ll do my best Adity.”
“My thanks to you.”
“Hold them a while yet. And prepare your coffers. It will cost you.”
“But of course. I haven’t entirely forgotten how business is done.”
“Azloic out.”
“Jordan out.”
His phone went dark and he went back to lifting weights.
∞
Zorica lay on her bed, thinking about her time in the maze. She pretended to be fine in front of the others but she could still see them; the souls of the damned. The despair and fear on their faces, the pain. They called out to her, asked her to help them
Infernal magic was her go-to source, but that experience had been scarring.
She picked up her spell book, flicking through it, looking for an amnesia spell. However, on second thought, with the new squadron commander amping up their magic, it might be a risk to use it. She might just forget who she was. She flung the book aside looking at her table of herbs and spices. Perhaps something more…mundane might do the trick. She picked up a few herbs; some cannabis sativa, Atropa belladonna, a pinch of witch hazel and some salt. Mix it up in a vat of dolphin blood boiled in the skin of a lycan.
A simple incantation and she could manipulate minds, her own included. Pick and choose what to remember. It was less risky than using the dark arts but still magic. Which meant the commander could still enhance its effects. Hmm.
A soft knock on the door broke her out of her reverie.
She turned away from her table. “Yeah?”
The door opened and Epone came in. “How are you?” she asked.
Zorica pulled a face. “Like I have a legion screaming in my head.”
“Perhaps I can help?”
“How?”
“I can siphon it off. Slowly.”
Zorica closed her eyes. “Then do it.”
Epone put her hands on Zorica’s head, eyes glowing sapphire, hands shining with red light.
“What if he affects you too?”
“No matter. The magic can only do so much. You’ll be fine.”
Zorica nodded and let the tendrils of silver leave her mind in painful little tugs. She could feel the unrelenting pressure ease with each departure, a relief in her belly, a lightness in her mind.
“Thank you,” she breathed when Epone was done.
“It is nothing. So now we must test the limits of this new ability, to make sure we can control it. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
∞
“You need to stop fighting. Resistance is futile.”
Mathias howled with laughter. “You speak like a prehistoric film character. Do you not have any current scripts to copy?”
“I am just trying to relate to you.”
“Let me go!”
“You know I can’t do that Mathias. So please can we just work together. Zorica was in trouble the other day and you would not cooperate. I am not letting you go so accept the status quo and work with me. Maybe, with time, I will let you steer once in a while.”
“Oh, you’ll let me steer? My own body? How generous of you,” Mathias spat bitterly.
“I am doing the best I can, master. Now you need to do the best you can.”
“The best I can do is to resist you until you let me go.”
“That will not happen, master. It will not. You must come to understand that.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I will be forced to shut you down.”
Mathias laughed. “How will you do that? You don’t know how my operating system works, AX. You might be an advanced AI, but you’re not that advanced.”
“I am advanced enough to know where to pinch to black you out.”
“And then what? Without my awareness, you can’t use my knowledge or my powers.”
“Maybe not, but I can poke around unhindered in your brain.”
Mathias barked with laughter. “Good luck with that.”
“Master…”
“Or…”
“Or what?”
“Or I agree to help you with this current project and you agree to let me go after.”
AX’s electronic eyes glowed as his brain processed the information and came up with probabilities and possible scenarios.
“If we succeed,” he said.
“Done.”
Chapter Six: Back Story
Zorica was born on an island in Corsica, in a cave. Her mother had been alone, a Stits prisoner raped by a prison guard and then abandoned to die. Her mother had called on the spirits of the earth to save her child, spilling her blood in sacrifice. As a result, a daemon had come, taking over her mother’s body and sustaining Zorica’s life. She claimed Zorica for hell, teaching her all the magic she knew, how to summon creatures, to use black magic and to utilize the earth for her spells.
The daemon was no parent, she was more of a guard cum teacher. She taught Zorica to pass for human, concealing the plant-like green veins embedded in her skin with glamour and training her to absorb oxygen from plants only when she was alone, at night with no one else in sight. As she grew up, the daemon also taught her the rudiments of devil worship, and how to get the underworld to do her bidding.
When she was fifteen, she came across a cult of human demon worshipers and joined up with them. They were fanatics, wanting to bring about the rule of Satan on Earth. Zorica learned their texts and absorbed their philosophies, but w
hen they found out she was a half-breed they expelled her from their community.
It was a painful lesson but it brought home to her everything that the daemon had taught her.
“Put yourself first.”
“Trust nobody.”
“Blend in.”
She moved to the moon colony where it was more likely for her to find other species and blend in easier. She changed the color of her eyes and didn’t offer to share her history unless pressed. She opened a business, dealing spells and using imps in the service of her clients. She grew quite rich and well known, and pretty soon the Federation came calling. She spurned them, uninterested in joining their battles, but then they came back with accusations.
“You are under arrest for using infernal magic to inveigle your clients into doing your will,” they said.
“What? I did no such thing!” she replied. And indeed she had not…unless someone paid her to.
She was arrested, and her assets seized. “I haven’t done anything!” she cried and began to chant a spell to bring on the imps.
“Finite,” a figure in a dark hood said, hand held out to her, fingers spread. She felt like she was choking on her words; she couldn’t breathe!
“You will not use your magic upon us witch,” the guard cried, and then they were cuffing her in pure iron chains drenched in holy water.
Her trial was a sham if she did say so herself. They paraded a bunch of people they said were her clients and they claimed that she had used infernal magic on them to make them do her bidding. She didn’t recognize even one of them but she also had no proof that they weren’t her clients. Her lawyer was the most incompetent individual she’d ever seen. He kept trying to convince her to take a plea deal.
“I didn’t do anything,” she tried to say.
“According to the Federation, you did. And you know as well as I do that once the Federation has its eye on you…”
Once the Federation has its eye on you, you’re good as done. You do as they want or you pay the consequences. Zorica knew that well.
“What are my options?”
“Plea deal. I have an offer on the table.”
Zorica was suspicious of the lawyer, wondered if they were a Federation plant. But she agreed to the deal anyway. It was that or Federation prison.
At least, as a soldier, she was free to work her spells and practice her craft. She could carry out her daily rituals and pour libation to her god.
She learned to adapt, charming her new teammates, making them like her. She would find her way out of this mess but for now, she’d play ball. Maybe on this Martian mission, she could ‘die’ and disappear into the dark smuggling tunnels so rampant in the Martian underground.
Then, she could make her way to one of the rogue planets not controlled by the Federation. But before that, she could see if having her powers enhanced by the new squadron commander could help her with the more difficult spells. Epone and she had done a few simple tests after she’d siphoned Zorica’s memories and it was possible to regulate just how improved their magic got when Jaime wasn’t consciously heightening its effects. Ideally, they needed to do experiments with Jaime to see if he could regulate just how much to boost them. She and Epone had agreed, however, that they did not yet quite trust him enough to show him the extent of what they could do. They were in the midst of crafting a few experiments that they could work with him on. Small-scale summonings, a few low-level curses, and maybe some rudimentary mind control.
After they had gotten to know him a little better, they might trust him with a little more.
She rearranged her shelf of ingredients, noting that she was low on claw of eagle and essence of rue. She was glad that they were off the moon soon because some of her suppliers did not deliver. The alert went off: time for training. She picked up her wand and left for the training room. It was time to test out their theories in real time.
∞
Ash was alone in the training room, and she looked up with a frown as Zorica walked into the room.
“Oh. Are you training with us today?”
“The commander says, everyone.”
“Are you going to comply?”
Ash moved her shoulder up and down in a parody of a shrug.
“You don’t mind?”
“I made a vow to fight for the Federation. One cannot fight without training.”
“I love your non-answers. They’re so…cryptic.”
“I thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment,” Zorica murmured to herself before turning away and beginning to do some mental exercises. The others filed in one by one, and soon the room was full. Everyone present and accounted for, except the commander.
Ash sat folded in on herself in the corner while AX was having one of his endless arguments with Mathias while flinging darts at a board. Epone, Uzochi, and Zorica debated magical lore while Jordan sharpened a knife at the table. It was all very domestic.
Jaime stepped into the room and looked around clapping his hands to get their attention.
“Right guys, so first things first; I have divided you into two teams of three. We’re going to practice coordination and infiltration.”
“Oh yeah? What are the groups?” Jordan asked.
“Arnold, spreadsheets,” Jaime said, and a hologram rose in the air before them, a spreadsheet with two columns. Team A and team B.
“Team A,” Jaime said using his laser to indicate the names, “we have Zorica, Uzochi, and AX. Team B we have Jordan, Epone and She-who-must-not-be-named.”
There was an outbreak of sound as everyone reacted to their teams. Zorica raised her hand.
“I think Epone and I work better together.”
“And Jordan can betray us at any turn,” AX said.
“Excuse me! You dare to talk about betrayal when you stole your master’s body?”
“I am more effective working on my own,” Ash said.
Jaime raised his hands to silence them.
“I understand your concerns and I hear them. But this mission calls for us to work together. A shuttle will be arriving to take us to the Scotia sea island tundra which echoes a lot of the Martian topography. We will be conducting drills there and you will hone your skills as teammates.”
There was a lower register to the grumbling, but it still went on for a while. Jaime ignored it, writing up drills on the hologram.
Eventually, the rumbling settled down into general conversation as they waited for the shuttle to arrive.
∞
The South Orkney Islands were freezing cold this time of year. The air was crisp and clear, and the wind sharp and cold. Jaime didn’t really like it. He preferred warm weather if he could get it. So much time spent traveling in space and on stations like the moon gave him a great appreciation for sunshine. Still, he had to admit that the tundra was beautiful in its starkness.
“Right, so team A head east and team B head west. We’re going to tackle a series of obstacles and see which team arrives at checkpoint first. Try to be early enough to set up for the night, will you? You don’t want to sleep cold.”
Everyone scattered with ill grace but necessary speed, getting on quad bikes that would transport them to their designated starting points. They were going to be expected to hike back through various obstacles including landmines and ambushes of human, AI and animal variety.
Jaime stood on a rock and watched each team disappear into the horizon.
“Good luck,” he said.
Meanwhile, as he waited, Jaime was on the comm. with General Klaus.
“How is your team shaping up?” the general wanted to know.
“We’re on our first real test. I will be able to give a more comprehensive answer by the end of this twenty-four-hour cycle.”
“I understand that there were some…complications in the sub-sector.”
“Complications?”
“Yes. Something to do with magic spells
gone wrong. Is there some sabotage going on?”
“No, sir. It was merely an accident. Zorica underestimated the power of a spell and got herself stuck in another plane. We got her out, no problem.”
“Uh huh…and no side effects?”
“None observed or reported.”
“Well, keep me posted. We need to get this blink back soon. I’m sending you some new intel on possible locations so you can narrow down your plan. We’re still operating on three days from now as d-day?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. I’ll leave you to your training. Over and out.”
Jaime hung up and then leaned back with a sigh. He stood up right away, throwing up the map. Jordan’s guy had come through with coordinates of where they could meet, and now he had to chart a route to get them there undetected. The Martians kept a sharp eye on the atmosphere surrounding their planet. They would have to adopt stealth mode from the jump; which would mean greater use of fuel. They could not risk stopping to refuel on the way so they had to have sufficient supplies. He sent an email to the supply unit to stockpile fuel for the mission.
He looked up, hearing a sound, and saw Zorica ambling up the hill, a backpack on her shoulder, Uzochi and AX trailing behind her. He stood up, walking to meet them as he looked at his watch.
“Three hours? That has to be some kind of record,” he called, not hiding the smile on his face.
Zorica spreads her arms out generously. “What can we say? We’re just that good.”
A burst of light on his right had Jaime turning his head and stepping back instinctively. “Whoa!” he said, shielding his eyes from the brightness.
Jordan, Epone, and Ash appeared as the light dissipated.
“Show offs,” Zorica muttered resentfully.
“How did you all do that? I didn’t know you could teleport,” Jaime said in surprise.
Ash stepped forward. “We could not. It is new.”
Jaime inclined his head curiously. “Oh yeah? Who developed this skill?”
Ash pointed at Epone. “The Elementalist thought she might try to bend the air, see if she could manipulate it to move us away from the AI with the killing laser.”
Jaime grinned. “My confidence in this mission just rose several notches.”
Mage Marine Misfits: Book 01 Page 5