by Adam Thielen
“A couple hours max, long before the sun goes down,” Frank replied. “Your turn, what’s your good news? I was starting to feel cheerful again, don’t ruin it.”
Matthias approached the screen where the mic’s pinhole was located and spoke quietly, “I had a dream. You know the kind. He was there. He… did something to me, got inside my head. Might know where I’m at, what this place is, and who knows what else.”
There was no response on the other end. Kate had started to shake Taq awake.
Matthias continued, “I’m freaking out a little. I don’t remember everything, but I remember something didn’t make sense, and it’s got me on edge.”
Frank’s voice came out of the com, also quietly, “Could just be a dream. No one seems to know anymore. Wait, maybe someone does. Maybe that’s what we need, to find someone who actually knows something.” Frank breathed into the microphone. “I’ll look into it. Sit tight ‘til the package arrives, then get out of there.”
“Yeah,” said Matthias before turning off the com. Taq had sat up finally.
“I had the most intense dreams,” he announced.
Matthias threw a candy bar to him and a cookie to Kate. “Breakfast.” He sat down on a small plastic chair. “Tell me about your dream, Taq.”
“Iff wafs weirfd,” Taq replied with a mouthful of nougat. He decided to swallow before continuing. “It was as if I were hundreds of years in the past. Eighteen hundreds maybe? People were in stagecoaches.” Taq stopped and thought carefully. “I was getting inside of one at the very beginning. I looked around but it wasn’t me doing the looking, not on purpose at least. A woman wearing a funny hat was already inside the cabin. She looked at me expectantly. I think she said something like ‘What is the hold up, Drew?’ and I replied, ‘Someone is here’.”
Kate listened intently, but Matthias felt distracted, thinking of his own recent dream. Taq continued his story. “So I get in the coach, and I keep looking around. I swear it was the longest dream, just sitting in this primitive vehicle, occasionally saying stuff to the woman. I don’t remember hardly any of it though. I believe I called her Amy.”
Kate broke in. “Any last names?”
Taq looked up, thinking intently. “No, or maybe, but I don’t remember.” Kate seemed disappointed. Taq continued, “At some point the vehicle stops, and I get out and some men are standing in a line in front of the horses that are pulling this thing. They all have guns. The one in the middle steps forward. He had a long pointed goatee. He said something I couldn’t make out and then he shot me. It went dark, there was a ringing sound, but that faded to silence.”
Taq took a moment to eat another bite of candy bar. Matthias started brushing his hair in front of the bathroom mirror. Kate stood by the door, waiting her turn.
“Then I saw Matthias on the Golden Gate Bridge. You just disappeared though. Then Kate woke me up,” Taq concluded, shrugging.
Episode 3: Transformation
Matthias wondered if he was to blame for Taq’s dream. Had he made a mistake feeding him some of his blood? He stared in the mirror for a minute, debating what to do. He settled on keeping silent.
“What’s the plan, boss man?” Kate stood at the bathroom door.
“We wait,” Matthias looked down at the sink.
Taq joined Kate at the door. “We are just going to sit around, stuck here?”
“For a couple hours, yes.” Matthias brushed past his cohorts. “Aren’t there some rituals you can practice or something?” He could tell Taq thought he was taunting him. “Really, anything we can do to prepare, because we will be facing that thing again.”
“What?” responded Taq with disbelief.
Matthias squinted for a moment, then remembered, “You missed Frank’s call.”
“Seriously?” asked Taq.
“That’s the job. Would you rather go back to the university?” Matthias asked in a sincere tone.
“No. But I don’t want to die either,” Taq replied. “I hope we are getting some help.”
“Some equipment is on the way. Then we can figure out what to do. I’m mostly useless until dusk,” Matthias explained.
“Vampires,” stated Taq. “I almost didn’t believe they existed until last night.”
“Why not?”
“You are so secretive.” answered Taq. “They say Noxcorp is all vampires, but they never give interviews or appear in streams. You and Frank are the first I have seen in person.”
“That you know of,” Kate challenged.
“We have to be careful, and this is one of the reasons why,” Matthias sighed. “Or maybe this is a consequence.”
“Matthias,” started Taq. “I really don’t think some gear is going to even the odds.”
“It’s all we get; I’m sorry.”
“Says who?”
“The council, Taq, my bosses,” Matthias was getting loud as he tired of the questions and complaining.
“What if we got some outside help?”
“Taq, come on,” pleaded Kate.
Matthias groaned. “They don’t want anyone else involved, alright? As far as they are concerned, the existence of this thing needs to stay secret.”
“And that’s that?”
Matthias stayed silent.
“Fine, I’m out,” said Taq. He started to put on his shoes.
“God damn it,” said Kate loudly.
“You can’t just leave; I’ll take you back later,” said Matthias.
“You can’t keep me here. Good luck.” Taq walked out of the room while Matthias simply watched. Kate ran after him.
“Taq, come on, we need you,” she said as she caught up to him, grabbing his arm.
Taq was startled by the uncomfortable feeling of being grabbed. He looked at her hand. “I’m sorry Kate, but no one is taking this seriously enough, and I’m not willing to die because of them. He doesn’t want to listen to me, that’s fine, but I’m not part of this team then.”
“Who is going to help us?” she asked. “Or do you just imagine that we can find some mercenaries to hire?” She removed her hand from his arm.
“MESS,” he replied. “The Chicago University is responsible for this mage. They are likely obligated to help. Even if they try to shirk their responsibility, it’s scandalous to have a mage escape all monitoring.”
“I’ve cleared your departure with the front desk,” announced Matthias from the doorway of the room. “A car will be waiting for you outside.”
“Talk to Matthias about this,” requested Kate.
“It’s too late, but I plan on taking it up with MESS when I get back. Hopefully he doesn’t get you killed before some real help arrives,” Taq said, walking away from Kate. She didn’t follow.
Kate turned toward Matthias, “Great.”
Matthias beckoned her back to the room. He closed the door behind her.
“What?”
“How do you feel about some ‘B&E’?”
“Isn’t that what I do?” she asked.
“This might be a challenge.”
* * *
Taq was dropped off at the entrance to his dormitory. He walked away from it, toward the small MESS building only a hundred meters away. Inside was a waiting room with uncomfortable looking chairs and a man behind a large counter. No one else inhabited the room; no one was waiting their turn.
Taq walked up to the counter. The man looked up. “Taq, right?”
“Uh, yes,” Taq didn’t recognize the man.
“I was told you’d be coming. What can we do for you?”
“You knew I was coming, but not for what reason?” asked Taq.
“Only that it was important to your assignment,” the man replied. “I’m not privy to the details, but your departure has been the thing of rumors and gossip around here.”
“Who told you I was coming?” Taq pried.
“Um, it was a woman from the office of mage relations. Ms. Smith, I think?” the man answered. “So what do you need?”
“I have
some information on a rogue mage. Is there someone I can report this to?”
The man seemed surprised again, “Well you probably could have called or e-filed that to us.” He grabbed a clunky tablet computer and slid it across the desk to Taq. “You can fill out these forms, and it will get to the right department.”
Taq sighed; he did not expect a barrier of bureaucracy. “I actually wanted to report it directly to someone… in charge?” The man cocked his head in response. Taq persisted. “The mage is somewhat of an immediate threat and very dangerous.”
The clerk forced a polite smile. “This is the procedure, but after you fill it out I will make sure it gets filed right away.”
Taq relented, grabbing the scuffed up computer and taking a seat along the wall. He began filling out box after box, muttering swears occasionally.
* * *
“Done,” said Kate.
“You’ve covered the bases?” Matthias asked skeptically.
“Every one of them, but nothing is ever perfect,” she replied. “The key, really, is to make sure that nothing you change draws attention or suspicion. Small discrepancies are overlooked as long as the big picture makes sense.”
“Thank you, oh wise one,” he taunted. “Now, it’s time for you to go.”
Matthias handed her a strange looking metal box with two obvious buttons and a small readout display. It was about the size of his hand. “If for some reason you get into danger, use this button to hide and this one for projectile deflection.”
“Wait, you’re serious? Where am I going?” Kate looked quizzically at the device.
Matthias handed her a small handgun. “I envy you a little. You should be able to download the drivers to use the neurolink in this gun. If you get a chance, take some practice shots with the assist enabled and the gun will learn your tendencies and compensate the targeting reticle.”
“Do the what?” she grabbed the gun and looked down at her waistline. “I don’t even have a holster.”
“You may want to pick one up,” he replied.
“Where am I going?” she emphasized each word.
“I need you to pick him back up and meet me at this location,” Matthias sent coordinates to Kate’s NID. “It’s an old abandoned complex near—”
“Yeah,” she interrupted. “Are you sure this is a good idea already?”
“I’ll be there around dusk. Don’t be late. If you can get some surveillance on the area without putting yourself in danger, then do so,” he instructed. “You’ll have time before he’s ready to go, so I may have you pick up a few groceries for me in the meantime.”
“I’m doing your shopping now?”
“Just a few things. I’ll send you a list.”
“You just going to hang out here till dusk?” she asked.
“I will keep myself busy; I have an idea to test out.”
Kate clipped the device to her belt, then slid open the butt of the handgun. She pressed a small button inside the compartment, and then held it behind her left ear. Satisfied that it was properly synced, she stuffed the barrel into her jeans pocket.
Kate looked at Matthias again, nodded, then exited the safe house where a car was waiting for her. Matthias went back to the room and turned on the view screen. He now had several hours of time on his hands and couldn’t stop thinking about his encounter with the fiend. It was too important to make excuses, and he would have been dead had Taq not showed. He felt powerless against Winter and wanted to do something about it.
“Access vampire knowledge base,” Matthias commanded. The display on the wall, directly connected to the safehouse intranet, displayed a grid of subjects for rows and media type for columns. He selected vampire physiology under the articles column. His fingers flicked upward to scroll through a long list of articles concerning vampire appearance, strength, metabolism, and more. There were entire novels available, thousands of clinical trials and research papers, and more speculative works. Overwhelmed, Matthias began the motion to turn the screen off but stopped himself halfway through.
What else do I have to do? he wondered. Matthias was interested in strength, so he began creating filters for the results. Article after article described differences in strength from one vampire to the next. Some talked about blood’s temporary effect on strength levels.
The common wisdom was that a vampire’s base strength was static, the way that a vampires outward appearance is static. Vampires don’t change, and if something else changes them, their vampirism reverts it through its healing process. Finally, well after his eyes had glazed over, he found a single study on muscle building with more than conjecture.
“Much like the typical metabolic multiplier…” Matthias mumbled as he skimmed the text. “New cellular creation possible…must have all essential amino acids present during healing phase…requires sufficient intake…” Matthias smiled. He was no scholar, but this wasn’t rocket science either. He began making a list of items after doing several network searches and determining what would be locally available.
“What is all this shit for?” Kate asked over the com.
“I need to work out,” Matthias explained.
“Testosterone, synthatein, creatine, CLA…,” her eyes continued reading the list. “Really?”
“Please, can you get it for me?”
“Will this even work? And why so much?”
“It should, but only if I have enough,” Matthias didn’t think he’d have to defend his request. “We heal much faster than humans, so I need immediate proteins, and-.”
“Okay, I got it,” she surrendered.
Matthias went into the fitness center. Every piece of equipment had a thin layer of dust, and it was possible none of it had ever been used. He left and went the next door over to the pantry where he had grabbed breakfast. Matthias grabbed all of the dried meats, soy milk cartons, and energy bars. He threw them into an empty box and went back to the gym room.
After dusting off a weight machine, he tested several resistance levels for bicep curls. Then he did the same for each major muscle group, calibrating the machine to his current strength. Matthias was much weaker than he had thought: Some of the stronger humans could match him. He programmed the machine to switch to higher resistance levels adaptively. This reduced his duties to exerting and eating.
Matthias started out eagerly moving from one position to the next, pushing against the extreme resistance allowed by the machine. He pushed his arms forward with a force of three hundred pounds starting out. After every set he ate another energy bar, and with each cycle he ate a pack of dried meat and drank soy milk. He wasn’t sure which was worse, the fatigue or the discomfort of his bulging stomach after only a half hour of working the machine.
Forty minutes in, Matthias looked at the readout on the screen when doing presses; he was up to 385. It was working, but Matthias felt sick to his stomach and drained of energy. He went to the feeding tube and took a break to drink some blood. It seemed to help. “I am not going anywhere,” he told himself. “Get used to it.”
Kate arrived a few minutes later with three boxes of supplements and powders with fancy moving graphics on them. Matthias had almost emptied the safe house’s pantry of any useful foodstuffs; Violet will not be amused.
“You look like hell,” she said, dropping the box inside the fitness room.
“Thanks.”
* * *
Taq sat on his bed, staring at his mini fridge. He glanced down at his ankle. He wondered why no one had come to talk to him. Then it occurred to him that there was no need to hurry; he wasn’t exactly going anywhere. Taq could have had a good review. He could have avoided having his transgression reported. In a few years, he could have been out in the real world shackled to a corp rather than the school. Now, it was likely he was going to spend most of his life as a ward, possibly worse.
Taq turned on a large wall-mounted display and loaded a visualization game he created with Annie’s help. Getting it working using even a simplisti
c programming language was one of his prouder moments. The game was meant to simulate eye movements and trigger many of the same neurons that were active during spellcasting. He had come up with the idea himself, but needed Annie to monitor and find the neural activity correlations. Before she lost interest in him, Taq had hoped to make something more out the project. He wanted to have it hook up to a NID or neural monitor and provide feedback and tips.
Taq opened the fridge and took out the bag. He removed a small pouch with red fluid inside. “What the hell am I doing?” He studied the pouch, squeezing it curiously. “Probably just hobo blood anyway. Which makes this even dumber.”
He carefully popped the top off of the pouch and sniffed at the opening. “Just do it,” he ordered himself. “Ugh.” Before he could change his mind, he put the opening to his lips and squeezed the blood into his mouth. Taq instantly coughed in disgust, splattering a few droplets on his hand. He held the rest in his mouth and with great effort forced himself to swallow. Throwing the pouch on the ground, he grabbed a cherry fizz out of his fridge and chased down the blood.
For a minute, Taq stood waiting for something to happen. He started to feel light-headed and then it simply passed. “Hobo blood.” He stood in front of the screen and started following the shapes on the screen as they morphed and floated around like an old-world screensaver. Taq advanced the game to multiple shapes meant to be followed simultaneously. This required the viewer to stare more in the center and follow the movements through peripheral vision. Taq found this easy and adjusted the speed at which the objects moved. He was usually fatigued with a mild headache long before progressing to this point.
The mage heard a knock at his door. “Screen off,” he commanded. It went blank. In a semi-trance from his exercise, he flicked his hand forward and the door opened. The face at the door shook away his Zen; it was Tamra. She looked down at her chest and then at the door, seemingly forgetting why she was there. Tamra’s expression reverted to annoyance and she stormed inside the dorm room and to within two feet of Taq.