by Adam Thielen
Taq used most of his reserves to buy a room at the Clear Creek. The Pinkerton was his only lead, but a straightforward conversation might not be enough.
* * *
“Ask for something else,” she told him.
“A seat on the council then,” Matthias said, utilizing his best poker face.
“You don’t even want that.” It didn’t work.
“How could you tell?”
“I wasn’t guessing, I was telling you: You don’t want that headache,” she quipped. Her smile had grown and even looked genuine, and then it was gone. “After all that’s transpired, how can you think this is even a good idea?”
Matthias felt instantly intimidated. The question seemed so obvious, yet he had not asked it of himself. “This is a favor,” he started. “Not my idea, but somehow I thought he deserved his freedom after, you know, saving the world, so I went along with it.”
“It’s that neuro isn’t it?” she referred to Kate. “Lovebirds?” She smiled again.
“Honestly, I don’t think that’s it.”
“The council owes you and your team a debt of gratitude, but this is too much.”
Matthias felt a sinking feeling.
“These people are so fragile,” her eyes motioned in a wide arc around the room. “Sometimes I just watch them walk around expecting them to break and fall. This arrogance is somehow forced upon me. I cannot shake it, yet I know it is very dangerous. I know these people are very dangerous. That mage is very dangerous.”
Ms. Koch continued, “However, perhaps the council will approve a requisitioning of a very useful mage.”
“Early corp transfer?” he asked.
“He wouldn’t exactly be free, but freer. Plus, there’s a precedent. Unlike simply demanding a university let loose a potential fiend vessel,” she explained.
“Ms. Koch, I appreciate this,” Matthias breathed a sigh of relief.
“Unfortunately for you, he would be your responsibility. And you will need to do some work for me.”
Matthias was starting to regret this dinner. “I already work for you.”
“You work for the council,” she corrected. “Now you also work for me.” She reached her hand across the table, gently placing it on his. “You’ll be paid, and I think you’ll find it interesting.”
The waiter arrived too late to save Matthias. He was already ensnared.
* * *
“Kate.” It was the first word she heard as she came to. She forced her eyes open, and then the memory of what she had done came flooding back. She was on her back, looking up at a bright light. Her eyes felt heavy and she could not move. Kate felt no restraints, yet she was completely paralyzed.
“Kate.” A man’s voice. The acoustics told her it was a small room, likely cement walls. They had taken her underground. A face appeared above her. His mustache was thick and dark. The lines on his face told her that he was in his fifties, or at least his skin was. He smiled when he saw she was awake.
It then turned to a scowl. The man clamped down on her throat with one hand, leaned down and yelled, “Who did you message?!” He let up so she could gasp air.
Kate lay silent. Her interrogator repeated this process twice more before she responded, “No one. I didn’t message anyone.”
“Yes, you did. What files did you steal?”
Kate closed her eyes, forcing the tears down her cheek. “V-cred keys.”
“The more you waste my time,” he replied. “The more extreme my tactics will become. There are no V-cred pools accessible from that workstation, and even if there were they would be encrypted.”
“It’s got a cell drive isolated from the network,” she told him. “I can crack them.”
The man lifted a ball-peen hammer above Kate’s face so she could see it clearly, then slammed it down onto her hand. Her body twitched, the most motion it had made since awakening. She screamed a volume she did not know she was capable of. The man stood there, watching her indifferently. He motioned to another man, said something too quiet to hear over her cries, and the other man left her sight. Kate heard a door open and close.
Kate was still crying when the man put his hand over her mouth. “One more chance to tell me who you sent a message to.”
* * *
Taq carefully cased Winston the Pinkerton’s room. He had knocked on the door earlier and received no response. When no one had shown up in the hallway for several minutes, he decided to try the door. It was locked, using what appeared to be an ancient operating system involving a round metal ball sticking out of the wood. He figured it must involve some sort of physical latch. Taq had not tried using magic in this world, but he needed it now. He put his hand on the knob and closed his eyes, trying to picture the latch in his mind. Instead, an image of Kate screaming appeared and was gone just as quickly. He let go and stepped back.
Taq’s eyes refused to focus. He leaned against the wall and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. When his vision cleared, he saw that the door was now unlocked. Pushing it open, he hurried inside. The room was barren. It had a bed, neatly made. It had a basin. It had a small desk. It looked as though it had not been rented at all, except for a small briefcase on the desk.
Taq sat at the desk and opened it up. Inside were several five-by-sevens of Kate. It was just her face, in various pained expressions. “The fuck is this,” he muttered, flipping through each one. The last picture wasn’t of her face. It was a pixelated message that simply said, “Grapeseed has me, help.”
“What the hell are you doing in my room?” Taq looked up at the man standing in the doorway. He had a thick mustache, large cheeks and black hair that was combed back and rested on his shoulders. He had drawn a gun and was already pointing it at Taq. Taq looked back down at the papers in his hand. They were no longer pictures, but some sort of documents.
“Clearly,” Taq said. “I’m rifling through your shit.” He leaned down in the chair, holding his forehead.
“Hey, look up at me,” the man said. “Give me a good reason not to put a hole in you.”
“Are you Winston the Pinkerton?” Taq asked, looking up.
“I’m Winston, but you don’t need to know more than that.”
“I am looking for a killer. I was told you both are part of some agency.” explained Taq.
“You’re a loon!” Winston exclaimed. “You could have gotten out of town, but you chose this? If they even think you are stirring shit up, you’re a dead man.”
“Do you know what he did?”
“I know you are lucky to be above snakes,” the man scoffed. “What the hell are you thinking?”
“He killed an unarmed woman and left me for dead.”
“Not the way I heard it,” Winston claimed. “Still… nasty business. You have my sympathy, now put down my shit and get up.”
Taq stood, sliding the chair back with his calves. “You’re no better than him.”
Winston hit Taq in the forehead with the butt of his revolver.
“Ow!” cried Taq, flinching away from Winston.
“Fuck you, I didn’t murder nobody!” he indignantly yelled, pointing the gun at Taq again.
“You are threatening to kill me!” exclaimed Taq, holding his forehead.
“That’s not murder; you broke in,” corrected Winston. “Train up ‘n move, ‘fore I kill you in self-defense.”
Taq stepped into the hall. “Do you give a shit about anyone? What would you do?”
“If someone killed my woman or shot me? There’s not a place on this Earth that cocksucker could hide,” he proclaimed.
“Then help me.”
“He’s agency. Even if I wanted to, agency’s all the caboose around here. Some of them guys is painted cats, but some of them have scruples.”
“I have no idea what that means,” said Taq.
“I wouldn’t lose sleep if that rip did the Texas cakewalk, but I can’t risk my neck over it.”
Taq stopped. “This is my life now,” he said
, feeling a deep connection with his host. “Vengeance is all I have now. No one knows I’m here. Just give me a name and point me in a direction.”
Winston looked past Taq, then turned his head around to check behind him. “The man who did you, what’s his mug?”
Taq squinted, slowly parsing the man’s syntax “He had a goatee, thin face, black hat.”
“Had to be sure. Yeah, that’s Tom Morrison. He’d be an owl hoot if not for the oil. Lives up in Tulsa. Travels around stealing land. Now you and me are done. Keep it dry or I’ll finish what he started.”
Taq stared at him blankly. Winston shooed him down the hall with the barrel of his gun. Taq nodded. “Thank you.” He turned and walked down the hall and heard the door shut behind him. He stopped and leaned against the wall, losing his sense of balance. He squeezed his eyelids shut as his legs began to give. Taq slid down the wall and put his head between his knees.
The spinning slowed and he felt a presence with him and knew it was Drew. “We can do this,” he thought. Taq lifted himself up. His arms pushed him off the wall. Taq’s legs moved him down the hall. His body was walking, but it felt more like he was being carried.
“Drew,” he said. “I need answers. Where is this going?” Taq quieted his thoughts, hoping to hear or feel a response. There was only silence and calm as he crept down a flight of stairs. “Tulsa,” Taq said aloud. His vision began to blur and he felt consciousness slip away.
* * *
Tamra hurried down the hallway. It was almost midnight when the president had called her merely as a courtesy. “They can do that? Does he have any choice? Who are they sending?” As expected, when she reached Taq’s room, both Sellik and Robert were asleep. Tamra wanted more seasoned officers to stand watch, but the MESS council wouldn’t approve it. They didn’t think Taq needed any sort of protection, but they couldn’t stop her from wasting her own subordinates’ time.
She swiped her hands down her uniform, paranoid of any creases obscuring her new bars. The council was forced to make her a lieutenant. Tamra had more experience dealing with mage threats than most officers, and if that weren’t enough, Noxcorp insisted on a promotion in recognition of her assistance. Her reward came in the form of even more invasive implants. Sensors were attached to her polonium and calibrated receptors grafted onto her eyes. There was no cosmetic effect, but when activated, it would allow her to see the presence of ether within the physical world. A mage detector more or less.
At the sound of her footsteps, Sellik opened his eyes. Upon seeing Tamra he snorted loudly and scrambled upright. Robert was undisturbed. Tamra cocked her head to the side. “Crikes.”
“Apologies, sir,” Sellik stood up to meet her.
“Do you like your job?” she asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, sir,” he confirmed.
“Do you like it because you get extra time to read and sleep?” she probed.
“I did not enjoy the sleep.”
“You looked like you were enjoying it,” she replied.
“I’m sorry sir, I swear—”
Tamra raised her voice. “Next time I ask you to do a job, you will sleep only when I tell you to sleep!”
Robert woke, jumped up, and knocked his chair over. He stood stiffly at attention with his arms down and chest puffed out.
Tamra continued without missing a beat. “From now on you, both of you, are on notice. You will be model officers, understood?”
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.
Tamra turned to the door and reached out her hand to knock. It opened before she got the chance. Taq stood there, shaking. He had only his underwear on. “Taq?”
“They took her.”
“What? Who?” Tamra looked away, then back at her insubordinates, who had raised eyebrows, but otherwise had not moved an inch. She waved Taq inside his room and followed, closing the door behind her.
“Kate. She’s in some sort of trouble,” Taq explained.
“Kate,” repeated Tamra. It took her a moment to remember the person she had always referred to as ‘the neuro’.
Taq put his hand on her arm. “Something is going on. I already knew before I woke up.”
“How do you know now?” She noticed a gleam of sweat on his body. He had become thinner in the two weeks since they took down the fiend..
“This,” he said, pointing the com at the wall to show her the brief message he had first seen in his dream world. He handed it to Tamra and grabbed a shirt off the floor. She set it on his desk.
“I don’t get it,” she said. “Why would they have her, and why would she message you?”
Taq ignored her, pulling a pair of charcoal pants out of a drawer. Tamra’s hand instinctively moved to her chest. A faint blue glow emanated from her polonium implants. They looked at each other in surprise.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know why that keeps happening,” he said.
“Why what keeps happening?”
“I’m not casting, but I can feel the ether flowing through me, outside of my control,” explained Taq.
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. I need to sit.”
Tamra nodded as he went to his bed. “I thought for a second—” she trailed off.
“I haven’t been the same since the thing. Something is wrong,” he said. He stood again and put on his boots. Taq looked up at Tamra, “You come just to check on me?”
“No, Taq,” she sighed. “Noxcorp has requested that we transfer you to their employment, and the university accepted.” She looked at the floor.
“You mean custody.” Taq kept dressing.
“Taq, I didn’t want this, but I will have access to any monitoring they use on you. I’ll make sure they treat you alright,” she said.
“I have to escape. Now,” he said flatly.
“You can’t, Taq.”
“We have to try to help Kate,” he shot back.
“We?”
“Yes, how else am I going to get out of here?” Taq sat on the bed again. “Whatever motives Noxcorp has, you can’t do anything about it after the transfer.”
“I can’t help you, period,” she tried to correct. “The transfer is tomorrow. I just wanted to—”
“Wait, just wait,” Taq pleaded. “You can escort me tonight. Just tonight and we’ll be back in time to sell me off.”
Tamra started to protest. With her mouth open, she was again distracted by the blue glow of her polonium. She looked up at Taq. He was already rushing toward her with his head down. He grabbed Tamra around the waist before she could react, pushing her violently toward the door. It swung open to reveal Sellik and Robert still standing there.
Taq and Tamra flew through the doorway, pushing between the surprised guards and falling onto the ground in the hallway. Before they landed, a sharp snapping sound filled the entire building. All four now had ringing ears and blurry vision from the magical equivalent of a flash-bang grenade.
Immediately the campus alarm began to sound. Tamra rolled Taq off of her and clear of the doorway. Robert flew backward as a red mist erupted from his chest and back. Sellik caught a bullet in the shoulder as he moved clear of the doorway. He pulled his gun and fired two rounds blindly toward the shattered window of Taq’s room.
Tamra pulled her gun and looked expectantly at Taq.
He yelled, “Something’s wrong,” he pointed toward his head.
Tamra knew they couldn’t fight off an unseen enemy from a narrow hallway even with working magic. “We need to move!”
Sellik looked at Robert, unable to discern if he was still breathing. Peeking around the corner of the door, he saw shadowy figures moving outside the window. “I’ll buy you a minute, then head the other direction.”
Tamra nodded. She pulled Taq up and they started toward the stairwell. Each had to place a hand on the wall, still disoriented from the magical assault. Their progress was slow. When they reached the stairwell, Tamra loo
ked toward the exit then toward the stairs.
“We can’t risk walking right into them. Let’s go,” she pointed up.
Several gunshots rang out. Tamra recognized the sound as a MESS issued handgun. With her hand firmly on the handrail, she ascended to the second floor.
“Get me to a window,” Taq said. “On the same side as my room.”
The doors were all locked due to the alarm. Most of the rooms were vacant, but several mages were now trapped and waiting to see what was happening. There had never been an alarm drill, and there had never been an attack on the academy.
“Regis is in 207,” Taq started. “He can help.”
“I can’t put anyone else at risk, Taq,” she replied as she unlocked one of the vacant rooms. She closed it behind them. They both ducked down low and moved toward the window.
“Everyone here is at risk,” said Taq, peeking outside.
Tamra peered out as well. It looked like a half dozen armed men and three vehicles were moving about. Two were taking cover behind one of the vehicles. One of them produced a large grenade launcher. He looked toward one of the other men who nodded back. A grenade flew from the shaft and a split second later the entire building shook with the force of its explosion. Every window in the building blew apart. Thunder roared through Taq’s ears. His room and all his possessions, right below him, had been obliterated. Somehow the floor held.
Tamra focused. She knew they would move soon. Once inside the building the two of them would lose any advantage they had from the window. She looked at Taq, who was now on his back, shaken from the blast.
“Can you slow them down? We need time.”
“They have at least one mage. They probably have someone with polonium too,” Taq said. He shook his head. “This is going to hurt.”
Taq stared out the window and spread his arms, pointing the palms toward the men below. He grunted as his face turned red and sweat began to bead on his forehead. In his mind he imagined the dirt moistening, softening, enveloping. Taq’s will pulled ether into the world where the men stood and shaped it into an effect on the ground.