Strangers and Lies

by P. S. Power

  It took two repetitions of the words to get action, but finally a man in a striped brown and blue suit stuck his head out of a door down the way. He was about thirty and looked a little soft, but wasn't fat at all, just normal. He waved a bit, getting her attention.

  "Miss Farris? I'm Special Con-sev Agent Barley. We're to work out of my office on this?" He didn't sound certain of that, making it almost sound like she was being asked if that was the case, rather than telling her where to set up.

  She ran with it, walking toward him quickly.

  "Nice to meet you. We need to arrange transportation to the site of the kidnapping, the child theft, and speak to anyone that might have seen anything. Just as soon as the Westmorlands get here. I hope they're coming at least. Has anyone contacted you about that?"

  The fellow was a little flushed and seemed to be sweating more than the relatively cool temperature of the place really required, but he nodded, looking at the open door of his office as if someone would be coming in at any moment. It took a bit, but she finally understood that he wasn't waiting for the people to come through it, he was afraid that he was going to be accused of taking liberties with her. It was a pain, but she went and stood in the door, as if waiting for the others to get there.

  He relaxed almost instantly then.

  "We can be at the location in about forty minutes. I have transport standing by. It's only a wagon, horse drawn, I can arrange for something nicer, but it will take time..." He looked like he really wanted to, even if she was wearing Special Service clothing and not a fancy dress.

  "No time for that. Besides, we might have people in armor with us." She spun to look at the man, who had sandy blond hair and blue eyes she noticed. Really, if it weren't an emergency she would have noticed that he was kind of cute. She wasn't that picky, of course, but the idea did get her to smile, once she remembered to. It was pretty far from being flirtatious, but it was better than the scowl she was pretty certain had been on her face before that. "I'll go wait outside the transport spot, if you could make certain we can move out directly? I don't know how long this will take but the second people get here..." Before she could finish the thought Beth walked out of the room down the hall, followed by two others, both in armor, right after that.

  Both of the armored forms were in pearlescent colors, one a light blue and the other a nice off white. It marked them as Special Service, but also as not being Westmorlands. That was strange, since it meant that a third of the Special Services' non-Westmorland force was in the building with them. There were only nine of them in all.

  Gwen waved to them and then motioned into the room to Barley.

  "Good. We need to get out of here and to the site. Agent Barley will update us as we travel. By wagon, so we need to move, now."

  If the urgency seemed out of place, no one commented on it. Beth looked at her crin for a second and then down at the strange box she was carrying, which was one of the new forensic units that Doctor Professor Grainger had invented. It was kind of like a magical version of finger printing, but was more useful than that, if they could find anything to get a reading off of. Before she could ask if this was all they were getting Bethany started walking down the hallway, as if she knew where the stairs were.

  The others followed and Barley ran a bit to take the lead, which made sense.

  Beth took a deep breath, then spoke, making certain she sounded in charge and almost military. The words were a little clipped and short, but then, she was probably in charge of the whole thing. Gwen was just her assistant after all. She didn't seem upset though, simply busy.

  "I wasn't given a lot of data on the situation, missing children? I was tasked with assessing the problem and then making a report, to decide if we need more resources for it. Do you think that's needed at this time?" The words were for Barley, not Gwen.

  The man, who was nearly as tall as the armored forms, meaning he was over six feet, paused for a few seconds and finally just briefed them, starting to walk quickly towards the stairs. That would take a while, since armor didn't go down steps easily. On the good side that meant that the Agent had a nice long time to explain it all, going first, which, even though he didn't know it, meant he was volunteering to break the fall of the others if they stumbled. It didn't sound like a big deal, but the people were heavy right now and it wouldn't feel good at all to have one of them on top of you. She took a position behind them and Beth was behind her, since she had the sensitive and expensive equipment. Gwen knew what it cost personally, since she'd paid for it. Otherwise it would have taken years to have them available at all.

  Barley called back to them, having slowed a bit once he realized that the armored people were simply not going to hurry. Short of jumping and levitating to slow their fall, they couldn't.

  "We don't know much, a large black lorrie with a driver and two other men stopped on the street and grabbed the children. They weren't related. The girls were taken first, and then the boy, when he ran to aid them, it seems. Brave of the chap. Several street vendors saw it happen, but didn't act in time to prevent it. Scared no doubt, since in Worthington the only people in private lorries are noblemen and their people." He waited for the others to catch up, turning to call out suddenly as someone seemed to be trying to move up the stairs. "That won't work, sorry there, we have armor coming down. Best to let us past first. Sorry." He sounded it and the men in the door, all with mustaches and striped outfits like Barley's, if in better colors, pulled back, muttering something that didn't sound impolite at all.

  People here just didn't worry about things like that very much.

  Beth didn't say anything for a while, which could mean anything from her not wanting to call in more help, and wanting Barley to say so, to her thinking so deeply words just weren't going to come for a time. Finally, after a few minutes of slow stair descent, they hit the front of the building, which, as promised, had a wagon out front, with a driver standing next to it, patting one of the two horses.

  Gwen spoke then, since she didn't have time for playing around and had asked for help, but understood that a few kids off the street might not mean that much here. They probably wouldn't have back home either, not having anyone important to speak for them.

  "We should check things out first, on the scene. Still, if we need to mobilize, can we do that? We don't have a lot of time. I don't want to waste effort, but these kids..." She sighed and shook her head a little, which got the men behind her, in their armor, to stop for some reason. It was that, or they just realized that they were going to have to float to get into the wagon. It was doable, if they were strong enough. Gwen thought she could do it at least, since Heather had made her practice for hours. It made her head hurt, trying to generate that kind of power, but certainly these fellows...

  Couldn't do it much at all. One managed to get nearly a foot and a half up and the other... maybe six inches. It was kind of pitiful, but Bethany just nodded and waved to her for some reason.

  "Gwen, give them a boost please?"

  It wasn't a thing that she'd considered before, but the suits were basically just radiative devices, if very complex ones. If she added charge to them, one at a time, it should work, shouldn't it? She'd just have to get the timing right and focus from a distance.

  "Right. OK, blue first, on three... two... one." Then she added what energy she could manage to the situation, as fast as possible.

  It worked decently well, allowing the man to float gently into the back of the rather rough and dirty looking thing. Then he sat in place, the second his metal boots touched, obviously understanding the need for urgency. The white one did the same thing, if a little more awkwardly, not having as good of control of himself in the air. It worked and after that one was down she scrambled into the back, moving toward the front a bit. Barley came with her, looking awkward, but Beth just got herself into the front seat, cradling the device she held to her stomach, as if she were willing to shield it with her body. Hopefully that wouldn't be needed, since i
t really had cost a lot to put together.

  There were only five of them in existence after all.

  One of the men grunted after they were moving, the one in the white armor, then, after a few seconds he spoke, his voice a mellow sounding tenor.

  "I need to take you along with me more often. That was incredible. I expected a leg up, but that..." The man sounded a little bit in awe.

  Bethany just spoke, her voice ever so slightly harsh.

  "Focus on the job at hand, Finn. We can go over basic techniques later. Now, how long until we arrive?" This was asked to the driver, who was an elderly man that must have been pushing eighty or so. He flicked the leather straps in his hands and looked ahead of them passively.

  "The traffic and conditions seem right, so I'd wager half an hour." Then he stopped talking and just did his job, which seemed to be enough. After all, she'd just told them to focus and it seemed he was going to do his part. It took a while for the idea that he wasn't wild about riding with Westmorlands to sink in. The funny part there was when Gwen realized that the man was glaring, not at the armored men, or even Beth, but her. She was the one that had shown greater than normal powers after all, wasn't she? She was dressed right for the role, so didn't correct him. That came when Barley spoke to her, a few tense minutes later.

  "Miss Farris... What should we do when we get to the place?" It sounded confused as if the idea of going after missing kids was something that no one here would have thought of, if not for a small chance that they'd be used as a sacrifice by evil people. As if it wouldn't have even been worth mentioning otherwise. She got the idea that the children were probably poor, maybe even street people, but for no one to try and help them seemed... Out of character for these people.

  "First we'll sweep the area, try to find witnesses, clues, anything at all that might help, then we'll have Finn and... Sorry, didn't get your name..." She craned her neck to look at the shiny blue one who didn't seem to move at all. That was probably an illusion, since you could turn your head inside to look around a bit and see everything clearly, as long as you kept powering the armor.

  The voice that came from that armor was deeper.

  "York, ma'am."

  "Nice to meet you both. Then these two will stand behind you and ask questions of people while Beth reads their minds for more information. Odds are no one will lie on purpose, but we might find things out that way." She nearly wanted to hit herself in the head then, remembering that Beth had precognitive abilities too. "Right now we need Bethany to see if she can find anything out, if that's safe to do while we're moving?"

  She had to explain it all and then take the case, holding it safely herself, but after a few minutes they were able to find out that, inside six hours, the children would be dead. All of them. It wasn't a great thing to hear at all, since they had no clue where to find them. It meant they'd have to hit the ground hard and really work the situation. It was something that she felt a little bit poorly about, but Gwen decided that they couldn't afford to leave people with rights in this case. She didn't mention it, since being a jack booted thug wasn't something she actually aspired to.

  The actual abduction spot wasn't anything special as far as she could see at all. Beth however looked around and nodded, pointed to where the road widened, a pull out for people to move into for loading and unloading of lorries. It had a stone curb, but that was low, only about six to eight inches high, meaning, the detective pointed out, that the kids could have easily stepped, or been pulled, over it.

  "This was, if nothing else, a coordinated effort. The people doing this have done similar things before." The words came out of Gwen's mouth, but they sounded a little strange, flat and cooler than what she normally sounded like. "The driver stayed ready and didn't throw up a fuss when the children were tossed into the back. The first two taken were girls, with the boy being the one they hadn't counted on, probably only taking him so that they'd have a chance to get away." Without understanding why, not even questioning anyone, she started jogging, the idea making sense to her after a few seconds.

  It wasn't a nice thing.

  The kidnappers didn't need the boy, and trying to control him was probably a lot of work, since he'd come to fight, smaller and outnumbered or not. So, if they were brutal and evil, they'd simply get rid of that kid as soon as possible. Hopefully alive and well. She didn't realize that Bethany was following her until several blocks later, when she opened the lid on a very large trash bin to find the boy, his throat slit and covered with filth, eyes staring straight ahead. Dead, of course.

  There was no dignity to it at all, the kid having soiled himself at some point, making the trash scent even worse. Bethany froze beside her, holding her wooden box in both hands. Barley panted up next, stopping as soon as he understood what had happened, moving to the side so that he wouldn't throw up on them or the body. The armored men got there last and then, slowly, York, the blue one, moved as if to pull the kid out of the bin. It was about the size of a dumpster from back home, though no bags were inside it, just loose scraps, most of them rotting vegetable matter along with some fairly obvious pieces of shit. Throwing the kid in this... Well, it probably hadn't been meant as an insult. Not directly. It was just handy, in an area without a lot of other hiding spaces.

  "Wait." Gwen sighed and started to climb over the thing herself, even as the others stared. "We need a good reading of this, I'll work the wand Beth, and you can write down the readings." She really didn't want to go into the rotting crap heap, but making her friend do it would be worse. Brainwashed super-detective she might be, but the fact was, Gwen had come to realize, she was a little prissy about some things. Dead bodies being one of them. There were no complaints, and after about ten minutes of readings Gwen had the signatures of the four people involved pretty well in hand. The boy himself, which they could discount, who looked to be about twelve. Then there was a girl that was younger, perhaps eight or nine, and two men. Those were the ones they wanted. Doing something that Gwen didn't really understand, Beth made it so that those were isolated, the older one first, who was a man in his mid-fifties or so, with gray hair and brown eyes. The other was a blond that was nearly as old. Late forties.

  "Now we can get the boy." Gwen did the lifting on that, noticing how heavy the kid was. They had to send for the constabulary, but at least had a little bit to go on now. It seemed a little strange at first that Beth hadn't been able to locate the dead boy, but she shook her head when Gwen asked about it. At first it seemed like she was upset about failing, but it wasn't that, not really.

  "I'm not good with death. For some reason my mind glosses right over it. It has to do with the Westmorland Protocols. None of us can do it. You'll have to instead."

  It didn't sound snide at all. Just like she actually meant it or something.

  "Um, sorry... what?"

  "You'll have to do it for us Gwen. We don't have time to find these kids using detective work right now, we need you to go to them and save them. You can do it. You have very high level precognition, it showed in the testing we did. It's related to combat for you right now mainly, but protecting these children has to be close enough." It sounded almost sensible, except for the part where she didn't know how to do that kind of thing at all. She wasn't trained in magic after all. She'd been tested, sure, but that part hadn't been put together yet.

  Just as she started to mention that part, Finn made a disgusted noise and yelled at her for some reason.

  "Don't just stand there you stupid moron! Those girls are going to die if you don't find them. Horribly and all alone, if you don't save them. Do it, just like you did with the boy... Go! Run!" A large metal hand pushed her, sending her staggering backwards hard, hitting the bin the boy had been in with a solid crack. "Those girls need you. Don't let them die. Shut off your brain and just run, we'll do the rest."

  Only, she knew, running wouldn't get her there in time. How she knew that was a mystery, but it was right there.

  "We need a fast
lorrie. Now. I don't..." She started running then, and jumped into the middle of the street, stopping the only thing there that looked out of place. It wasn't large at all, but the driver stopped, since, she realized, she had a military crin in her hands. She would have done the same thing. He probably thought they were being robbed or something along those lines. "Special Service... we need your vehicle to find two missing girls."

  She didn't know if she had the right to commandeer anything, since the rules for things like that for the rich and powerful were far different here than back home, but the driver just nodded as the back door of the brown thing opened, showing a rather stout older man, dressed in a very nice, conservative gray outfit. It was so nice it didn't even have that slight sheen to it that most did. It was a little hard to focus on his face, but he sounded nice enough. Kind and familiar, even though it was clear they'd never met. That part felt important to her for some reason. Her head was tickling a little as the driver stared at her, but he wasn't glaring, just being attentive, or so it seemed.

  The passenger bowed a little, not even waiting to hop down, glancing at the armored forms first.

  "Jeffrey, please take these ladies and gentlemen wherever they need to go. I'll... walk." It sounded like it was an inconvenience, but a thing the man was willing to do in order to help these children. The driver didn't question it however. He just hopped down to aid the ladies up into place. The only problem with that was that Gwen needed to be up top. She couldn't drive one of these, so it meant sliding in alongside him. It was close enough that Agent Barley was having a bit of a problem with it, her leg directly alongside the driver's, but Gwen started shouting for him to go, pointing with her left hand.

  "That way!" She hoped. It felt right, but doing things in a panic, by feel, just didn't make sense, did it? Still, the others seemed to have some faith in her. That's what York and Finn both called out at least, moving back to the crime scene. They'd never fit in the tiny, but decently fast, little brown lorrie. She doubted that they'd make it through the door even. That put Bethany and the agent alone together in the back seat, but she really didn't think it would be a problem. Beth was a big girl, and the man, who didn't have a ring or anything, was still probably married. No one wore wedding bands here for some reason.