Hell, In a Troy (Lopez Time Book 2)

by Phillip S. Power

  Eve clapped, once.

  “Troy has a new trick. It isn’t node travel. Basically, he can open up two-way portals, place to place? Really, I’m putting him up for doing that part for us, from now on. It’s as hard as line walking but faster in a lot of ways. It only works on the world that he’s on though, so if he isn’t allowed to line walk, keep that in mind.”

  There was dead silence, then a youthful voice spoke. It was that of a boy. Not that it wasn’t hard to tell specifically but Troy had been around the council enough to know that one. They only had one little kid vampire on the whole thing.

  Gene. The Burning One.

  “Truly? That’s amazing, Mr. Lopez! How much would using that service cost, compared to doing it the other way, going through the void. The Snowflake spoke of it being harder?”

  That wasn’t totally true but you needed to have the trick of it, which, if he had the right idea, only he did, at the moment. Eve, grinning, stared at him. As if she wanted him to do something in particular.

  Which got him to nod. That the council had felt compelled to pay them for their work was a thing but they’d also kind of been over paying them for it. He knew why, of course. Because of Zack. If they used line travel, and got it for free from them, it would be saying that they were paying the greater demon out of fear. Even if that wasn’t true.

  It was about not building up debts that could be used to control them, as a group. The thing there was that Troy was one of them and this, while related, was being presented as something new.

  Troy stared at the phone.

  “You know, the rate will be a lot more reasonable than for node travel. I’m going to be working out of Westfield for that. Probably from Zack’s book store? It will be a lot less expensive though, for anyone using it. About like booking a plane flight? At least if I can get good rent on the space there. That way people can come in and use the node travel part of things. It will be a while before that’s set up though, so I can take the council around for a bit, to practice up? I think…” He didn’t hold his breath but shrugged and winced, since it would probably make him seem like an idiot. “I think that we should keep that free for official council business. That won’t put me on call or anything. I still have my job here and duties but if it’s scheduled ahead of time, we can do it that way… Possibly for a tax break?”

  He had to get something out of it. Otherwise it would seem like he was angling to take over or something.

  There was a soft noise that was considering, from the tiny vampire boy.

  “That… is very kind. Civic minded as well. We wouldn’t be taking advantage of you? If you do the work, you should be paid for it.”

  He nodded, scrambling mentally.

  “Agreed. Except that we’re going into a new place in history. As a group, we need to be faster and ready to move at a moment’s notice. We have several line walkers but other forces have kept us back that way. As long as it isn’t for making war against us or our friends, I think we should support the other groups in this fashion. Just the bridges though, not line travel. We don’t want to mess up other worlds with our problems by mistake.”

  There was nothing from the other end of the line for a bit. Not a chair rubbing against a backside or a hint of moving air. There was a low hum, from the room itself but that was all. Finally, the kid in charge took a breath, getting ready to speak.

  “Very well. We’ll need to hold a meeting about this. Or several. Would it be possible to have you in at some point? Just to see what can be done? If your partner, The Line Walker, allows that, of course.”

  Troy needed a bit to understand the words but it clicked, soon enough.

  “Let me see what I can set up that way? I’m insisting on doing this my way, and the greater demons are often held to constraints that get in the way of doing things smoothly. I might have to work from someplace else given that. Start my own business or what have you. It would just work well enough to have the place kept open all the time and I can’t afford to be there every day yet. I still have my work here.” It was a duty and he’d picked it which meant seeing it through.

  The female seeming vampire spoke then, her voice a mellow tenor.

  “Eve had something as well? Or did I misunderstand that part? Are you planning to work with Mr. Lopez on this new project?”

  She made a face, then shrugged.

  “If I can learn his new trick. He’s planning to teach me how to do it in a few days. I can kind of see how it’s done, so should be able to get it down. I was thinking… Would it be useful for me to go and fix the food portions of different Yoghurt Worlds, for a bit? That and the decor? We…” It was clear she was about to try and sell the whole thing, when Gene spoke.

  He sounded oddly content, for some reason. Given that Eve and he were notorious for not being the best of friends, that seemed a bit off. Then, they didn’t get into fistfights or anything, it was just clear that they’d gotten off on the wrong foot. Troy understood it to be that, anyway.

  Instead of putting the idea down though, there was a soft sigh.

  “Yes. That would be very useful, in fact. If it isn’t pushing you too much? With this new transportation business, the training you already do for us and your current duties at Westfield…”

  Looking at the phone, Troy forced a smile.

  “Edom is thinking about replacing Eve there. She does good work but we have a lot of new talent coming in. That means we either promote someone, or end up with kids not being able to get jobs. That never ends well, so we wanted to see about expanding to the side. We… The new training is incredible but we’re still essentially kids. Power isn’t the same as wisdom.”

  That got a laugh. It sounded happy though and came from both of the people in the other room, most of the way across the country.

  Gene did the talking then.

  “You, both of you, are wonderful and intelligent beings. We’ve had more than one meeting about this very topic here. Trying to find ways to give you the responsibility you deserve, without having to face that very issue. Here you are, doing it for us. We should have simply asked.” There was a long pause. “Just so you both understand, that your doing this is frightening and terror inducing to me. Possibly to many of us here. Seeing you both being so sensible and in control is the only thing that’s preventing me from fleeing into the night, I can tell you that.”

  It probably wasn’t true. Still, there was no laughter about it. Eve chuckled a little anyway.

  “Well, remember, as soon as we get the new business going, you can do that fleeing for reasonable rates, anywhere in the world. We’ll need television ads for it. I’m serious about that part, as well. Really, we should see if Zack wants in on that part. I mean, cross world travel is expensive but I bet we could get the rates down if we worked together. I’ll… Actually, I’ll get Troy to handle that part. He’s his best friend, after all. I’m just some girl that’s been his quasi regular booty call.”

  They all seemed to think that one was a very good idea. Even Troy, since it was going to give him something to do with the rest of his night.

  Chapter sixteen

  It felt a bit weird, calling up Zack at three in the morning on a Sunday. Wrong, as if he should have something more like a life and death reason to get in touch with his old friend. Back when they were both human, or thought they were in Zack’s case, they’d never done things like that at all. Late night calls were all about trouble.

  So, it made sense that his friend would go there first, even if he were actually a demon.

  “Troy? Is everything all right?”

  He didn't offer to come to him first thing. There had been a time when he would have but Troy sort of got the basic idea. It wasn’t about stupid demon stuff, he didn’t think. It was about smart demon stuff. Even Zack wouldn’t have all the data yet, so was waiting to be filled in on what was going on.

  “Everything is more or less good, actually. I was just wondering if you’d like to go into business with me.
Or, more to the point, add me to your business, in a strange way that won’t make you any money in particular?”

  It wasn’t the world’s best sales pitch, he had to admit. It still kind of worked.

  “Hmm. Possibly? What do you have in mind? We could start charging for the girls time, I suppose. That’s illegal though and being in law enforcement now, you should probably avoid things like that.”

  “No doubt. I… Actually, I can show you, if you want? Are you near your node room?”

  “I am. Just in my office.”

  Troy had been there before, many times, so had the idea.

  “Wait there then? Let me… It will be a minute or so. Maybe less.”

  He hung up, having warned the greater demon about an incoming vampire, and opened up both sides of the bridge and held it, much faster than the last times he’d tried. It would be faster to rip things open but instead of taking forty minutes, doing it with will alone, he was moving about a hundred times faster than that. He tried to do the math in his head but stepped through, something like forty seconds later.

  Zack was smiling at him when he did it, having walked out of his back-office space.

  “Neat trick! That’s anchored on both sides and everything. I didn't know that any of the trained line walkers could do that.” Letting Troy hold it open indicating that he was going to be doing something, Zack stepped through the thing, into the police station parking lot, then back again. It was just hanging there in space, with his car clearly visible on the other side.

  The greater demon beamed at him, like it was special or something.

  “So, no excuse not to visit now, is there?”

  That one was probably just true. He really hadn’t had one for a while. It was just easier to live his life than make time for people. Which, he knew, meant he was an asshole.

  “The thought is to come and do this part time? A lot of people have to fly or boat in to different places. From large natural gates where they come into our world and things like that. We keep this to only the one world here but can open them up and move people around. Charge about what they’d pay for a plane flight. Without the waiting. Eve thinks she can learn to do it in a few days. Is it a bad idea?”

  Instead of saying yes and kicking him out, or snorting derisively about not charging enough, his pal thought looking away slightly, for about five seconds.

  “We can use this. You’ll be in charge of this section? That way we don’t have to charge as much. Do government officials get discounts? How about foreign dignitaries? We have some coming in now and again, mainly needing to go to Sparks. I bet some of them would love to skip the ten-hour bus trip, if given a chance. They often don’t have cash. Sometimes not even anything that I can trade for, which is saying something. I can move blocks of cheese and make a bundle, if it’s the right kind. Soap. I’ve made cash from large amounts of soap even. Still, some people just don’t really have anything that we need here. They still have to come and represent at Sparks though, so…”

  It was interesting but Troy was good with that. He didn’t need cheese, himself, but there were humans around that could eat it. Poor people and vampires could sell it in their grocery stores, if they got that kind of thing going.

  “That sounds like a plan? I… Well, I can only do it part time. Um… Unless I quit my job.”

  Interestingly, Zack reached out and patted his hand, then shook his head.

  “You can’t really get out of that one for the time being. I know it isn’t thrilling for you, or easy but that’s part of the point of doing it. Learning to do things you don’t love, and finding ways to make everything work when you have artificial constraints. One thing you can know for certain, that kind of thing will always come up in life.”

  The room they were in was decently large. It had a marble floor and carved wooden walls. There were abstract patterns in the art work there. That and some owls. In the middle of the room, more or less was the node. Just floating there, looking translucent and shimmering in multiple colors at the same time. Not that most people could see it at all. He hadn’t been able to, before learning to be a line walker. There was a silver inlaid circle on the floor under it, so people knew where to stand.

  Troy glanced at the bridge that he’d made, which was much more impressive as far as being seen went. Then he dropped it, planning to stay for a few minutes.

  “We should mark out where those are going to pop up somehow, too. How hard is it to inlay silver into stone?” He was really asking but the truth was, they didn’t have to do it, if it was too big of a pain.

  “Kind of hard. Not more than we can manage though. I agree, we should do it in silver. How many of those bridges can you hold at once?” He pointed at the far wall, to the left, which did have about ten feet of space that was well away from the rest of the room, the node not being truly centered. There was space for seven or eight of the things that he’d made so far, with a good amount of space between them.

  Grimacing, he faked a sigh.

  “Seriously? One special magical portal at a time isn’t enough?”

  “Not if you’re only doing it part time. How about… Let’s start with node locations. New Mexico, Switzerland, Johannesburg and Sparks, just to mess with you a bit.”

  It was interesting holding the things up while making a new one. The last two were a lot harder to manage that way, as well. Holding them wasn’t the hard part, since that mainly just took intent and a bit of power. Doing the work in the first place though was harsh enough that he had to slow down, so that he wasn’t using stored magical energy. That was his stash, in case things got bad, so he decided that good management was more important than showing off.

  As he stood there, holding the four things, Tyler Gartner walked through the last one.

  Then, looking around, he waved at them.

  “So, Zack… You want me to come and work at your bookstore again? I suppose I could free up order nights. Especially if I can just walk in from work like this.”

  “I always did love your work ethic, Ty. Troy is showing me his new trick. Bridges. We can move from place to place in the world using them. Add… How about the large Trollienkeine natural node? On this side.”

  That took him five minutes to set up but seemed to be the correct place. Troy had never been there before but could feel the locations of major bends in space. That one was huge, so wasn’t that hard to find. It was, literally, where two realities overlapped, after all. In a way that even untrained and ungifted people could simply walk back and forth between.

  Holding all five wasn’t easy but it was manageable. He didn’t feel a desperate need to not be doing it or anything.

  “I think that’s about my limit though. I might do six but it will take a lot more time to do the next one. So, five at a time, for all practical purposes?”

  He meant it. Troy was also standing there with a greater demon.

  “I want nine. We have the space for it. Pace yourself, and do the work.” He called out locations, and when the last one was coming in too slowly, actually called Troy names.

  Not very good ones but it was meant as a goad, so he wouldn’t give up, not a real insult.

  It still took half an hour, even using all the power he had to spare, without touching his reserves.

  Then there was a soft clap.

  “Take down New Mexico. Or… Wait.” He walked into that hole in space and came back a minute later.

  “Now you can drop it. I asked Ambassador Norret to make a note of the bridge there and let her know to call in if she needed to schedule anything with you.” Then he did the other spaces, until only the Sparks location, which had no node at all, was left.

  That got a nod, from Tyler.

  “This is incredible. Can we make a regular appointment for this kind of thing? What does it cost?”

  Zack ran over the rates for the man, who was dead, though animated by The Rotted, not other people’s life energy.

  Troy recalled that part of things, when
the woman, or more exactly at the moment, eleven-year-old girl, walked into the room. She used the side door, having come in from the bookshop.

  It was a shape that Troy had met before. Her hair was black, her skin very pale and she had braids on either side of her head. On her face were very thick black rimmed glasses, and she had on a little dress, with black tights and shoes to match. Those had copper colored buckles on them, made of new and shiny metal.

  Ann, The Rotted, moved over and started passing out hugs. Each of them got one, which got Tyler to smirk a bit. The girl just smiled at them.

  “I thought I noticed you being here, Tyler. You should probably head back. My mentee and I have something to work on. Zack, you’ll be a dear and help me with this, right?”

  That got a laugh.

  “Um… How much does it pay? Also, what is it?”

  The girl, looking more spooky than cute, waved for Gartner to leave. Laughing, he did it, even though it didn’t seem like a command or anything. That meant Troy could take down the last bridge he was holding, while Ann pulled out two things. Pretty much from nowhere. There was a ripple in space but only a gentle reaching to the side.

  She saw him noticing it and nodded.

  “I picked the trick up from The Mistress of Souls. It’s handier than using a bag for everything. It’s just a bent pocket of space, attached to my body. You can work it out. In fact, I want to see you with one by next week, Troy. Something big enough we can use it as our secret love getaway?”

  He nodded, since it probably wasn’t a bad idea. He could work with space, after all. Really, the basic idea kind of made sense to him, now that it had been explained. Or, really, now that he knew it was possible at all. Thinking back, it occurred to him that he’d seen that kind of thing before, without knowing what it was at all.

  From, interestingly enough, that other greater demon, The Mistress of Souls. They weren’t close friends or anything but they had met a few dozen times.