Utility Company (Book 1): Blink
Page 15
Agent Smith pulled out his pistol. He checked it, and held it against his chest. “I’m sorry Davis. I didn’t want to do this.”
With movement quicker than Jodi or Braden expected, Smith jammed the grip of the gun against Davis’ temple. The man went down just as fast in a heap. Smith didn’t even check on the three-fingered man, instead finding a computer nearby. He spent a few minutes on the computer before finding the door that Jodi and Braden had come through a few minutes before. The room was silent when Smith left.
Braden realized then he had been holding his breath. Before he could do anything about it, Jodi darted out and ran towards the three-fingered man. Davis, he mentally corrected. She crouched down and felt the man’s neck. She exhaled, and looked back at Braden.
“He’ll be okay. Still breathing.”
“Good. Get back here,” Braden said in a loud whisper.
She ignored him, heading towards the same door Smith left through. Curiosity killed the cat, and Braden knew there was a good chance he was going to meet up with that cat today if Jodi had anything to say about it. He shoved the container open, and ran after her. He got to her just in time for the two of them to watch Agent Smith disappear once again. Once again, a mirror was his transport, this time to someplace that appeared to be a room in an old house.
Flagstaff Memorial
Smith hated hospitals. He wasn’t totally sure why, but something to do with failure. As if the human body couldn’t overcome its own weaknesses and finally succumbed to the chaos threatening it from the inside. Death was all around. Sure, there were plenty of people getting better and recuperating in many rooms up and down the corridors of the Flagstaff Hospital, but at any time, there were dozens of people on the verge of death, living on the razor’s edge of living and dying. That was unacceptable to Smith, and he made sure to tell both Agent Wesson and Agent Barney that before he left their rooms.
Dr. Anna was waiting along with Agent Tinker and the two Niks in the waiting room. Smith shook his head, amazed at the situations he constantly found himself in. It wasn’t like Wesson and Barney were unprepared for this. They knew the particulars of this job, and weren’t immune to being collateral damage. In fact, it had been less than a year before when Barney was left in traction after that Yeti case, and the team was never going to let Wesson forget about leaving half of his pinkie toe in 1961.
His phone buzzed, and Smith stepped into the hallway to answer.
“Smith.”
It was Director Wall. “Yes, sir.”
“What’s your status?”
Smith had to remind himself it had been less than a day since he’d first met Nik Davidson in rural Southern Indiana.
“Sir, we are currently at Flagstaff Memorial Hospital, which was our first destination after landing this morning. On the flight from Indiana, a portal between our world and the other reality was established, and both Agents Wesson and Barney were injured. Wesson took two gunshots to the chest and Barney suffered a wound to his right shoulder.”
“And what is their prognosis?” Wall asked. Smith liked that about his boss. Most in D.C. were supremely concerned with getting the job done. Wall knew that to get the job done, he needed good, healthy people.
“Barney is fine. The shot ended up taking a left turn when it hit and shattered his collarbone, but the doctors feel good overall about it. He won’t be flying a plane anytime soon, though. We do not believe his wound was intentional, but we don’t really know yet,” Smith answered.
“And Wesson?”
“I just finished talking to Wesson’s doctor, right before he went in for surgery. The wounds shouldn’t be life threatening, but he may lose his spleen. There was a fair amount of blood on the plane, but Dr. Anna did a fantastic job keeping him stable until we landed. He had some interesting wounds. In fact, Wesson’s attacker may have gotten more than they bargained for.”
Wall’s voice expressed some curiosity. “Why do you say that?”
Smith had to laugh a bit, when he thought of the moment they discovered it on the plane. “When Dr. Anna and I were helping Wesson, we found something gripped in his right hand. It was the front half of a barrel from a .22. The end was in perfect shape, but as it continued down, it showed evidence of...stretching, I guess would be the best term for it. If I were to guess, I would say whoever it was, pointed her gun through the mirror...the portal...and Wesson grabbed it before he was shot.”
“Her?”
“Yes, sir,” Smith added. “I went into the lavatory after Wesson and found a woman staring back at me through the portal. Before she could do anything, I covered up the mirror with my shirt so they would be blind to what was happening on our side. When we landed, I looked again and the reflection had reverted to being a normal mirror again.”
Smith could almost hear Wall nodding from the other side of the line.
“What about Davidson and Davidson from the other side? Do you think either of them had anything to do with it?” Director Wall asked.
It was a question Smith had been grappling with himself since Tinker had taken the controls of the plane and landed in Flagstaff minutes later. “I honestly don’t know. I don’t know how they would have, but then again, if you had asked me how a man could have gotten shot twice from inside a locked airplane bathroom, I wouldn’t have had an answer for you before a couple of days ago, either. When Wesson collapsed, the two of them went to the front of the plane to check on Barney. They’re the ones who found Barney after he’d been injured. Davidson stabilized Barney in the plane’s galley, and his mirror opposite piloted the plane for a few minutes.”
“Piloted the plane?”
“Yes, sir. Apparently that Nicholas Davidson has skills that this one does not. I don’t know that it’s a red flag, but it’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on.”
“Very good,” Wall said. “I just got off the phone with Ford and his team back in Indiana. They didn’t find much, so I authorized them to follow you and your team to Arizona. They should be there tomorrow at the latest. Any word from Jones or any of his team?”
“Not at all. Before we left the Midwest, Dr. Anna tried to reach Liszt. I also tried to reach Jones. It was like both fell off the map.”
“Strange,” Wall replied. “In fact, I just got the daily progress report from Jones and his team. Says they’re still in Sedona. I’d head there first. Anna should have all the information on their locations the past few days. Start where they did and see if you can’t track them down. See what’s going on.”
“But, Wesson and Barney…”
“Smith, they would want you to figure this out more than anything else. Don’t worry about them. I’m on the next flight to Flagstaff, myself. I’ll personally make sure they get the care they deserve.”
“Thanks Wall.”
“No problem. Smith, you’re my best agent. I don’t think I need to tell you that it’s vital for you to investigate and discover what or who is behind all of this.”
“You don’t sir,” Smith said. He was about to hang up, but then added one more thing. “And Wall?”
“Yes, Smith?”
“Take a plane without any mirrors.”
Penny Wakes Up
Penny had been in the other reality for less than a day and had already been separated from her kids and taken to Washington, D.C. She wasn’t sure what was really happening, but her chaperones were strangely silent during the process.
Immediately after stepping through the mirror to chase after her two kids, she was confronted by a familiar face. She had thought it was her husband at first, but as soon as she got a good look at his eyes, she knew this man was not the man she married. Not that he was a bad man, but there was something else behind his expression. Something she couldn’t quite figure out.
“Penny, I’m so glad you’re here,” Not-Nik said to her. Kira and Sisco saw the man as well but their intuition must have told them he was not their dad, and they hid behind their mom’s legs.
“I know
this is strange…”
“Strange? You bet your ass it’s strange. Where am I? How did my kids get here? Who the hell are you?”
The man who wasn’t Nik cracked a small smile. “That’s what I always liked about you, Penny. Not one to hide behind hypocrisy and fallacies. You say what you mean, and you mean what you say.”
She tapped her foot impatiently. She was already tired, and she was starting to feel sick to her stomach as well. “And yet you didn’t answer my question.”
“You are absolutely right. Unfortunately, the questions are going to remain for now. You see, once you came through the portal, a device was activated here in the bathroom, releasing a gas that causes slight hallucinations before you eventually pass out.”
“What?”
“I’m saying I’m not really here. I’m not your husband and what you are seeing in front of you is just a projection designed to keep you here until you pass out. Your husband has no part in this, but we will clue you in on all the details eventually,” he smiled. She walked forward and waved her hand in front of his face. Nothing. She got closer and the hand went right through the hologram blocking the door.
Suddenly, her head was pulsing, yet she was drowsy. She knew they needed to leave. They needed to get out. They…
She turned back to gather up her kids, but saw they had already succumbed to the gas, and were sleeping on the tile floor. They looked so peaceful. And even though she still had a little clarity left, she knew she couldn’t abandon them. Without a word, she lay down on the floor and wrapped her arms around Kira and Sisco and waited for sleep to overtake her as well.
The next thing she knew, she was in the back of a van, loosely attached to the side wall. She had some freedom of movement, but it was definitely limited.
A man and woman sat in the front seat—the woman driving, the man with his feet propped up on the dash, staring out the side window. Penny tried not to alert them to her conscious state quite yet, but couldn’t avoid letting out a cry when she realized Kira and Sisco were not in the vehicle. The man looked back.
“Where are my kids?” Penny demanded.
He shrugged, and turned back around.
“Hey! You don’t get to just shrug when I ask you about my children. I’m going to try this again—where are my kids?” Penny shouted at the front seat, aiming her rage at the man.
Nothing from either the man or the woman.
Penny thrashed around in the rear, banging the handcuffs against the exposed metal of the van’s frame. “Where. Are. My. Kids?”
Immediately, the van came to a screeching halt. The woman unbuckled, and slid around her seat, crawling back to Penny’s area. The driver slapped Penny as hard as she could ever remember being slapped, and let the sound echo in the confines of the van for a few seconds.
“Let’s get this straight. You are nothing to us, no matter who you look like. Luc, up there, has no tongue. He doesn’t talk, and your little routine was disrespectful to say the least. You can call me Therese, but that doesn’t mean anything—it’s just sound from a package,” the woman said. “After we deliver you in a little bit, I doubt we’ll ever cross paths again. As for your kids, neither Luc nor I have the information you want. When we got the call for transport, you were the only one on site. I suggest if you want to see your kids again, you will sit tight and do whatever they ask you to do after we get there.”
Penny shut up, wise enough to know when to keep her mouth shut. She’d represented enough petty criminals over the years who couldn’t just shut their mouths when they were confronted by the cops. Over and over she told them they had a Constitutional right to keep their thoughts to themselves, but over and over she ended up visiting those same repeat offenders in the county lockup. Finding herself shackled in the back of a strange van, she decided to heed her own advice. Better to keep quiet and let the answers come to her in due time.
A Who Clue
It was less than thirty miles from Flagstaff to Sedona, but for Agent Smith, it seemed to stretch on for hours. His mind was plagued by thoughts he had no control over. Behind him in the SUV, the backseat was full, Agent Tinker sitting between Nik Davidson and his mirror opposite. Why he hadn’t tossed them both in a dark hole and forgotten about them, he wasn’t quite sure, but something told him they were important. His gut was usually right and it had come in handy when Nicholas flew the plane when the world went to hell in the sky.
And that reminded him of Agents Barney and Wesson. Both should be okay—recuperating at the hospital, but he felt like the vehicle was empty without them nonetheless. Barney was competent. Steady. But missing Wesson left Agent Smith with a hole in his professional life. There was a reason the two had been named Smith and Wesson. Everyone at The Agency knew it. Wesson had been Smith’s right hand for years now and even driving a half-hour away made Smith’s heart skip a beat as he tried to imagine a mission with Wesson.
Dr. Anna was where Wesson should have been sitting in the SUV. She was busy studying her tablet, a familiar sight since they’d been at the crime scene in Michigan. Always new data rolling in from the other teams scattered around the country, always checking to see if Agent Jones or Liszt had stepped forward yet. She noticed Agent Smith looking at her and she offered a meek smile as the vehicle sped towards the mystery in the desert.
All that along with the mystery of the mirrors, or portals, or whatever they were, gave Smith a moment of pause. But he wasn’t paid to pause. He was paid to fix things. Sometimes those things were simple. It was becoming increasingly clear to Agent Smith that this was not an easy fix.
The desert stretched forever outside the windows of the SUV, but he felt trapped. There wasn’t an easy fix—not with someone from the other side sitting the back seat. Smith was certainly thankful that the mirror version of Nik was able to step up and captain the plane, but at the same time was skeptical he wasn’t a part of the attack, either. Agent Smith kept a watchful eye on the man, wary of what he might do. Clearly he was different from the man on this side of the mirror.
“Agent Smith?”
Dr. Anna’s voice broke him out of his reverie.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t forget the exit. We need to head to the house Jones and his team came to investigate, but first we have to get to the Roadrunner Rest Area. It isn’t too far from here.”
Anna was being kind. Smith would’ve missed the exit if she hadn’t said something. His mind was swirling with all that was going on, but he needed to focus. He needed to take on the matter at hand.
He swung the car over a lane and slowed down as he entered the outskirts of Sedona. “Thanks. You think we’ll find any clues about Jones and his team at the house?”
Anna shook her head. “Frankly, I doubt it, but there’s always a chance. Ever since Jones and his team were confirmed to visit the house, their team reports have been vague and spotty at best. And Liszt has disappeared completely. I’m still going over that email, hoping I missed something, but he did say to get to that rest area.”
He dared a quick glance at her, slowing the vehicle for the red light up ahead. “If anyone can find him, you can. I know you two were pretty close.”
“We are close,” Dr. Anna said. “He isn’t dead. I don’t know how I know that, but I just do.”
Agent Smith nodded. He didn’t want to voice anything out loud, but he was a lot more unsure of Liszt’s fate. After almost losing Wesson and Barney, and perhaps all of Jones’ team, Smith couldn’t afford to be hopeful. He needed to be practical, and practical meant assuming Liszt was dead. Practical meant believing Jones and his team had something happen to them. Practical meant being better safe than sorry from here on out.
That’s why the SUV had no mirrors. Before they had even taken a seat in the vehicle, Smith and Tinker had personally smashed or ripped out any mirror on the SUV, from the rearview to the side mirrors, and even the pull down mirrors on the visors. He learned the hard way on the plane. No more.
“You think he’s here?” Smith asked Dr. Anna.
“He’s got to be. This is where he told us to go, so...if we can’t find him here…” she left her concerns unsaid. Smith knew.
“Hey, do you think I can use the little boy’s room? Since I wasn’t able to use it on the plane, my bladder’s getting a little antsy,” Nicholas spoke up from the backseat. Smith made eye contact with Agent Tinker and gave him a slight nod. They didn’t exchange words, but there was a lot said in that small movement. Take the witnesses into the restroom, make sure they don’t make contact with anyone. Watch out for stray bullets from mirrors. Tinker and Smith had worked together long enough he could predict what his boss would tell him.
Smith watched the three men leave the vehicle and head into the rest area, then turned his attention back to Anna.
“Where do we start?”
“Omigosh!”
And just like that, Dr. Anna jumped out of the SUV, racing towards the building. Something had caught her eye. Agent Smith followed behind, sprinting after the young doctor.
She had run towards a small olive tree on the right side of the building. Its branches were full of leaves—some dead, some alive—but the olives were still months away from appearing. She had stopped under the canopy, holding something blue. He got closer and recognized it as a miniature TARDIS from Doctor Who.
“Wha?” Smith asked, his gun drawn just in case.
“It’s Liszt. He’s nearby. He doesn’t go anywhere without his TARDIS and he wouldn’t leave it except as a sign for me. He’s near or he’s watching. I know it.”