Intelligence Block

by Kit Falbo

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  About the Author

  Intelligence Block

  A Talos June novel

  By Kit Falbo

  Copyright © 2019 Kit Falbo

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.

  Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

  The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  The balloons are a dead giveaway. I travel through the air, my cloak billowing behind me. The balloons are small specks tied to the front of the house holding the birthday party. Still, I have my User Intelligence, or UI, verify it is the right house while checking the track for my location and flight plan. My UI has already warned off several amateur camera drones that were sent up to watch, and I don’t want them disturbing the official streaming drones set up out of sight around me. I ride, standing on a storm cloud, lightning bolts flashing in and out of it for dramatic effect.

  I’ve done many birthdays in the five years I’ve worked for “Lord” Lowman. As his Wizard, It’s in my contract. I love doing parties; in many ways, it is like a Wizard in a Magic Battle. Handling the unpredictability, dealing with people and presenting a thoroughly planned out display, set up to impress guests of the household. My character however, hates them. Well, he hates many things, being a cantankerous ancient Wizard of obscene power. Breaking character is one of the worst things you can do. The viewers will eat you alive for doing it.

  I’ve done birthday parties for adults where I summon Succubi from hell, with the help of some talented adult professionals. More standard parties, I may make a tree grow in the living room and present a golden apple as a gift. I add unicorns, dragons, butterflies, the usual woodland fantasy to tailor to my guests taste. Then there are the Fan parties. I am getting more requests to do them. They just want me in my loud, cantankerous glory. I get to insult people to varying degrees, based on age and parental approval, and then give them a slightly ‘oversized’ novelty gift.

  The storm cloud I’m riding disperses as my feet touch the ground. I grunt a little as the anti-gravity effect lifts. It’s easy to walk like an old man if you have forty pounds of gear and prosthetics on. Just another one of the ways my giant staff is used. I remember to set a scowl to my ancient looking face as I start towards the house. I’m a little nervous, even though this is a Fan party, I’ve never done one for a group so young. I can hear the giggling of eight-year-olds playing loudly inside, as I knock on the door. The mother opens the door in a bright pink, fuzzy sweater and a skirt, kid party standard dress. My heads-up-display shows her contact file; it tells me she’s Alice Jenny, a senior project manager at Lowman’s company. It also gives me insightful information like her height, that she likes snowy days, puppies, and pizza with pineapple. ”Wizard Joontal, welcome to our house. I’m Alice.”

  Keeping in character, I harumph and step inside. Alice looks a little taken aback by my lack of greeting. Obviously less of a fan than the birthday boy. “We’re running a little behind. It will be five minutes til’ the kids are ready for you.” she says.

  I pull out my pipe. It’s large, long and carved to look like a tiger battling a Phoenix. The streaming drones follow my movement as I start puffing away, producing smoke that is heavy in sandalwood scent. Dead air is the worst. People will get bored and switch streams. The pipe lets me do something, while actually doing nothing. “Please sir, no smoking.” Alice asks. I quickly run through my options, bubbles won’t work and neither will fireworks. With the briefest of pauses, I start again and this time swirling clouds of snow is produced with each puff. Very tiny snowflakes, but a few are large enough to see the symmetrical crystalline forms that usually require magnification. I’m quite proud of this trick. It comes with the scent of baking cookies too. It’s a bit Christmas in September, but at least I can shoot her a cranky, smug, ‘see no smoke now’ face.

  The kids are still noisy and running in all directions. While Alice gathers them I allow myself a moment of reflection. An eight-year-old fan of Wizards, that was me when I was eight. Sure, I’m no Magduin the Great, or the Illusionary Sasandra, and my character is quite niche. Wizard Joontal likely will never be counted among the best, but I’m working my way up in the minor leagues, one birthday party, and Magic Battle at a time.

  Alice signals for my attention, and it’s the UI who notices and brings me out of my reflection. “Hey, kids guess who’s here! It’s Wizard Joontal!” Alice announces. I can see from most of the kids faces the majority of them have no idea who I am. The birthday boy is excited though, and so are a few of his closest friends. Kind of like being a semi-famous minor sports star, someone has to follow the topic to really know the players.

  Thankfully most of them, according to the survey’s I sent out beforehand, are fans of explosions and flashing lights. I get to work arcing red and blue lightning bolts around me, as a scarf of fire starts to billow from around my neck. A crystal ball rolls out of my sleeve and into my hand, begins cracking like an egg, unfurling a black mass, that grows into my two foot tall, black, shimmering raven, Muninn. His feathers glimmer with a rainbow when they catch the right light. Yes, I steal some from classics.

  Muninn caws, and shakes the remaining crystal shards from his feathers. He is the body of my UI. The surveys and validation for this party have been filtered through Muninn.

  “My Lord has bid me to come and entertain his subjects.“ I give the children a withering look. “I did not expect them to be so small. A wild brawl might be a bit too much for this group.” That worked at the last birthday party I did. I split the kids, young teenagers, up into groups and gave them realistic but harmless p
lay swords and had them battle it out until I declared a winner. Successful, despite the mutterings of “Oh lame, a birthday Magician,” when I first showed up to the teenager’s party.

  “I suppose instead of a taste of battle, I shall give you a taste of magic if you’re interested. Who here is interested?” There is some hesitation in the crowd. “Come on, a show of hands!”

  A good two-thirds of the hands shoot up, Jacen the birthday boy stretches his hand the highest. “Me! Me!” he shouts.

  I throw my pipe, and it floats above the group of kids before starbursting into more than a dozen child sized, glowing, yellow wands that float down to each kid. “Now take your wand and point at something and yell “Ikith!”

  “Ikith!” yells some brave girl (Sofia, my UI display shows). At the tip of the wand, there is a little puff and a poof, then across the room, a slightly drippy looking splat of color shows on the wall she is pointing her wand at. It is pink, the color the survey had listed as her favorite.

  “Sofia, more power!” I bark.

  “Ikith! Ikith! Ikith!” All the kids start yelling. The room fills with poofs, puffs, and splats of color, in each child’s favorite shade. The effect only lasts a minute before fading, but the kids are going at it so fast, the short life is not very noticeable. I look at Alice, who is giving me a slight look of dismay. I wink at her, while I subvocalize to my UI to send her UI the specs on the toy.

  It isn’t long before the children turn it on each other, painting themselves in a dazzling display of colors. One turns his wand on me only to have the color hit a shield, the mess sliding to the floor. Joontal is too dignified to be painted. Muninn however, is not so lucky.

  He lets out a loud “Caw!” and jumps as his shiny black feathers are suddenly coated in pink. He takes flight.

  “Oh, this won’t end well.” I say just loud enough for everyone to hear. In the air Muninn’s feathers ripple into bright rainbow shimmer, as they twist, transforming him into a miniature dragon. He lets out a roar as he dives and buzzes towards the kids, with acrobatic flair.

  “Quick children! You need to show him that you have the power. Point your wands at him and keep yelling “Ikith!” With only a little encouragement the child Magicians get going. Now Muninn has to spend all his effort dodging poofs and puffs of color. He is quite good, but eventually gets overpowered. He twitches in the air, getting splattered again and again until he dramatically falls to the ground. There he lay still, slowly transforming back, his feathers covered in momentary mess.

  Most of the children look like they are feeling a sense of satisfaction for their victory. But there is one girl, the youngest one (a five-year-old my UI tells me is Halsey), a younger sister who tagged along to the party, who starts crying.

  I walk over to her, and I give her an inquisitive look, letting my eyebrows do the talking. “The… the bird? Is it hurt?” I snap my fingers, and the still form of Muninn turns into a cloud of shimmering motes as the linked nano-drones float over to me, coalescing back into a crystal egg in my palm. “Like a phoenix, it would take a lot to put Muninn here out of commission. Would you like to watch him until he hatches again?”

  She sniffles and nods, taking the egg carefully, as I hand it to her. I know it will feel warm and move as though it is occupied. She cradles it, and I go back to the rest of the kids, who are just now slowing down with their wands.

  The color blasting wands are a success at this party and are already starting to sell through the stream. A hundred of the color wands have sold to fans or people who’ve stumbled onto my stream. More orders should come in when I post my edited display of the events for this week's episode. Only about thirty percent of the profits will go my way, after all the costs.

  I start to announce loudly. “Well now it’s…” but the children are not paying attention. I pound the base of my staff twice on the floor, and this grabs the attention of a few, not even half. More importantly, the action activates a subroutine that causes a holographic still to project in front of the audiences’ eyes for a few moments. Makes it look like the rest of the room has been frozen still, just long enough to shock them to attention. “It’s time to present the birthday boy with a gift!”

  Technically the wands already count as the required party favor. A brief visit like this one doesn’t require a personalized gift. This visit is an appearance request, not a full event like the battle the teenage party had been, or a hosting like the Succubi experience, which had taken weeks to set up and book properly. Never a lack of paperwork in this profession, but that is why UIs exist. I still remember what it was like to be a die-hard eight-year-old fan of magicians. That was only fifteen years ago.

  I reach into my robes and pull out a leather bound book decorated with straps and buckles and what looks to be a layer of dust. I blow on the top, and the dust swirls off into a brown cloud, but if you look closely you can see little sparkles of gold lighting it up. “Knowledge, the greatest gift anyone can receive! With this book, if you are dedicated and work hard, you will learn the essentials to be a Wizard yourself.”

  The book, on its face, is not too different from many so-called “magic kits”. You get words, movements, activations for pre-programmed effects using technology toys. There is a deeper layer to my book if someone is really interested. Slowly teaching and explaining the real craft of using technology for creating magic. It even has a built-in base UI I purchased. If Jacen chooses to work through the book and is interested in being more than just a fan, the book will guide him through the essential basics. It has everything I wish I had when I was his age, but couldn’t quite get to on my own without stumbling along the way. The book is a more refined version of the primer I had given Lowman’s daughter shortly after joining his team years ago.

  The tome will self-destruct harmlessly if tampered with too much, though if it gets to that, the user of the book would not need it anymore. I know the odds are Jacen will either grow out of this phase or merely remain a fan. A lot of the skills learned in this career can be useful to many other jobs in the populated Worlds. I send the parents a short, though not a full explanation of the book and even some information about jobs it could lead to in the future. Ridiculous as that is to think of future professions for an eight-year-old, maybe they could offer some encouragement. I know I would have liked some adult encouragement for my hobbies when I was younger.

  The book floats over to the birthday boy, who grabs it and hugs the slightly oversized book as if it is the most precious gift in the world. It is a real effort to keep my face stoic, and not smile. I silently message Alice to interrupt us with the cake so I can take my leave. Moments later she does, drawing the attention of almost all the sugar-hungry kids away from me.

  I turn away and start walking towards the door, “Come Muninn.” The crystal egg the young girl is holding is dissolving into a soft, feathery black mess that will slip out of her hands and fly to my shoulder. I instruct the UI to leave a single shiny black feather in the girl's lap as a present.

  Alice is waiting for me near the exit. “Wizard Joontal, I want to thank you for coming to my son’s birthday party. He’s been a Fan since he was five and asking for a party since I let it slip that my boss had a Wizard. He actually wanted you for last years’ birthday, but I wasn’t sure he was old enough. He wore me down enough to convince me to let you do a short visit this year. It really has been a positive experience.” She offers her hand for a shake goodbye.

  I don’t know if she expects me to break character. I do regret that I can’t take her hand in thanks and tell her that she has a wonderful child. I simply look at her hand like it is a snake. With a Harumph the door swings open as if on its own volition before I step outside, ignoring the woman’s sincere thanks. A new storm cloud forms, taking me back into the sky.

  Chapter Two

  Instead of going home to my castle tower at the Lowman's estate, I order an alternate route to The House of Mind and Body for an appointment I have there. The all-inclusive loc
ation has many services from massages and baths to mental health support and the relief of baser physical needs. Some of the girls and many outside connections that I had needed for the succubi party had come from this business. Lowman’s security chief, Franklin, had made regular attendance here a requirement for my continued employment once I explained what the job actually entailed. He is one of the few who knows the full details of Wizard Joontal and the reality of the young man Talos June behind him. Lowman could find out, but I’ve never seen any sign that he has wanted to look behind the curtain that hides his Wizard.

  The cloud sets me down outside the modern entrance. Whatever shock was held by people nearby was only mild. In a world where almost anything could seem to be possible, an ancient Wizard coming down from the sky at most might raise an eyebrow or two.

  The woman at the desk is a cute young thing in a dark suit with red pinstripes that fit her tightly. I don't recognize her, and neither does my UI, so it is either an intern or a new hire. She, however, has obviously been updated with the businesses schedule and customer list. “Welcome Wizard Joontal. Your private suite is in 206 today for a two-hour session.” She holds out a square passkey. Having Munin take it from her did break her calm a little, she let out a little yelp, as the bird nipped it from her fingers with a loud, CAW!.

  While in public one must never be out of character. I march into the building and up the stairs to my assigned suite. There is always some muttering by the staff when I come in. Muninn swipes the card at the door, which slides open allowing me to step in. Once it is shut and locked, I finally let myself breath easy and relax.

  Deactivating the costume that is Wizard Joontal, it opens at the top of my head and slumps down around my body into a textured pile of nano-fabric. The suit is self-cleaning, but a good shake helps. I need a shower, as I step out a full-length mirror across the room lets me get a good look at myself, an image of my real face that is hardly familiar anymore.