by John Hook
Hard Corps
By John Hook
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2012 by John Hook
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the prior written consent of the author. Brief passages may be used for the purposes of a review.
I would welcome any communication at [email protected] I’m not one for social networking much (one of my many quirks), I’m afraid, but I really do enjoy talking with my readers.
Fiction by John Hook:
Quentin Case Series:
Hard Case
Hard Corps
Hard Reign
This book is for my grandfather, JHW, who told me many stories of adventure and wonder in the brief 8 years I was able to know him before he died. Also to my mother, another great story teller. Both told stories orally, although they wrote them down, and both encouraged my imagination and sense of adventure even when it wasn’t convenient. This is not the sort of story they would have told, but they would have recognized it and appreciated its spirit.
I’d like to acknowledge the kind support and enthusiasm of my wife Susan who let me devote all my non-job hours for several months to this project. Those were months during which she was given little help with the house or the yard. Her patience and understanding were remarkable.
Finally, as always, I’d like to thank all the good folks at the Alphasmart group on Flikr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/alphasmart/). Your encouragement and humor have been vital to keeping me going.
Note: This is the second volume of the adventures of Quentin Case. The first is called “Hard Case.” While I think you will enjoy reading the first book if you haven’t already, it is my sincere belief that this book stands well on its own. Those who have read the first book will appreciate certain aspects of the back story more than new readers, but the new reader should not end up feeling like they missed something essential.
1.
The trouble with a place that is always trying to torture or maim you is that, when it isn’t, it can be a bit of a letdown. Welcome to the strange irony of a place I refer to as Hell. Whether it is the Hell or just a hell doesn’t matter much. It is a place of great violence and pain, cloaked in a guise of curious ordinariness.
I was sitting in one of the chairs I had in front of my “office.” It was actually a storefront, but being a writer, I wanted a place to work. It had an old desk and a couple of chairs in case someone actually came in to watch me write. No one ever did. Since the office was at street level, I often pulled the chairs outside and would look out across at the stones of the town square. When I had first come to Rockvale, as we called it, it was run by demons. It was a border town, places the newly dead were drawn to. A group of us succeeded in wresting control of the town. Now it just looked like any other dusty small town in the mountains of the western United States.
Not that it made me very happy. We were still trapped in a cruel and inhospitable world, whatever it was.
“Uh oh. I recognize that look.” Izzy sat down in the chair next to me.
Izzy looked as he always did. Thin but muscular, frizzy hair at his temples around a bald dome, thick-frame Buddy Holly glasses. Only his tee shirts changed. Today it was a black cat staring balefully out with a thought balloon reading, “I told you there would be consequences.”
“What look is that.” I skipped a stone into the street.
“The ‘I want to kick someone’s ass’ look.”
“Did you bring me Dunkin’ Donuts?”
“No, I keep telling you we don’t have those here.”
“Then you are right. I want to kick someone’s ass.”
Izzy shook his head. “I know this is hard for you, but why not settle in? We’ve driven off the demons and you have a hot girlfriend. Life is good.”
“For how long?”
“We’ve managed for some months now and have even had time to build up a small defensive force.”
“Did we get in that shipment of AK 47s and chain guns yet?”
Izzy rolled his eyes. “Probably next week.”
“So we have…?”
“Stone-polished clubs that double as baseball bats, bows and arrows, and slingshot hand-guns. All designed by your two favorite mechanical engineers.”
“Did you read my book?”
I’ve been sitting on my anger because the very group of people who took such risks for me asked me to give them some time to build up the town and its defenses. I helped, of course, but one of the things I decided to do to occupy my time was to write again. That’s what I did before I got here and took up demon slaying. So I wrote a book of what happened to me after I first got here. There are, of course, no printing presses so there was only one handwritten copy. I had passed it around.
“Sure, we all have.”
“Really? What did everyone think? I’m afraid to ask.”
“I got the impression everyone but Paul enjoyed it. Paul said it was too simple and annoying and you made yourself seem like a teenager.”
“Poetic license.”
“Paul isn’t very poetic.”
“There is that.”
“You just fishing for compliments or is there a point?” Izzy studied me.
“The point is, whatever liberties I took to make the narrative exciting, we’ve never gone long without something bigger and badder coming at us. We have a little breathing space because we are currently under the protection of a Manitor.”
A Manitor is like a regional governor. In this case, it is this dog-like animal spirit that calls himself Guido. Yeah, I know. Some stuff here you just have to take in stride.
Izzy leaned back. “You don’t think this will last.”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like the idea of waiting until something hits us. I’d like to know what’s out there so we can prepare for what’s coming, not what we’ve already fought.”
“An expedition?”
“Now you’re talking.”
“We go out and explore and you piss off badass magical beings.”
“Something like that. We can figure out the details later.”
“One of your typical plans.” Izzy shook his head, but he was smiling.
“I like to be open to possibilities.”
“How do you know Guido’s protection isn’t enough? Saripha seems to think it is.”
“Because Guido is so careful. He is very powerful, but he answers to other powers and he keeps secrets. We are doing something that flies against what this world is about. That can’t go unchallenged forever.”
“Maybe you just want to pick a fight.”
“I do. Which is weird, because I wasn’t like this when I was alive. However, I also think it is good strategy to know what we are up against.”
“Are we going to talk to the others?”
“We?”
“You don’t think I’m going to let you run off by yourself, do you? I doubt Rox will either.”
“Might be dangerous while I’m pissing magical beings off.”
“No doubt.”
“I could always try diplomacy.”
“No, you can’t.” Izzy giggled.
“Paul won’t be happy.”
“No. He’ll probably say you’re acting like a teenager.”
Playful banter aside, I could feel myself getting agitated in a way I had mostly been able to avoid the past few months by keeping my mind busy and putting in long workouts at the Dragon Lady, our makeshift gym. Izzy sensed my edginess.
Rox was exotic. Her hair was black, as were her eyes. Much about her appearance had changed since I first met her as her self-image changed. Although our bodies were biological, they were also glamours that reflected how we thought of ourselves.
Before, Rox had been an abused part of the system here. Since becoming one of us, extensive physical training with Kyo down at the Dragon Lady and spiritual training with Saripha had reshaped her. Instead of fuller dresses, she favored less loose sleeveless silk tops and dark crop pants. She wore green today with gold trim and large earrings with feathers dangling down. Her presence was always powerful for me. There was a mixture of intelligence, aggression and the promise of intimacy that I had never quite seen in a woman before. She caught me looking at her and winked.
“So what are you boys plotting now?”
“Quentin was beginning to feel some wanderlust.” Izzy took his cup.
“And now?” Rox sat in my lap and smiled wider.
“Now, it might be just lust.”
Rox put her hand on my chest, letting it play there a moment. I could feel my nervous system become both less agitated and more aroused.
Women and men with this empathic ability were cultivated as “escorts.” They met people when they first arrived and used their abilities to calm them so panic wouldn’t set in right away. I’ve never figured out why anyone here was invested in calming humans down given that they mostly wanted to torture them. It was one of those mysteries about this place that bothered me. However, even Rox didn’t know the answers. She had been my escort and at the time had been programmed to calm me and then kill me. Luckily I didn’t calm easily. Killing me turned out to be even harder.
“You’re looking for an excuse to go back out there.” She was momentarily serious.
“I’m not sure I need an excuse. I think not knowing what’s out there puts us in danger.”
“Paul thinks that stirring up whatever is out there might put us in danger.”
“If we had listened to Paul, we wouldn’t have freed Rockvale.”
“Maybe I can figure out a way to keep you here.” Rox teased. She held my face in her hands and then kissed me deeply.
“No fair. You are using sneaky magical tricks.”
“I thought I was just being seductive.”
“That’s not fair either.”
“So you’ll stick around?”
“For now.”
“If you are going anywhere, I am going with you.”
“Could be dangerous.”
“You mean like being made the evil pet of your psychotic landlord?”
“Okay, you win.”
“I’m going too.” Izzy added.
“What have you got for leverage?”
“I’m kind of at a disadvantage there. Still, you never know when you are going to need an arrow-slinging nerd on your side.”
“Good point.”
Rox stood. She peered at the road coming into town. She had sensed something.
“I’d better get another cup of sweet water.” She went through the door into my office. I kept cups and a pitcher in there.
A figure appeared on the road.
At first he was hard to make out except his gait, which was slow, measured, unhurried. The sun was lowering toward the mountain and there was haze around him. As he came into view, he was a tall and lean black man with warm brown skin, a thin face and very short cropped brown hair. His eyes seemed almost golden. He wore what looked like an expensive jacket over Italian slacks and a rose-colored golf shirt. On his feet were black leather cowboy boots with red stitching. He came up slowly, studying Izzy and myself sitting in our chairs in front of my office. He stood there for a moment, and then grinned widely.
“You two forget your banjos?”
Izzy giggled.
“You’re new here?”
We were expecting someone because a new escort had shown up. We didn’t really know how that worked. Even Rox didn’t. Apparently it worked even if all the demons had been tossed out.
“That’s me. The new guy in town.”
“I have good news and bad news.” I said.
He said nothing.
“The bad news is you are in Hell.”
He must have already figured that out because no surprise registered on his face. He still said nothing.
“The good news is that we are in charge of this place.” I motioned at the town around us.
“That’s the good news?” He had a twinkle in his eyes. “I walk into a small town run by crackers. Oh, yes, I’m living the dream.”
“I think he’s impugning Rockvale’s lack of diversity,” Izzy noted.
“True, but part of being not so diverse is not having demons.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that. Ran into a couple of those on my way here.”
“Don’t look much worse for wear.”
“Apparently we repair quickly.” There was a momentary flicker of something in his eyes and I knew it was memory. Then it was gone.
I stood and extended my hand. There was something I liked about this new arrival. “My name’s Quentin Case. This is Izzy.”
He shook my hand firmly. He nodded at Izzy. “Blaise.”
“Just Blaise?”
“I don’t use my first name.”
“Oh, come on, now you have to tell us.”
“Champion.”
“Champion Blaise?”
Blaise shrugged.
“Your parents think you were a race horse?”
He shook his head but there was amusement on his face.
Rox came out with the pitcher and a cup. She handed him the cup. “I’m Rox.”
Blaise’s eyes immediately lit up.
Rox used the pitcher to top off Izzy’s and my cups.
“Forget it. She’s with me.”
“Yeah, but that’s before she knew there was a choice.”
Blaise stopped to look down at his arms and legs. He felt the side of his face and his neck, then rubbed the top of his head.
“You have mirrors here?”
“Don’t worry, you look as good as you think you do.”
“Couldn’t look that good.” He peered around and then back at himself. “So what are these bodies? I’m dead, right?”
“Far as we can tell. These bodies are real. They can be damaged. If they are damaged beyond repair, you generate a new body and may lose your memory and sense of identity in the process.”
“Hate to lose that. Appears to be all I have.”
Blaise picked things up fast.
Just then something caught his eye. A slender brown woman who had just appeared in town a couple of days ago came down the street toward us. She had green, almond-shaped eyes and copper hair that hung in wild ringlets about her neck and shoulders. She wore a vest over a white shirt with print slacks and sandals. As she walked deliberately over, her eyes were on Blaise. He looked at me.
“She’s your escort.”
“We get escorts?”
Rox laughed. “That’s what Quentin first said.”
“For some odd reason, when you are new, this world gives you someone who has the power to calm your nervous system.”
Blaise looked at her as she glided up and smiled at him. She seemed to ignore the rest of us.
“Calm is not what is happening to my nervous system right now.”
“Hello. I’m Lauryn. Maybe I could show you around now.”
She let her hand come to rest on his chest for a moment. I didn’t see much change in him. That’s when it struck me what was odd about Blaise.
“You seem awfully calm,” I blurted out.
Blaise turned to me with a puzzled expression.
“You must have died, you ran into demons and I told you this is
Hell. You seem to be taking all this awfully calmly.”
A big grin revealed his nearly perfectly aligned, pearl white teeth. In his eyes, however, was something more serious.
“I just figured this was where I was going to end up.”
“So that’s okay with you.”
“No, but it’s what I expected. So far it doesn’t seem so bad.”
Blaise took her arm and they walked off into town.
“About that,” I said. “We’ll have to give you the rest of the bad news.”
2.
I was definitely reaching the end of what little patience I had and was looking for the slightest excuse to start exploring our mean little world. I didn’t want that excuse to be some kind of unexpected attack. However, the trigger that finally did it was something I could never have foreseen.
I was sitting in my office fiddling with stuff on my desk. I had a makeshift tray for the paper we made out of thin bark that a particular tree shed on a regular basis. There was a collection of burned sticks that I turned into charcoal pencils. I had a few quills I found that I probably wouldn’t want to meet the owner of, and a clay pot for mixing ink. On one corner of the desk was a potted plant that wasn’t all that attractive but Rox had given it to me, and a couple of rocks I had picked up that I liked the shapes and colors of. I was supposed to be thinking about my next writing project to keep me distracted from my restlessness, but it wasn’t working. I was, however, self-absorbed enough that I didn’t see someone approaching my doorway until she entered.
I looked up and the recognition was instant. I hadn’t seen Anita since the she told the demons that that I was hiding in Rockvale. That was a long time ago, before we got rid of the demons, when I was being hunted down. I had no ill will for what she did. She only knew me then as someone who had shown up and tried to provoke her. I was actually very unkind. I had tried to see if people could be provoked into a fight. Unfortunately, all I had found out was that everyone was too traumatized and withdrawn to ever stand up to the demons.
Anita came in without saying a word and sat down in one my chairs. Her eyes were turned down like she was waiting to be granted an audience.