Whisper

by P. S. Power

  Probably meaningless, as well. Except for the obvious portion where Brenner had named two of the people in the pictures. Beings that Liam had never met at all, as far as he was aware. The woman in the picture who had been named the vampire Queen was striking enough that he probably would have noticed her if she’d been around where he could see her.

  Almost as if summoned by the door opening, that or the promise of donuts, Tiffany walked out of the kitchen, holding her cell phone in her hand still, the yellow note pad in her other hand.

  She waved that a bit and handed it over to her partner directly.

  “Liam had a vision of some sort. Here, before we go. Um…” She glanced at Liam then and let her eyes seem sympathetic, holding his for a moment. “This is too accurate to not be something real. The thing is that none of the people I recognized are planning on going to the meeting tonight. What that means, I don’t really know. Any thoughts?”

  Liam was a bit clueless as to what might have happened, so didn’t speak. Agent Sanchez nodded a bit firmly and glanced at his partner.

  “It could be a lot of different things the most obvious ones being that Liam picked up something real, just taking place someplace else or at a later date. That or you grabbed up information on things that relate, without being exact. Let me read this real quick. We don’t have to be on the road for a few hours.”

  Brenner nodded, then shook her head. The smile on her face looked a little off, compared to normal. Stressed.

  “We need to run past a store before we get there. Liam pointed out that showing up at a werewolf run meeting without gifts for each of the reps from the different groups there will be seen as rude. I knew that on some level, I just… Kind of forgot. Which given it’s my main job, dealing with other groups, is a pretty big mistake.”

  Sanchez was reading while standing there, meaning he responded, but only slowly after lifting the first page of the yellow notebook.

  “Okay, we can leave at about ten, then? Let me read this…”

  The words were subdued and the Agent walked slowly while reading barely looking up. He ended sitting at Liam’s table, in the same seat that Oaks had used the night before. He nearly mentioned that information to Sanchez, but held his tongue, since the man was busy learning. Other information coming in at the same time would just be confusing. At least Liam found that kind of thing to be so. Waiting seemed like the better plan then.

  Brenner made more phone calls, trying to find out who was going to be there that evening, so they could personalize the food gifts a bit. She didn’t share her information with them however, just writing some things down, after getting off the cell phone. As she did her writing, the other agent flipped to the first picture. He whistled at it then almost instantly looked at the other three.

  “Liam… These are good. I mean, I can really recognize who they are. This is at least as good as most adults could do. It’s impressive.”

  Liam ducked his head, then let himself smile and whisper.

  “Thank you. I need to do better. Possibly after I change my color and get past feeling ill from it.”

  That got Brenner to snap her fingers.

  “Oh, fuck. That’s right. You know Oaks, right?”

  “The troll that lives in town here? We’ve met, several times. Why?”

  The woman gave him a strange look then.

  “Oh, well, he was here last night. There was a minor issue with the police, so he came out here. Night before last. Only, it turns out that he isn’t a troll at all. Liam called him on it last night. Three guesses who he actually is.” Then she shook her head, her red hair flying a bit. “Only no, you won’t guess.”

  Sanchez nodded at the words.

  “Great. Games and donuts. Who is he then?”

  “Liam’s father. As in the person who paid for the work to be done by Leslie Stein. We knew she had to have funding from somewhere. Also… He’s Frankenstein’s monster. From the book? I need to check on the information, but… yeah, it seems real.”

  Sanchez, who normally spoke with rather polite language, cursed then.

  “Holy fuck. Is that real?”

  “Yep, seems so. Also, I guess that Liam can turn brown if he eats enough protein. It sounds less than pleasant, physically. Are you planning to try that soon then, Liam?”

  He really was, since matching with the world he was in, color wise, could only help him.

  “If that’s allowed. It could take several pounds of meat, from what I was told.”

  Tiffany waved at him then, smiling.

  “Oh, yeah. I want to see that, if it’s not too painful. We can pick something up for later, if you want. Anyway, I’m waiting on some calls. You should… Find something to read. You can take a book or two with you for the car trip? I know that things like that always bore the hell out of me, if I don’t have anything to work on. Until then, maybe drawing or looking at things online would be good?”

  That made sense to him, so he nodded. Then got his laptop around and started to look up some things related to Vern’s daughter. Clarissa. She was too young to have sex, but old enough that no one would have charged Noah with pedophilia directly. That all found its way onto the pad he was using for the meeting notes. As well as the rest of the needed information. How long the man would go away for, on each of his crimes for instance.

  As well as how people like him were treated in prison. In case the werewolves didn’t know about all of that. It seemed unlikely, though it wouldn’t hurt to make notes on it, just in case they wanted to be reassured on the idea.

  The work took a few hours, after which they all moved to the car they were using for the trip. It was the same vehicle that they’d all driven in on Liam’s first car trip, instead of the yellow SUV. He didn’t know why that was at first. Sanchez answered him anyway, with no words being said on his part about it.

  “This is a government car. It makes sense to put the miles on an official ride instead of our POVs.”

  Liam guessed that meant their personal vehicles. What the ‘o’ meant was a guess. Probably operated or owned. Something along those lines. He made a mental note of that and nodded his understanding, while putting his seat belt on.

  He was in the back seat, the box of donuts next to him. He wasn’t hungry, so ignored it. After all, he had a meal planned for later that night. Meat, which given his last experiences with it left him feeling slightly uneasy. That had left him feeling very ill, and unwell. It was the only thing that had ever done that. Liam had been subjected to minor pains in his life as well. Such as being cut open to the bones, or at least his hardened inner core, which was different than that. A thing that had happened more than once. The hours spent in agony due to meat had been very memorable to him. A thing that he didn’t really want to repeat.

  Not that he wouldn’t do it anyway.

  It was too interesting, the idea of changing color like that, to ignore the opportunity. Plus, if it worked for him and he managed to turn a similar shade of tan to Oaks, Liam would be fairly normal looking. His facial features weren’t like the other man’s, after all. His creator, Mary, had managed to have him being fairly ordinary looking, under the bright yellow of his skin.

  That should mean that he could walk the streets, with only his hands and feet being there to signal others that he was different from everyone else. His skin would also match more clothing color options as well, if he understood that idea correctly.

  As they drove down the road, he passed the box of donuts to the front of the car. Each person took one of the things, except for him. Brenner was in the passenger’s seat up front, and took a maple bar again. Agent Sanchez ate something different that he didn’t have a name for yet. It looked plainer than the others, but was dense, rather than the bread that Brenner was having.

  Once the box was in the back, settled on the seat next to him, Liam pulled one of the books he’d brought with him, and started to study it. The work was a fiction piece, which had a female vampire as the main character. T
o him it seemed that she spent a large amount of time trying to find blood to drink. That and angrily going after people, sometimes for very little reason.

  There was an evil vampire who tried to attack the woman several times, before she finally killed him, since it was clear that the man wasn’t going to stop until one of them was dead. That was in the story, so he knew it was true. At least he thought that was how it worked. It was clear to him that the tale, no matter how accurate it was supposed to be, wasn’t strictly based on anything that had taken place in real life. Then, it didn’t have to be. It was informative, simply due to the template of correct information it held.

  The other books were each on a different group and not all of them were fictional in nature. One, a simple notebook that had been written by hand, in English, was about digging out a well. By hand. The being that had done it wasn’t human at all, yet also didn’t seem to fit into any group that he’d been told about. The people of the woman who had penned the work were diggers, it seemed. That wasn’t their name, it was simply how they lived and survived. Under the Earth, rarely coming to the surface for any reason.

  The interesting thing there was that the journal seemed to be claiming that the woman was a regular human being. Just one who lived in a very different fashion than the ones he’d been told about. In the end the well, a very deep thing, had to be filled in, since it had hit sea water, being on an island like it was. The complex system of side tunnels, all lined with rock weren’t enough to keep the well fresh.

  It was interesting, even though it sounded like a whole lot of work was being done, in the wrong place. A thing the author knew. She had simply been attempting something that was possible, though considered incredibly hard by her people. A thing which was said to be honorable, and even praiseworthy, regardless of it working or not.

  That idea was a new one for Liam. That people might feel pride was a thing that he’d encountered. Indeed, even in the books he’d read that day it had come up several times, so it wasn’t something odd or strange for many groups. Perhaps most, even. It was a thing that established itself differently for other groups, of course. The vampires would claim their anger was about honor. The elven peoples would call strict adherence to rules that as well.

  The werewolves seemed to have a stranger version of the same thing, with imaginary and rather arbitrary seeming rules being overstepped, springing traps on people. Often for no real reason.

  Still, he was amazed at the idea of digging a well, one that would almost certainly fail to provide fresh water, simply to impress those around you with how hard working you were. It was, he had to suppose, due to him having been raised by a human woman. She had, without meaning to, taught him about things like honor and all that, through her actions. It was a distinctly human thing though. One made up out of success and a desire for glory, instead of simply following rules blindly or just doing the work in a fashion that was considered laudable.

  A thing that Liam felt, keenly as he thought of it. It wasn’t enough to try, you had to make it happen. You learned, you didn’t merely attempt to learn. You drew a good picture or you kept doing it until you could. If you always failed, then you were, in the end, a failure.

  As they rode to their destination, or rather, to a store first, instead of straight to the location they needed, several states away, Liam thought about things, again. Trying to look through the eyes of various people at the things which had happened in his life. Around him, as well.

  Like the situation with Vern and Clarissa. How Noah played into that situation and even his own place in that tale. That one was hard, since Vern and his people could and very well might, simply make up a rule that had never existed before over the whole thing. Due, mainly, to the fact that Brenner, Sanchez and Mitchel had been there, involving themselves and trying to save the life of the obviously guilty man.

  In all of it, the human perspective and the vampire one were the easiest to understand for him. Tiffany and her partner had laws to follow. Things which could be looked up and studied. They varied in application and weren’t always perfect but they were a single known thing. That meant, at least to him, what Sanchez and Brenner did on behalf of the FBI and the government would be predictable.

  The vampires would be as well. On the surface they wouldn’t do anything at all. Not unless it seemed to gain them something in the doing. Then they would act offended and threaten violence, if they didn’t get their way. A thing that they might well back up, as long as the forces against them weren’t too powerful. In that case they’d probably buckle under in a way that made it look like they were on the side of the strongest, as a natural course of the day. A thing that Liam wasn’t certain, from his reading up on the topic, that they understood as being a part of how they responded to the world.

  The other groups were harder to understand than that.

  Elves… In a situation like the one they were going into they might just start using magic near the very beginning, attempting to control the situation. It was too hard to tell if that was going to be the case though. They didn't love the idea of children being harmed, from what he’d read. Even the little ones of other groups. The thing there was that he didn't know if Clarissa was young enough to count that way for them. She was thirteen, which was near when that type of person started to think of people as being adults.

  It was, he knew, going to make for an interesting evening. Hopefully one that wouldn’t have a lot to do with him. Not because he didn’t want to help. Simply due to the fact that Liam wasn’t nearly confident enough to involve himself in matters of law or the lives of others.

  Not if he had a choice.

  Chapter thirteen

  Brenner, holding a wrapped package that was filled with a rather expensive cut of steak, smiled at the man in front of her. He was an older fellow, looking wrinkled and gray, who had clear blue eyes and a full head of hair. His nose twitched as his gaze flickered to the brown paper she was holding.

  Her voice was soft, even if there were about thirty people in the room, most of them casually dressed and talking as if silence wasn’t needed at all.

  “Liam, this is David, the local leader of the werewolves for this area. David, this is Liam Frankenstein. He was a witness to the events the other day. Invited here as well.”

  The package was handed over, the older fellow smiling suddenly. A thing he clearly meant.

  “Ah! Agent Brenner, so nice to see you. You as well, Agent Sanchez. This is a bit of dark work here today, I fear. We’ll be glad of what help you can provide.” He turned to Liam, who also had a package in his hands.

  After all, he wasn’t with the FBI, so needed to provide his own gift to the leadership of each group. It was a whole chicken in his case. One wrapped in plastic, though large and plump seeming. The man took it, his smile growing wider, even as he looked at the bare feet that were standing on his hard wood floor.

  The meeting was being held at David’s house, which wasn’t the same one that Liam had seen in his vision or imagining at all. Not even close. It was a large place and nice inside, without being similar at all to that other place. Meaning that, if an attack was to take place that day, he hadn’t had any warning of it at all.

  Liam whispered, his voice low for the room. It caused the werewolf to lean in, though there was no questioning his use of such a thing. Meaning the man had either gotten knowledge about Liam already or he simply wasn’t going to ask a guest to speak up.

  “Thank you for inviting me. I do not know if I can add anything here, but I will do my part, if it is within my capabilities.” Liam was, he knew, being too careful about the whole thing.

  The trick there was that werewolves as a group seemed to prize keeping one’s word. Especially if it was given to them. They were a bit less involved that way going in the other direction. Not promising too much made sense, given that.

  David snorted, clearly getting the idea.

  “And thanks to you, for bothering to come. Not everyone did, even in m
y own pack. Not that I can’t see that. There will probably be violence over this. Half the pack is calling for the entire family to be put down, for bringing the government down on us. The others don’t think it’s that large of a problem and don’t want to slaughter anyone in particular. If the voting is too close, we’ll probably have to battle over it. I doubt we get out of this without bloodshed.” The man was serious in his words. Also resigned.

  As if that were the only thing that could take place.

  The issue was one that Liam hadn’t prepared for at all, of course. That was a thing which Brenner got for herself, as well.

  “Crap. I hope we don’t have to go into that kind of thing. We brought proof that Noah won’t be let go or coddled for his crime. We don’t tend to kill people for having sex with someone who is too young… But we punish them for the rest of their lives. It’s one of the only crimes we do that for. Even after prison he’ll be on the sex offender registry until he dies. That will mark him in a way that will make it hard for him to work, get a home or do anything in life.”

  Liam nodded at the words. He had notes on it, though it didn’t seem to be time to pull those out yet. Agent Sanchez was carrying those for him, along with the other gifts. Those were in a large paper bag that had a handle on it. A thing made of twine, purchased for its function because Tiffany thought it looked more elegant than using the thin plastic that the store provided to them for transport.

  Looking up at the door, David held out a hand.

  “It’s good of you all to come. I need to greet the next to arrive. Please, mingle and talk to people? We’ll be starting in about half an hour, if all goes to plan.” Then the man hurried to the door, ignoring them.