Polished

by P. S. Power

  Then, dressed in a simple brown outfit, he moved back, to find his bed dry and made already, with a tray, one covered with a dome of silver that had a knob on the top, waiting for him. Prince Alphonse sat near the simple food, and lifted the lid rapidly.

  They didn’t talk while Richard ate and drank the coffee with a bit of a vengeance. As if he meant it or something. It was strong enough to be horribly bitter as well as hit him with a feeling of jittery warmth after a few moments. When it was done, he stood.

  “Now, I’ll go inside and see about moving you to a different room here. This will… Probably take a while.”

  It really did.

  Still, less than six hours later, he was able to move the giant Prince all over the place without issue. It took a lot of focus, but that was all. A thing that, thanks to magic and his new crew, he had in spades.

  Chapter fourteen

  The new trick he was supposed to practice, one mentioned to him by Prince Alphonse, was to go to a different reality, then bring the giant man to him. He could have gone to the base and worked from there, except that he wanted to see if he could do it from someplace a bit more difficult than that. One that he didn't think of as being home, inside his deeper mind. So, Richard took himself to find Eve Benson, who, for the second time in a row, was in an ice cream shop. A different one this time, while still oddly showing a theme. Which could have been worse, he had to suppose. He came in from the back room, since that was what people did there, he thought.

  At least he saw a man do that, as he was watching things happen, through the mirror inside his head.

  Eve was there, as well as a good looking, rather busty girl behind the counter. That and the man who had walked in. He recognized the fellow, of course, since he looked just like Tobin Peterson. Kerry’s now former boyfriend. If they didn't get back together.

  Bridget had said that they shouldn’t get involved there, in a formal fashion. No one had told him not to date the woman though, now that she was single. For that matter, Alphonse had sort of hinted that he should do that, along with the other ladies they’d talked about. It was certainly a different set of morals being used. Then, he’d lived a life of playing outside the conventional guidelines that way.

  He had to bring Alphonse in first, pulling two mirrors together, merging them into one, then slightly trading one for the other. Then, instantly, he moved into place himself, ending up standing right next to the huge fellow.

  He called out, in English. It was, conveniently enough, the language of the place.

  “Hello? It’s Richard Drake and Prince Alphonse Cordes. Coming up, unless that’s not allowed?” They could leave after all. The trick had worked, which was the point of the moment.

  There was a soft clatter, as two people ran toward them. Slowly, he thought. Eve had mentioned that she was kind of fast, when she wanted to be. As in people couldn’t see her when she moved. This sounded like a polite jog and took long enough for Rich to think about.

  When the Tobin looking fellow and Eve got there, both of them smiling, they snapped in half, bowing. Going low. Given it was their place, that meant Alphonse and himself had to get lower than that, at least in angle. It took some work.

  Eve spoke first, smiling hugely.

  “Okay, this is new! You worked out how to bring people with you?” The words were for him, directly, clearly meaning that the woman was clever, mentally. Not that he would have doubted that. None of the line walkers were dull witted. They probably couldn’t be. It just took too much focus and effort to do it the normal way.

  He had powers, which made it easier, of course.

  “Better than just that. I can snag a person from one place and put them in another world, without going myself at all. Stuff, too, I bet. So, you know, I’m not just the greatest thief in one world, I’m proclaiming myself the King of Thieves for all of them. All hail the king.” He was kidding, though interestingly, Alphonse bowed to him then, going nearly as low as the others had just done.

  The man seemed rather sober about the whole thing, as well.

  “King Richard Drake.”

  The Tobin looking man just nodded at first, then bowed himself.

  “King Rich. I guess we can go with that one for real, if you want? Not that you should get a big head about it. I mean, you’re pretty close to correct, about what you can do. It’s just that if you get all egotistical about it, I’ll have a harder time convincing you to work for me for free, later. It could come up, so you know, don’t do that part.”

  The words were filled with humor and seemed conversational enough, really.

  Richard waved it all away.

  “I’m kidding. Thieves don’t need a king. That would just be me being pretentious. Anyway, I came to…” The real answer was that he’d come to do what he had, which was finished now. There was no real reason for him to stick around, given that. Even if it was nice to see Eve again.

  Alphonse, for the first time, said enough that it was clear he was now fluent in English, which got a smile from the vampire woman.

  “We were speaking earlier, Mr. Drake and myself, about setting up an appointment for Master Jim, in the IPB world? I think he might be ready for that kind of thing now. Also, Mr. Drake was asking after a date with you soon, Ambassador Benson. If you aren’t otherwise engaged or the rules here prohibit that, of course.”

  Rich didn't glare at the man, who’d jumped right over him suddenly with his words. After all, he was clearly trying to back Rich up in what he wanted. That his ego might not be able to take that kind of thing at the moment was his problem, obviously.

  Eve didn’t demure though, simply nodding.

  “That sounds fun. I do have a girlfriend, Kait. She’s the Alede line walker, so is cool with me dating other people, too. Really, you should meet her as well, Rich. I think you’ll like her. Pretty much everyone does. So, yes, let’s go out soon? Now, if you want? I’m kind of between gigs for the council and Karen doesn’t actually need me to babysit her, if you can believe that. David is coming in soon and he doesn’t need me either. I just live in town, so hang out here, like some kind of loser who never leaves work.” She seemed a bit upset on the last portion of things.

  Not that he got it, exactly, not until the other man spoke.

  Introducing himself, first.

  “Troy Lopez. I used to be the Trickster god, Loki. Now I mainly knock around, helping people out, when they don’t understand they need me. Eve and I should go back to your world with you. For a summit meeting that comes out of nowhere, naturally. Get Alphie here in on that as well and… Well, we can dig up a few others, if we try hard enough.” He stopped then and winked. “We’ll be the cover operation for the IPB while you depose the freaks in your system. Really, we should get it televised. Then get our boss to claim that whoever took over the internet and airwaves was doing it to try and harm the Infected and inter-world relations. No one will really care, but like I said, cover.”

  The idea wasn’t actually the worst one that he’d heard of. Well, it was, as far as a real meeting went. Anyone setting something like that up on the fly probably deserved to be drop kicked into a wood chipper. As a way to show that they, the IPB, were all too busy and were well accounted for, being live on television like they were…

  That part was incredibly brilliant.

  “I… Yes. We can do that. Do I bring you both in later? I need the practice, only I was hoping to keep my powers secret that way, so I could kidnap some people later, if it came up.”

  Eve snorted a little bit then.

  “We’ve got this. Sweetie.” She paused then. “Honey? Honey buns? Don’t leave me hanging here, Rich. I’m trying to make it seem like we’re closer than we really are, so you like me better, later. Pumpkin?”

  “I’m good with Sweetie, I suppose, Dumplin.” He grinned at the dead woman, who was very old, in her own way. All the line walkers were, he’d heard. Even Lydia, after a fashion.

  She nodded anyway, as did Loki. The man spoke t
hen.

  “We’ll get everyone in for you. It won’t even cost you anything, except some work later. I have a project in mind. It will be a few years though, so keep practicing your new trick. Does that work for you? Just to be clear, I want to clean out a bank vault. The person that owns it doesn’t deserve to have what they do, so…”

  “As if I need that much to get me interested? I might even have some friends that I can get in on that, if you want?” Kerry came to mind. She was actually promising as far as being a thief went.

  Too kind about things really but her skills were pretty top notch that way. Not as much as his were, suddenly, but having backup was always good, if the person was trustworthy.

  The ancient god winked at him then.

  “That sounds good, actually. We’ll start showing up in three hours? That will be… Close to the middle of the night there. Prince Alphonse… I’ll be in to get you before that. Call it ten hours, your time? Once you get back home. Bring some friends with you? We need to make a pageant of this, I think.”

  Richard glanced up at the man.

  “Get Tiera Baker in? She needs to get hooked up into your training program, Troy. She’s Eve from a different world, if that helps at all?”

  The man, looking nice without being over the top about it, smiled.

  “That… Works for me, actually. Anyone that can do it, line walk, from one reality seems to be able to learn it in another as well. At least no one has ever failed that way, so far. That probably means we need to make time for President Hale as well. The Shifter President? Another version of her can do that already. That… There’s a woman from your world that’s her too. We met once. Rachel Chambers? Can you get her in, do you think?”

  Rich didn’t know. Instead of saying that he smiled.

  “I can run it past her? We aren’t close. Then, this kind of thing is important enough that anyone we can get into the training should probably give it a try. Most people fail, right?”

  Eve bit her upper lip then.

  “Yeah. The numbers seem to be settling at about three out of every five hundred. So, if we can get anyone that’s willing and pretty much certain to make it, it’s worth it to us. So we can get Tiera in. Rachel Chambers as well. I… She shrugged and looked at Troy. “What Richard has going on is different than line walking, so I don’t know if that works out, really.”

  Her voice was hesitant seeming about the topic. Troy went a little wide-eyed, then tilted his head, his eyes darting all over the room. It reminded Rich a bit of like what Cindy Mableton did when using her powers.

  “Well… Brian Yi isn’t a line walker, strictly speaking, but can go to other worlds. I think it might be a bit like that? All the Zacks and Gwen can do it as well, one way or the other. No, it’s worth trying? I’ll let you bring it up with Bey though.” He stopped then, and smiled at Richard. “Your double here is named Bey Transmorguire. He’s on the vampire council. Really nice guy, for a vampire. When I was a vampire he brought me over. Which means he’s basically my dad now. I guess we should call him up on that one? At least to try it out.”

  There was no instant move to a phone then, or anything like that.

  Rich nodded though, since that kind of thing was probably hard. It was clear that the old god had both tricked the vampire man and still thought highly of him. It would be hard to have conned someone and then make up with them, later. Even if you’d done it to save the world, which Eve had mentioned as being the case with the whole thing.

  Troy had become a vampire, to save the world. From a bunch of rather angry gods. So it wasn’t some kind of small thing or game, really. Not even just a way to make himself wealthy or powerful. That didn't mean the other man, Bey, would be happy to see him, of course.

  “Bring him to the summit? I’ll go and… Well, first let me get you home, Prince Alphonse. Then I’ll set up a table and see if we can get a camera or two going, back home. Three hours from when I leave here?”

  Eve chuckled at that bit.

  “As if anything between worlds is ever that exact? Who else should we bring in? Jim?”

  That, of course, was a good idea. After all, they wanted to see about borrowing the man for some questions and answers if they could.

  “That would be good. We need him to go and select out who’s going to be the Jim from our world, after all. That sounds fair, right? After all, we don’t have anyone else to train them for the job.” It wasn’t fair at all and he was joking about it, being a bit random, since he was a bit flustered, being there with Eve like he was.

  A person he apparently had a date with, soon. He’d need to think of something nice that way. If that was the way things were done there, being a different world and all that. To find that out, he really was planning to pump Jim for information.

  Troy nodded a little still looking at things that didn’t seem to be there at all.

  “Go now. We’ll handle the rest of this.”

  It took about ten seconds for him to get into the world of mirrors and another ten to find the place Alphonse was and where he needed to be, in his own world. In his bedroom, since the man needed to tell everyone what the plan was that day. Then it took nearly as long for him to find the head office at the IPB base and move himself into the lobby. No one was standing in the way or anything, so it wasn’t hard that way. The trick was that he’d hesitated, not knowing how to bring the whole thing up.

  As soon as he was there, with Lydia manning the front desk, he waved at her. Then headed directly to Turner’s office.

  “Um, we have a bit of an emergency. I need… Everyone to come to Turner’s office. Now.” He meant the people there with them, in the office already. Cindy and Lydia, mainly.

  He got both of them, Brian Yi, Karen Young and Dave Wilson. The all blue man spoke first, his voice sounding mechanical and as if he was doing three part harmony with himself. It was incredible to hear, really.

  “Is this something I’m needed for?” Why he’d doubt that was hard to tell.

  The man didn’t seem to think it odd that the others were there at all. Brian and Karen. Lydia looked a little like it hadn’t been about her, as well, really.

  “All of us. We have an emergency summit happening. Here, in three hours our time. It’s mainly a meet and greet. A real working conference though, so it will need to be televised if possible. We need to get the rep in from the U.N. For our people as well. We have the Prince of Noram coming, Ambassadors from at least one other world. The main topic seems to be line walkers and building their ranks. We need to have it televised, if possible.” He stopped, looking at Turner, who for the first time since they’d met, seemed a little panicked. “Oh! Rachel Chambers… Can we spare her for a while? It turns out she’s a good line walker candidate. We need to show that we’re willing to do our part that way, so if she’s willing to try it…”

  Turner nodded then.

  “Fuck then. Right. Fuck… Okay, we need a conference set up in the open gym facility. Brian, get with Carl on that. He sets up the major facilities changes here most often. We want something nice. Karen, get on the horn and call up… No, I have to do it. We need the President on this or he’ll have our asses. Wilson, hit up DHA and FBI. We need security for this, fast. Not just our own people. This is less than perfect timing for this, you know that Drake?” There was a growl to go along with it.

  He smiled and shook his head.

  “It was put together by Loki, the Trickster god. Go figure on that one, right?”

  The woman made a face that looked a bit like she’d eaten a lemon then nodded.

  “I heard from Avery Rome that when faced with that type, it’s best to just go along with them. It’s normally about saving a world, if not the universe, even if us little people can’t see it…” There was a long pause then, as, clearly, she did see it. Then, the idea that she, the Director of the IPB was a little person in any sense of the word was ridiculous.

  She nodded then and pointed firmly at Lydia.

  “Get Rom
e and her people in. All of the line walkers you can find. We want the human ones too. Zack Hartley and his people. I don’t know if we’re bringing dates. We need to have some kind of meal set up as well. Kare, you get on that. Pick who you want to cook for it and get anyone you need to help. Team Two for that?”

  Richard nodded. Not that he knew for certain why he was doing that.

  “They can do that. We want all of them for it. Teams One and Three will be our guards for the summit. Runners and all that. We need fancy matching uniforms. Something military, without being too scary. Camera ready, though. Team Four will run the desk here and help where needed?” That was Riggs and his imaginary friends. Like June.

  The people most like the ones who would be off in space and taking over the internet. If they were ready at all. The problem was that he couldn’t ask, in the moment. Handily, Cindy put up words for him, behind his eyes. From the way half the people jumped in the room they all saw it.

  It said that the mission was a go, and was planned to take place in five hours and fifteen minutes. A countdown started then, off to the left of his field of view. That was in bright red.

  Seeing that reminded him that he needed to date Cindy as well, if he was going to stop being all ageist about things. Probably Lydia, too. Though that one still felt wrong to him. She was just so young looking, on the outside.

  Touching his arm, Cindy winked at him.

  “Sure? If my fiancé is good with that, I mean. Noble rules, so it’s probably not a huge problem with him.”

  The words told him a lot, actually. As in that Cin had finally sealed the deal with Willum Baker. He would have said it was about time, but the honest truth was that it not only wasn’t his business, he personally hadn’t been around long enough for it to seem like they were dragging their feet. At least that Mableton had been.