by M. R. Forbes
I turned away from him and started down the hall. One. Two. Three. Four.
“Hey, Baron,” the trogre said.
I knew it.
I turned back.
“What about these other doors?” he asked. “You’re just going to leave them in there?”
“I came here for me. Not for you. Not for them.”
“I saved your life.”
“And I saved yours. We’re even.”
He didn’t look thrilled at the idea of abandoning the others. Probably because he knew what they had gone through.
“One door. Please.”
“You’re strong, why don’t you open it?”
“I couldn’t open mine from the inside. What makes you think I can open these?”
I stared at him again. He was pleading with his eyes. It seemed kind of pathetic for something as large and frightening as he was.
I checked my watch. I was already behind schedule. And where the hell was Prithi, anyway?
“Prithi,” I said.
She should have been able to listen in to everything after the user had died. I waited five seconds.
“Prithi,” I repeated, getting angry.
“I’m here, Conor,” Prithi finally answered.
“Where have you been?”
“Sorry, I had to pee. I figured since you were cut off, it was a good time.”
“Are you kidding me? I could have been dead.”
“Yeah, right. That’s like the boy who cried wolf. Besides, what would you expect me to do about it if you were? You’re in Boston; I’m in Vegas.”
“You could at least care a little bit.”
“Stop whining. It doesn’t suit you. What do you need?”
I made a face at the trogre, realizing I hadn’t asked him his name yet. He looked confused.
“I’m running behind schedule. Are you keeping an eye on the wire for me?”
“Myra is.” A few seconds of silence followed. “She says you’re all clear. No alarms, no alerts.”
“I hired you to help me with this job, not your girlfriend.”
“She’s just as good as I am.”
Every once in awhile, I could hear Amos’ voice in my head making some smart ass remark. This was one of those times.
“I’m heading over to the room. Daisy’s already inside.”
“Got it. I’ve got you on visual. Wave to the camera.”
I glanced up at the camera in the corner and gave it the finger.
“Oh, come on, Conor. That’s just rude. Who’s big, bad, and ugly, by the way?”
“Long story. He’s not a threat.”
“Lucky for you. He’s huge.”
“Ping me if I’m about to be in trouble.”
“Will do.”
“You. Not Myra.”
She sighed. “Fine, Conor.”
I shifted my attention to the other doors. The delay was giving me too much time to grow a conscience.
“I’ll open one,” I said. “If it’s empty, I’m gone.”
He smiled. “Deal.”
“What’s your name?”
“Frank Dobson.”
“Thanks for the assist, Frank.”
“Thank you, Baron.”
I approached the nearest sealed door, putting my hand to it one more time. The lock rusted beneath my touch, and I pushed the door open.
I don’t know if I was happy it was empty or not. Given more breathing room, I was starting to enjoy the thought of letting all of Mr. Black’s subjects go and making a mess of his efforts. He couldn’t find me as long as I was wearing the ring. At least not through his magic. That didn’t prevent him from using more natural means of detection, like a kill team. So far, I hadn’t pushed hard enough to force that issue. It was probably a good idea to keep it that way.
“You may be the only survivor,” I said.
Frank looked saddened by the thought. “How do you do that, anyway? I’ve seen some magic before, but not like yours.”
“I’m a necromancer,” I said, as if that was the answer to everything.
“Never heard of it.”
“Do you know how magic works? The geomagnetic shift and the frequencies?”
“Not really. I worked in fast food before I got arrested.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. I was innocent. They charged me with grand theft auto.”
“You’re a car thief?” I asked, ignoring the “innocent” remark.
He smiled. “I was. I don’t think I’ll fit into a car anymore.”
“Maybe not a Smart.” I looked him over. I had seen ogres that were bigger. They didn’t make cars for extra-large people though. There weren’t enough of them to justify the cost. At least, not yet. “I think you’d be able to squeeze into a van, or a custom.”
He wasn’t satisfied by my answer. I shrugged.
“Necromancers control death magic, which is pretty much what it sounds like. The trick is that you have to be dying to use it. I’ve got terminal cancer, and the only thing that keeps me alive are the injections Mr. Black was using to make you into a monster.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear you’re sick, pal. Hey, you keep saying Mr. Black. Is that the name of the guy who owns this place?”
“Yeah.”
He was still and silent. He stayed that way for long enough that I turned to leave again.
“Hey, Baron,” he said, once I started moving.
I sighed and turned around.
“Do you think I could come with you?”
I should have known.
“Why do you want to come with me?”
“I’ve been in here for three years. In prison five years before that. It’s been awhile since I’ve been free. I’m a little scared.”
“You’re scared? You’re twelve feet tall, and in case you hadn’t noticed, those gunshot wounds you took? They already healed.”
He looked down at himself. The bullets had opened some of the pustules on his body, which had drained their milky liquid into the wounds and closed them up quick and easy. Being a troll was great that way, and only that way.
“Wow,” he said. “Still, I’d like to come with you. Just for now. If you help me get some clothes and someplace to stay for the night, I’ll pay you back.”
“You don’t have anything that I need.”
“What about the juice?” he asked, touching one of the pustules. “I know this stuff is worth a lot of money on the black market.”
It was tempting. I never used the stuff because of how it was usually obtained. “No.”
“Please? Eight years, man.”
“You seem like a nice guy, Frank. That’s the problem right there. I’m not a nice guy, and the ocean I swim in is filled with other not nice guys, gals, and other things that you probably don’t want to know about. I didn’t come here to find a charity case. I’m enough of a charity case on my own.”
He took what I said, maintaining that same, slightly sad puppy expression. He held it for few seconds. I could hear my watch ticking in my head. This was getting out of hand, but as long as Prithi didn’t throw the alarm, I figured I was okay.
“I need to be able to kill, right?” he asked.
“It helps.”
He pointed back at the corpses on the floor behind us. “Been there. Done that. Come on, pal. There has to be some way you can use me. I’ve been through hell in here, and it’s obvious you don’t care much for the guy who did this to me. I’d do whatever you wanted for a chance to get my hands on his neck.”
Like he would ever get close enough to Mr. Black to touch him. It wasn’t like I could, either.
I was wasting too much time standing here. If he wanted to tag along, whatever. I needed to get the meds, get Daisy, and get out.
“Fine. Come on.”
He smiled, his whole demeanor brightening. “You aren’t going to regret it.”
I didn’t reply. I didn’t regret it. Not yet. In fact, I got the feeling I had made a go
od decision for once.
4
Pushing Daisies
We made our way back the direction I had come, bypassing the deserted lobby and heading toward where Daisy was waiting. I was too big to fit into the ventilation shaft that led from the outer corridor to the interior of the hazardous materials storage room. So were any other adults I might have found. Dwarves were short enough but too wide, and animals couldn’t open doors. That was why I had used a kid. Otherwise, I was against the idea. Mainly, it reminded me too much of my daughter, Molly. Secondary to that, they were a pain in the ass to get to do much of anything. The undeveloped mind was even harder to manage when the soul had already fled it once.
“So, you came to steal some medicine?” Frank asked. He was lumbering behind me, taking one step for every three of mine.
“Yeah. You don’t seem to know anything about anything, so I’ll keep it simple. My magic only works because I’m dying. Except, I’m not too hot on the whole idea of death. The stuff they were injecting you with to turn you into, well, you, is the same stuff that keeps my cancer at a standstill. Mr. Black, he’s the asshole responsible for you being here, has the last remaining supply chain of the stuff that I know about.”
I thought about telling him that this wasn’t the only facility that Prithi had helped me locate. There were at least a half-dozen more sprinkled around the globe. This one had just happened to be the easiest target.
“It can’t be the same thing, though, can it? I mean, they’ve been working on it. Refining it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be some kind of troll-ogre thing.”
“Trogre,” I said.
He huffed. “As good as anything else, I guess. I wouldn’t be a trogre. I would have gone total monster, and then I would have died.”
I couldn’t argue his logic. If the meds were different - a different formulation, a different active ingredient, whatever - there was no way to know for sure that they would help me. I was just as likely to go trogre as he had.
The idea of it would have given me pause, but I could count my options on my middle finger. Damned if I did. Damned if I didn’t. I had put myself in this position by not going quietly when Death had wanted me to.
I glanced down at the ring. Screw Death.
We reached the other side of the facility. The intel Prithi had gathered from the Machine had suggested the place was lightly guarded, at least in number. Atmospherics were pretty badass users, having some of the combined abilities of pyros, aquamancers, and others, and didn’t need a lot of backup. I was pretty sure we had taken out all of the on-site defense. Of course, being chased meant the alarm had been flipped, which meant a replacement crew would be en route. I was only waiting for the word to come down from my Operator that the cavalry was on the way.
My tether to Daisy had grown much stronger as we moved closer to her, and by the time I was standing on the opposite side of the secured room my current condition left me almost able to hear her soul’s chaotic swirl of thoughts as it endlessly tried to make sense of its current predicament. I didn’t know if there was a Heaven or a Hell. I didn’t know if good people got peace and bad people were tortured. That was the biggest source of my fear, after all. What I had discovered more recently was that souls didn’t like being returned to their mortal shell. It was a jarring experience for them, like locking an animal in a cage.
“You wanted to help?” I asked.
Frank nodded. “Yeah, pal.”
“Keep a lookout for me.”
“Going somewhere?”
“You could say that.”
I closed my eyes, letting the magic connect me more directly to Daisy. That was the third benefit to children that I had discovered. Their more raw state of being left them closer to the animals I had always been able to remote control. My enhanced abilities covered the rest of the distance.
Daisy’s vision was a little bit blurry. She had worn glasses during her short life. I turned her head like she was a marionette on a string. I was in the storage room. The wall was lined with refrigerators, the center with rows of shelves. I scanned them, trying to make out the labels on the boxes lined along those shelves. I would have gotten her glasses if I had thought she could climb through the shaft without losing them.
Instead, I had to direct her a little closer, making her climb some of the shelves to get to the right height, putting her eyes only inches from the tags. Prithi had told me the stuff would be labeled Xenoxofril. It was a made up name for an experimental, non-FDA sanctioned drug. They had to call it something.
I spent a couple of minutes pushing Daisy around in search of it. Then I let her go, returning to my body to check with Prithi and make sure I was still clear. When she said I was, I returned to the work. Meanwhile, Frank stood there and looked menacing.
Ten more minutes passed. I exhausted the shelves and turned to the fridges. I had never had to refrigerate my meds, but if Frank was right and the chemical composition had evolved, maybe the need to keep it cool had too. I guided Daisy to the front of one of the large fridges, taking hold of the handle in her small grip and pulling.
It didn’t open. I sent more magic into her, giving her more power to pull with. She was stronger than an average nine-year-old girl, her dead muscles having no concept of limits. She pulled again. It still didn’t open.
Even dead, she just wasn’t strong enough.
I started moving her back to the door. I had been trying to avoid opening it because it was a complex lock, even from the inside. It was one I knew how to overcome, but it was going to take time. It would take even more time from the inside with a child's fingers. This whole run was suddenly turning into a disaster.
I pushed myself out, back into my body, opening my eyes to the feeling of being shaken, and Prithi screaming in my ear.
“Conor! Conor! Get out. Get out, now.”
5
Morally Compromised
“Baron?” Frank was saying, shaking me as lightly as he could. “Come on, boss. Snap out of it.”
I looked down the hallway, in the direction of the lobby. The cavalry hadn’t made it just yet.
“Prithi,” I said. “What do we have?”
“There you are. Geez, Conor. Assault team, half a dozen. They just pulled up in an armored van. You have about a minute to get out.”
“I don’t have the meds.”
“Leave them and get out.”
“I’m dead without them.”
“You’re going to be dead in a minute anyway. Conor-” She paused.
“What?” I asked. “Spit it out.”
“Amos is with them.”
I felt the wrenching anger of the news twist my gut into a knot. The last time I had seen him, he had told me he was going to go groveling back to Mr. Black, to help him in his quest to get rid of the new humans and reverse the reversal. I knew he was out there somewhere. I didn’t expect that we might run into one another so soon.
It meant that Black knew I was here. It would have been a sign of weakness for him to come personally, and he wasn’t going to give me the satisfaction of letting me know my existence was more than a piddling bother to him, like a gnat on a horse’s ass. So instead, he sent the one person who could get under my skin in a hurry. He probably even teleported him over just for the occasion.
There was no time left to worry about it.
“Frank, I need to get into that room,” I said.
“Why don’t you fizzle the locks like you did before?”
“They’re too thick. I can weaken them. I can’t punch through.”
He smiled, lifting his hulking trogre arms. “Got it.”
I moved to the door, putting my hand on it and speaking the incantation. I had always known words were useful for channeling magic. Tarakona’s gift had taught me that the words mattered sometimes.
The lock began to decay. It was composed of a series of six-inch diameter titanium tubes that crossed into a heavily reinforced bracket. Ten seconds only got me through two of the tubes.
>
“It has to be enough,” I said, backing away.
“Conor, they’re in the lobby,” Prithi said.
Frank stepped forward. I reached out to Daisy, moving her out of the way. I wasn’t done with her just yet.
He threw his entire body into the shove, roaring as he did like he was the Incredible Hulk. His muscles flexed, and the door exploded, tearing away from the remaining beams and flying backward into the room. It crashed through the shelves of medicines, knocking them over in a satisfying cacophony of destruction.
I slipped in past him and went to the fridges, pulling each door open, using all of my strength to do it. I barely noticed Daisy, standing near the now open door to the left.
My eyes passed quickly over the labels until they landed on Xenoxofril. I picked up the box and slid it open. Sixteen doses. It was a jackpot for me. Enough to survive almost another year before I would need more. I shoved the box into my trench pocket, lifting the dice out with my hand.
“What the hell?” I heard Frank say.
I turned to see what he was talking about.
He was staring at Daisy. His leathery-gray face was losing some of its color.
“Necromancer,” he said. “I get it now. Death.” He looked at me. “You used a kid?”
“I had to,” I said. “We don’t have time to talk about it now.”
“This is sick. Did you put her in that outfit?”
She was wearing a black bodysuit and swimming cap. Her slightly decomposed face was the only thing exposed.
“They didn’t bury her like that,” I replied. “Let’s go.”
“What else do you do with them?” he asked.
He thought I was a pervert? “I use them to help me make my runs. That’s it.”
“The dead should stay dead.”
“And humans should stay human. Mr. Black doesn’t give a shit about the natural order. Why the hell should I? Let’s go.”
“Conor, you’re going to be in range in about ten seconds,” Prithi said. “There’s an emergency out to the south.”