Magisterium

by Jeff Hirsch

  “Where does this door go?”

  “His office,” Kevin said.

  Once they reached the door, Kevin turned to her as if to ask,

  “You still up for this?” Glenn nodded and they knelt down and pressed their ears to the wood.

  There were at least two voices on the other side. Both men.

  “… and where are they now?” Dr. Kapoor asked. His voice was tense, clipped.

  “I can’t really — ”

  “This is my son we’re talking about, Mr. Sturges. And the

  Morgan girl is no more than sixteen.”

  There was a slight pause before the man with Dr. Kapoor spoke.

  His voice was soft and breathy.

  “Of course, Dr. Kapoor. We understand. We hope, though, that you will understand that this is a matter of government security. We must approach all aspects of this issue very carefully.”

  There was a dry sound, like the shifting of paper on a desk.

  “John Morgan is brilliant but he’s been troubled ever since his wife left them.”

  “Delusional?”

  “Given what Glenn said at our last meeting … I think it’s

  possible. It’s hard to say. I see his daughter but he’s refused to come.”

  “And the girl?”

  Glenn held her breath, staring down at the dark floor. She could feel Kevin watching her.

  Dr. Kapoor paused. “She’s distant. Angry. She barely talks in our meetings, but given two parents with apparently profound mental health issues, it’s unlikely she’s escaped them completely.”

  Kevin’s hand moved across the carpeted floor and pressed down on top of Glenn’s but she snatched it away.

  “Is it dangerous?” Dr. Kapoor asked. “This thing you think she has.”

  Dr. Kapoor was met with silence. Glenn and Kevin exchanged a look, then she glanced down at the bracelet. The red jewel shone in the gloom.

  “Well, obviously it isn’t what her father said it was,” Dr. Kapoor pressed.

  8

  “Certainly not,” Sturges said with a good-natured chuckle. “What the girl actually has” — he carefully measured each word in his breathy whisper — “is important. Dangerous, even. To herself, to your son. I’m afraid I can’t comment on its nature any more than that. Now, do you have additional information that may aid us in our search for your son and — ”

  Sturges abruptly stopped talking.

  A chair creaked.

  Glenn’s heart pounded; a tide of hot blood beat at her ears and throat. She could feel the two men’s eyes on the door. Kevin was frozen in place, hovering above her right shoulder.

  “It was very brave of you to come here,” Sturges announced from the other side of the door.

  Glenn and Kevin froze, his words like the thin web of a drone, binding them tight.

  “Please, come in and join us. Glenn. Kevin.”

  Taking a chance, Glenn took Kevin’s arm and they slowly moved back from the door. After a few steps, they turned to the bedroom, ready to flee, but blocking their way was a tall silhouette.

  As it stepped forward, the light from the hall gleamed against the distinctive red armor of the Authority agent.

  Kevin tensed, the muscles in his arms and legs tightening, ready to run, but Glenn held him back. Another agent moved into place behind the first.

  They were trapped.

  Sturges wasn’t what Glenn expected. People from Authority were generally big and athletic. Law enforcement types. Sturges was trim and small with thinning hair and glasses. Unlike the armored agents, Sturges wore a simple suit of dark blue with a slate gray tie. His shoes were old and heavily worn.

  “Please,” he said. “Come in.”

  When Glenn and Kevin didn’t move, the agents behind them did, herding them into the room.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “There’s no reason to feel afraid. You’re both all right, I hope?”

  Glenn swallowed back coppery-tasting fear and said nothing.

  Mr. Sturges buttoned his coat as he stood to face them. “My name is Michael Sturges. I’m with Authority, as I imagine you’ve guessed. And you are Glenn Morgan. Or, actually, Glennora Amantine Morgan. Is that right?”

  “Where did you take my father?”

  Sturges’s eyes narrowed. “Where? Well” — he opened his hands and shrugged slightly — “we took him right where you wanted us to take him, Glenn. Greenfield Hospital’s psychiatric ward.”

  Glenn’s stomach knotted. She bit the inside of her lip to keep her anger and guilt locked up tight.

  “As soon as we get our business concluded, you’ll be able to see him.”

  “Why were your drones firing at us?” Kevin interrupted.

  “Firing at you?” Dr. Kapoor said, his voice rising. “Sturges, what is he saying? Were your drones — ”

  “They were never in any danger,” Sturges snapped. His eyes

  locked on Kevin. “A preprogrammed response. A warning. If they meant to actually cause you harm, they would have.”

  Sturges glared at Kevin for a split second longer, then abruptly sat back in his chair. “I think we’ll find that all of this was a bit of a misunderstanding. It’s been a stressful night for everyone. But your father is fine, and once you hand over that bracelet and come with me to do a little more talking — ”

  “It’s a piece of junk,” Glenn said. “It doesn’t do anything. My father is sick. This is all a mistake.”

  Sturges smiled. “I’m sure it is. Still, we have our procedures.”

  Dr. Kapoor leaned forward at his desk. “Glenn, I’m

  recommending you spend some time at the hospital yourself.”

  “No,” Glenn said. “I won’t — ”

  Dr. Kapoor looked away from her. “Surely Kevin doesn’t need to — ”

  “I’m afraid so,” Mr. Sturges said, rising out of his chair. “It’s a formality. I’m sure you understand. We won’t be long.”

  “No. Wait. I’ll speak with — ” Dr. Kapoor reached for the tablet on his desk, but Sturges was at his side, holding it down before he could lift it.

  “I’m sorry, doctor. But I can’t let you do that.”

  Mr. Sturges’s voice was like a wall. The two agents drew up behind him. Something dark and barbed radiated from the small man.

  “This is an Authority matter, doctor. You have our thanks for alerting us to it, but now we have to do our job. Your son will be returned to you by the morning.”

  “But what about — ”

  “Ms. Morgan will be fine. Like you said, she needs help. Your part in this is done now. Again, you have our thanks.” Sturges waved at the two agents and they split to either side of Glenn and Kevin, flanking the door that led to the bedroom.

  As Sturges approached, Glenn dropped her shoulder and spun, throwing herself into the hard shell of one of the agents’s armor, knocking him off balance. As he righted himself, Glenn dove through the door with Kevin behind her. Sturges shouted something and the agents were after them. Kevin pulled a bookshelf down to block their way and then threw the back door open and together they raced out into the snow.

  Glenn spared a look back when they hit the edge of the woods.

  The agents were halfway across the yard, sleek black rifles in their hands.

  A skiff was gliding over the house and coming into position behind them. The lead agent raised his weapon and fired, sending bullets tearing into the ground and the trees. The muscles in Glenn’s legs were screaming but she kept pumping.

  As the greater darkness of the woods closed over them, they zigzagged, leaping over logs and rocks and sudden swells of ground in their way. Finally the red glow of the border lights became visible ahead of them. The agents were behind them, moving fast. Glenn could tell from the sound of their footsteps that there were more of them now.

  Four at least. She and Kevin had managed to put some distance between them, but it was only a matter of time. A trio of gunshots roared out as they cleared a hill.
Kevin flinched at the sound and stumbled down the hill, end over end. Glenn raced to meet him, caught his arm, and nearly fell trying to get him back up.

  “Kevin — ”

  He yanked away from her. “Forget it. I’m fine. Let’s go.”

  Another round of gunfire followed and Kevin threw himself

  forward. Glenn’s legs were already cramping and the way Kevin was stumbling and had his hand dug into one side, she knew they didn’t have more than a few minutes of running left in them.

  They passed under the lights that marked the border, ducking low through an opening in the trees. The woods grew denser the farther they went, slowing them down as they picked through the brush for a path.

  From what Glenn could hear, the agents weren’t faring much better.

  She was able to catch her breath, but still, no pang of hope grew in her chest. Even if we lose them we’re just escaping into a wasteland.

  “You should go back,” she called to Kevin as they came to a clearing, but Kevin said nothing. He was hunched over, panting, one palm pressed flat onto a tree trunk to keep standing.

  “You’re exhausted,” Glenn said. “You can’t keep this up. They want me, not you. You should go back.”

  Kevin took another step but then his foot slipped on a snow-slick rock and he fell into a heap on the ground.

  “Kevin!”

  Glenn dropped down, turning Kevin over to get his face up out of the snow. His skin was waxy and gray, his lips blue. Lines of pain shot across this face. His head lolled, frighteningly boneless, like a doll’s.

  He moaned and lifted his hand to his forehead. It was covered in something as thick and black as oil.

  “Kevin, what’s …”

  Glenn yanked his leather jacket open. His white T-shirt was soaked through from neck to tail with blood, its redness black in the moonlight.

  “Kevin, no.”

  Glenn scrambled to lift up his shirt. The bullet wound in his side was ringed in tattered flesh. Blood oozed from it, pooling beneath him.

  A wave of panic crashed into Glenn. She leaned into the wound, her thin arms quivering. Kevin howled but she pressed harder. She had hoped the soaked T-shirt would hold back the blood, but she could already feel it seeping through the fabric and onto her fingers. Kevin moaned again, weaker this time. His eyes opened. They were

  unfocused and hazy, wild. His life was flowing out of him.

  Glenn turned back the way they had come, the panic turning to hysteria. She had no choice.

  “We’re here!” she screamed, shredding her throat, hoping the agents would hear her, hoping they would come. “We’re here! Please help us! PLEASE!”

  9

  Glenn turned to Kevin, bundling his jacket over the wound. “It’s okay,” she said, trying to control her voice, trying to slow it down and sound calm and sure. “They’ll come and we’ll get you on the skiff and to a hospital.”

  She turned back again. Where were they?

  “PLEASE HELP US!”

  Glenn tore off her own jacket and piled it on Kevin’s side, leaning her whole weight into it. She was about to yell again, but just then there was a rustle of branches behind her as the agents came through the trees. A flash of anger hit Glenn when she saw the guns in their hands, but she pushed it aside.

  “I’ll go with you; please, just take him to the hospital!”

  The agents stood impassively at the edge of the woods. Four huge men in armor, faceless in their helmets.

  “What are you waiting for? Please, I know what I did was wrong.

  I shouldn’t have run. That wasn’t Kevin’s fault. He didn’t do anything.

  Please don’t punish him.”

  The agents said nothing. Glenn tried to tear the bracelet off, but her hands, slick with blood, slid off its surface.

  “Take it. Take it and help him! What’s the matter with you, just take it!”

  One of the agents raised his rifle.

  “No,” another said. “Not here. You’ll have to use the knife.”

  The agent’s hand dropped to a knife strapped to his waist. It whispered out into the air between him and Glenn as he advanced.

  “Please,” Glenn said, backing away.

  But the faceless man kept coming. She couldn’t run and leave Kevin; she couldn’t fight. Deep inside her mind she cried out for her father. The agent’s boots crunched through the snow. Glenn took Kevin’s hand in hers.

  Just then, a low moan cut through the woods behind Glenn and surrounded them, echoing through the trees.

  The agent stopped.

  Something large lumbered in the dark behind Glenn. Tree limbs fell. Rocks tumbled. The agent held up his hand for silence. The moan rose again. Closer now, sharper. More like a growl. It had a wildness to it that made Glenn tremble.

  “It’s nothing,” one of the older agents said. “An animal. Go on.”

  “Leave them here, then,” said another. “Take the bracelet and we’ll go.”

  The agent with the knife nodded and reached for Glenn’s

  bracelet.

  Glenn was dimly aware of something soaring through the air

  above her, a massive shadow blotting out the moonlight. Then there was a scream and the agent in front of her disappeared, wiped away like someone swept out to sea. He was there, and then he was gone, and in his place was a great dark mass crouching between Glenn and the three remaining agents. The agents moved toward it immediately — then stopped as the mass unfolded, rising up into the cold air until it reached its full height.

  When it did, Glenn’s eyes went wide and one of the agent’s guns dropped into the snowbank with a crunch.

  Whatever it was, it was at least seven feet tall with a broad chest, long arms, and legs roped with muscle. Its hands were bunched into fists; when they unfurled, Glenn saw fingers topped in claws.

  On the ground in front of it, the agent with the knife lay on his back. There was a gash in his bulletproof armor, and the snow around him was soaked with blood.

  The other three agents froze, looking one to the other until one of them edged closer, reaching for their fallen comrade. He stopped when the creature released a low growl. There was a rumble in its throat and its muscles tensed, ready to spring at them.

  “No!”

  The thing’s head snapped toward Glenn. In the half-light, she couldn’t make any sense of it. It seemed misshapen, huge and angular.

  It regarded her for a moment and then turned back to the agents. It was too late. Glenn looked down into the snow; she didn’t want to see this.

  There were no sounds of movement, though, and no screams -

  just a deep intake of breath and then a roar that was unlike anything Glenn had ever heard. She could feel it pulsing through her body, deep into her bones. It made some primitive part of her go cold.

  When it finally stopped, Glenn managed to look up. The three agents had abandoned their friend and fled into the woods, leaving him lying in his widening pool of blood. The thing crept up to his still body, hunching over it, its claws dripping blood. A moan resounded through the thing’s body as it reached out to him.

  “Leave him alone!”

  It turned toward her. Glenn squeezed Kevin’s hand in hers and shut her eyes. She could feel the heat of the creature and smell the wild stink of it as it approached, drawing to within inches of her. The hot wind of its breath blew on her face as it leaned in.

  Every muscle in Glenn’s body went rigid as she waited to feel teeth and claws. But instead, it spoke.

  “Come,” it said in a low rumble. “Come with me, Glennora

  Amantine.”

  PART TWO

  10

  The creature that killed the agent took Glenn and Kevin into its arms and raced through the forest. Glenn could only see flickering shadows and feel the wind and the branches as they whipped by. The roar from moments ago echoed in her mind.

  They were moving deeper into the land beyond the border. Glenn let her head fall back and pee
red up into the sky, hoping to catch sight of stars that would give her a better estimate of how far they had come, but they were moving too fast and the forest was too thick.

  “Where are you taking us? My friend needs a hospital. We have to go back!”

  The creature picked up speed again and leapt into the air with a grunt, flying over a crack in the earth that had to be ten or twenty feet across. Glenn shut her eyes as the earth came rushing up to meet them, the cold wind tearing through her hair. They hit the ground with a jolt and then were off again without a pause, speeding through woods more wild and overgrown than any Glenn had ever seen.

  Glenn didn’t know how long they ran, but when they finally

  stopped, the creature set her down on one side of a long scar in the ground, and itself and Kevin on the other. Glenn could hear water running between them.

  Glenn sat in a patch of moonlight, but the opposite shore was shaded by overhanging trees and was too dark for Glenn to see anything more than the creature’s immense shadow hunched over Kevin’s body like an animal preparing to feed. It leaned forward until it was only inches from Kevin’s side and sniffed at the wound.

  “What are you doing?” Glenn asked.

  It turned to scan the woods around them. What is it looking for?

  “We have to go back. Listen to me. We — ” But before Glenn

  could finish, it was gone, crashing through the undergrowth. What was it? Glenn wondered. And how could something so big move so fast?

  Glenn sat frozen. Soon the noise of its movement faded, leaving only the sound of water flowing over rocks and Kevin’s slight breathing.

  Glenn listened for any other movement in the trees. Nothing. She braced her hands on the slimy rock beneath her and got up into a low crouch, looking down at an undulating black streak of water. The thermals in her clothes kept her warm enough, but she wasn’t sure she’d survive a dip in the icy water. Kevin lay across from her, his chest barely moving. Glenn extended one slippered foot out in front of her and across the space between the shores. Once she was safely on the other side, she dropped down by Kevin’s side and lifted his head into her lap.