by Jamie Davis
“I shouldn’t have to. Taylor will be home tonight if she isn’t there already. I’ll warn her to stay away, and then we’ll come find you.”
“What if she doesn’t listen to you? Will you promise not to go back inside the company complex?”
“If I do go back, I’ll be careful. Look, is there a way I can contact you?”
“Hand me your phone. I’ll give you a contact number where someone will know how to get hold of me. It’s the best I can do for now. I’ll do some research into VirSync and its owners in the meantime. See what I can learn from the outside.”
Clark tapped a number into her phone and handed it back to her. “Quinn, you need to understand that this is deadly serious work. If you go back in there alone, there’s an even chance you won’t come back out.”
“My mind is made up. I need to do this.”
Quinn tried the door again. Still locked. She glared at Clark.
He waved his hand again with two fingers raised, drawing something invisible in the air. Quinn’s door unlocked.
“Thank you.” Quinn opened the passenger door and hopped out.
Clark got out of the driver’s side and held the door for her. “Don’t thank me. This is against my better judgment. You may have just signed your own death warrant.”
She answered with a curt nod and started the engine, then backed out of the spot. The headlights shone on Clark at the edge of the trees for a few seconds as she drove off. By the time she checked her rearview mirror, he’d disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter Nine
Quinn’s mind whirled with more questions than answers as she drove back to her apartment after her encounter with Clark. Had she really found a connection to her parents? No one had ever been able to give her more than educated guesses about the runes and symbols on her pendant.
Plus, she now had proof that magic was real and not just some little girl’s fantasy in the midst of a hard world. The memories of the secret warnings her amulet had given her dated back to when she was very young.
And what about Clark?
He’d held a knife to her throat. Under normal circumstances, she would have called the police to report him as soon as he let her go.
Except she couldn’t, not without drawing a connection between herself and the councilman’s murder. She was a witness to the crime, if not an accessory.
Quinn’s hand balled up in a fist and thumped on the steering wheel. She was too wrapped up with this whole twisted and fantastical series of events. If even part of what Clark thought was going on at VirSync was true, all the candidates were in danger of…
Of what?
The eternal damnation of their souls? Possession by demons?
Quinn shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts. It was one thing to have your childhood belief in the existence of magic confirmed. It was another to believe you were the lost child of magical hunters, that demons existed, and possession by them was real.
Except everything Clark had told her lined up with all the strange things she’d encountered earlier that evening. While it didn’t explain all the details of what happened to her and the others, the information she’d gleaned from him made more sense than anything she’d come up with.
There’d be time to sort out the truth of everything she’d learned from Clark later.
For now, Quinn had to focus on making sure Taylor was safe. That girl was a trouble magnet. She often got lost in the nerdiness of things and missed what was going on around her.
Once Quinn convinced Taylor of the truth, they could start planning their next steps.
Quinn got home and pulled into the building’s parking lot. She locked the Jeep and looked up, locating their apartment window on the third floor.
The light was on.
A wave of relief washed over her. Taylor was home.
Quinn raced inside the building and headed up to their apartment, only to find it empty when she burst inside.
Her roommate wasn’t there. They must’ve left the lights on when they’d left that morning.
Quinn cursed aloud. She must still be out with those programming friends she’d met.
Pulling out her phone, Quinn tapped a message to Taylor.
Where r u? Lights were on but u weren’t here!
The response came back right away.
Coding marathon. Can’t talk.
Don’t wait up.
Quinn groaned and stomped around the apartment while she tried to think. She wouldn’t see her roommate until morning.
Taylor probably wouldn’t even answer any more texts. That girl would be lost inside some sort of computer world with her new geek friends for the rest of the night.
Quinn’s anger wound down after a few minutes. She stopped and yawned, reaching up with both arms and arching her back to stretch. She needed sleep, and since there was nobody to talk to right now, it was the only thing that would settle her mind. It had been a long day, and everything she’d been through had left her thoroughly exhausted.
Kicking off her shoes, Quinn padded across the living room carpet into her bedroom, stripping down to a t-shirt and panties before climbing into bed. Maybe a good night’s sleep would help her mind sort everything out.
As she drifted to sleep, she rested her fingertips on the edge of her pendant, which was nestled against her collarbone as she lay on her side. The hunter amulet was the key that tied everything together.
Her parents, both apparently killed long ago by the people she now worked for, must have hoped it would provide protection for her while she grew up alone. She tried to picture them, striving for a distant memory of a voice, a face, or anything, just as she had all her life. It was no good. Deep down, Quinn knew she was far too young to remember them.
She tried anyway, and fell asleep a long time later.
Chapter Ten
The buzz of a text message woke Quinn up to a room filled with bright sunlight.
Since we have to be at work at 4 anyway, Claire and Gary offered to let me hang at their place. We’re going to play games online until we have to leave.
Don’t worry, we won’t be late.
I’ll see you there.
Quinn shook her head as she sat up in bed and looked at the top of her phone to see what time it was.
It was nearly one in the afternoon.
Quinn shook her head as she tapped out a reply.
I need you to come home. Now. 911.
The reply came back right away.
Wrapped up in a major quest scenario right now.
You’ll survive.
Tell me at work later.
Quinn snarled in frustration.
Need you now, not later.
She waited several minutes for an answer as she got up and went to make some breakfast, or lunch, or whatever it was at this time of day.
As time stretched, Quinn knew Taylor wasn’t going to respond. She’d already returned to whatever game they were playing.
The cinnamon toast tasted like cardboard. Quinn realized she would have to return to VirSync. She had no choice. She had to persuade Taylor to quit before something horrible happened to her.
Quinn resigned herself to putting together a plan to get Taylor out. She’d convince her friend to feign being sick or something so they both could leave work before the evening’s planned VR journey.
She couldn’t let Taylor go back in and log another kill.
As her mind ticked through the possible options to get away once she explained things to Taylor, a part of Quinn’s naturally curious mind also wanted to figure out exactly what was going on at VirSync. Clark had offered possibilities based on what he knew the other side capable of.
That wasn’t good enough for her. Quinn wanted concrete proof that what the old man had told her was true. She wasn’t sure she had to see a demon in the flesh to believe, but she needed something, some evidence, to back up his story.
The plan she eventually came up with offered solutions to both things
she wanted to accomplish. She settled on an idea to head into work a little early on the pretense she was there to work out before the sessions began.
During orientation, all of the candidates had been told about a gym with a weight room and other workout equipment open for all the candidates to use twenty-four hours a day. Quinn decided to use that as cover for showing up a few hours early.
Maybe if no one else was around, she could try to search for evidence about what was happening behind the scenes with the VR system. If there were really magical spells or demons there, Quinn should be able to find something to back it up.
With her mind made up, she dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, shoved a change of clothes into her duffle bag, and headed down to her Jeep. She toyed with the idea of calling Clark and leaving a message for him about what she planned to do.
In the end, Quinn decided that was a bad idea. The number she had wasn’t a direct line to Clark, just a place to leave a message for him. She had no idea who else would see the message. Besides, if she got him on the line, he’d only try to talk her out of it.
Traffic was light since it was a few hours before the afternoon rush hour. Twenty minutes later, Quinn pulled up to the gates at VirSync. Showing her badge to the guard, Quinn smiled despite the nervous pit in her stomach. He waved her through without a second thought, opening the heavy iron gate with the flick of a switch in the guard shack.
Quinn parked under the same overhead light as the night before and headed inside the main entrance with her bag slung over her shoulder.
Stopping again at the front desk, she smiled at the woman seated behind it. Quinn wondered if she knew she worked for a bunch of demon-worshiping cultists.
“Hey, I was told there’s a weight room here somewhere, but I wasn’t shown where it was. I thought I’d come in and get some reps in early.”
The woman nodded as she scanned the badge clipped on Quinn’s t-shirt. “It’s in the same wing as your unit. Head down the way you normally go to your area. Follow the blue line this time, and it will lead you farther down that same hall, past where you’d turn off to go to the locker rooms.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.” Quinn smiled and headed over to the double doors on the right side of the lobby. She followed the same path she had taken the day before, following both red and blue lines until the blue line separated from the red one.
She glanced behind her. No one else was in sight, and she kept going. Quinn was nervous, although she had every right to use the gym down here. She hadn’t done anything wrong…yet.
Quinn continued down the corridor, following the blue line. At the very end of the hall, she stopped, facing a glass door through which she could see treadmills, stair climbers, and other cardio equipment. A full set of free weights and resistance equipment sat off to one side.
Ordinarily, Quinn would be impressed and excited to see such a well-equipped gym available for her use. She enjoyed staying in shape.
This time, though, she had other reasons for being here. She glanced to her left, where a steel door offered her access to the other floors and areas of the building.
Perfect.
She smiled and turned to reach for the stairwell door, only to find Phillip Ruiz standing just a few feet away. Where the hell had he come from?
“Phillip, you startled me.”
“I’m so sorry. I saw that you had logged in at the front desk and was curious why you were here so early. I see you found our weight room.”
Quinn nodded, hooking a thumb over her shoulder. “I’m kind of thinking I need to get some training in. You know, since I missed getting that kill yesterday. I thought perhaps I could work out a little before the testing session later this evening. I always perform better when I’m warmed up.”
Phillip didn’t answer right away. He paused for a few seconds, meeting her eyes as if searching for her real intentions.
Quinn held her ground and didn’t blink. Clark had seen through her lies, but she hoped Phillip didn’t see through her story as easily as the hunter had.
After an awkward pause, he nodded. “I think that’s a very good idea. You should get in there and do that. I have to say, Quinn, it’s good to see you putting in extra effort after your substandard performance yesterday. I expect you to show as much vigor in your mission inside the system later. We’ve got quite a chase set up for you and the others.”
“Thank you. I promise I’ve got a lot more drive in me now than yesterday.”
Phillip turned and headed back up the hall.
Quinn waited a few seconds, then pulled open the door to the workout room. She pretended to dig through her bag with the door held open by her foot until Phillip turned down the side hall toward the testing rooms. While she waited to make sure he didn’t come back, Quinn ran through her options.
The upper floors were likely filled with the normal daytime staff and she wouldn’t have an excuse to be up there, especially dressed as she was. She decided instead to head down to the lower level.
Quinn remembered one of the company engineers in her orientation describing the extensive equipment downstairs that ran the sophisticated virtual reality system the candidates would be testing. That would be a good place to start looking for answers. Maybe they kept records of some sort there, too.
Letting the glass door of the weight room close, Quinn checked the hall one last time before slipping into the stairwell.
She stopped inside the door to see if anyone came. She worried about how Phillip had snuck up on her undetected up in the hallway. It was strange, almost the same way Clark had surprised her in the Jeep or suddenly disappeared the night before as she drove away. It could’ve been magic like the amulet Clark had, or Phillip might just walk quietly, and she didn’t hear him approach.
Quinn shook her head. She had to relax, or she’d never get anywhere. This whole thing was driving her crazy. How was she supposed to figure out what was real and what was magic?
She headed down to the basement level, where she stopped to listen at the door. She didn’t hear a thing. She pressed her fingertips to the amulet beneath her T-shirt, focusing on it. Maybe it would warn her if there was trouble on the other side.
Quinn didn’t know what to expect. Whatever it was, the silver oval didn’t so much as twitch, or change in any way.
That was no help.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled open the door, revealing a long corridor with numerous steel doors on either side. At the far end was a large door with a window in the upper half. A short alcove branched off to the left, leading to an elevator.
Quinn checked the doors as she walked down the hall. Most were empty closets or storage rooms with shelves full of closed cardboard file boxes. A few were locked, and her keycard didn’t open them.
Near the elevator alcove, one door opened to a small room lined with clothing hooks on the walls and a horizontal rack in the center like a walk-in closet. Hanging on the rack and walls were dozens of identical black cloaks or robes with red satin linings. She wondered what they were for.
Quinn continued down the hallway, passing the elevator alcove. She noted there was only an up button on the wall next to it. This must be the lowest level of the building.
Eventually, Quinn reached the end of the passage. She couldn’t see much through the glass in the top half of the door. The room on the other side was dark.
She could make out a door on the opposite side of the room. She also saw what looked like four large tables in the center. One of the tables in the far corner had something on it, but Quinn couldn’t tell what it was.
Disappointed at not finding much of interest down here, and certainly nothing that explained or verified anything Clark had said, Quinn sighed. She’d check out this last room and then head upstairs and work out in the gym while she waited for Taylor to arrive.
Quinn tried the door, finding it unlocked. She went inside, fumbling for a light switch to help her see more than just the shadowy shapes she’d already made out
.
Finally, her fingers brushed a light switch, and she flicked it upward. The overhead fluorescent lights flickered on, illuminating a room with sterile tile walls and floors.
Four large wheeled stainless steel tables filled the center of the room.
The light also revealed what was on the table in the far corner.
A naked guy was laid out on the table like in a morgue. There was something black smeared all over his body in strange patterns. Quinn thought it was a manikin until she spotted his chest move with regular breaths.
As she drew closer, she made out more details. His whole body was covered in black letters and shapes drawn in ink or maybe paint. He hadn’t moved, other than the shallow rise and fall of his chest.
Quinn spoke, trying to explain her presence. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” Her voice quavered as she spoke. She went back to the door and started to flip the light off again.
She stopped when the man on the table still didn’t move a muscle.
“Um, excuse me? I’m sorry to disturb your nap.”
Nothing.
Quinn let her hand drop to her side as she took a few steps back toward the man, intrigued by the writing all over his naked body.
The symbols covered every inch of him, even his eyelids. They appeared to be geometric shapes, along with runes of some kind. None of them resembled numbers or letters in any alphabet she knew.
As Quinn stared at his face through the strange writing, she realized she knew this guy. He and another candidate named Jared from a previous test group had come in and talked to Quinn’s group during their orientation. She couldn’t remember this guy’s name. He’d come into the company maybe a month or two before her arrival.
The question was, what was he doing here asleep, naked, and covered in this strange artwork?