by K. A. Lange
It dawned on me then that he was afraid Gullveig might be able to spy on us through Nicholas. “And?”
Mir shook his head sadly. “Her code is so corrupted that she isn’t even on the same wavelength as we are.”
“But she will have similar abilities won’t she?” Nicholas asked.
“Yes she will.” Mir continued to look pensive as he lost himself in thought.
“How did attacking us ensure she couldn’t hear us?” Kira stalked across the room toward Mir.
“The two things had nothing to do with one another. I was sure she wasn’t on our network with a simple diagnostic.” Mir responded absently. “The ‘attack’ as you call it was to test your abilities.”
Catching up with Kira I placed my hand on her shoulder as I guided her back to her chair and gestured for Nicholas to join her. Giving Mir another minute before I interrupted his thoughts I finally asked, “You seem to have something on your mind, care to share it with the class?”
Mir looked at the three of us for a few seconds as he thought about my request. “No.. no I don’t having anything solid yet but give me a day or two and I might have something then.”
He continued to pace the room, lost in thought and leaving us to wonder what was supposed to happen next. “Could you at least give them a crash course in what to expect?” I asked.
Mir was obviously irritated by our continued interruptions but reluctantly gave in. He flooded our minds with images and information like he had done with me before vanishing back to the aether. The two of them sat there quietly as their minds wrapped around the information. Another set of tears streamed down my daughters face as she began to realize who I really was.
She looked at me sadly as she closed the distance between us, hugging me tightly. “I didn’t understand, but now I do.” Nicholas was on his feet with tears in his eyes as he held a hand out. She looked at him and nodded as they seemed to convey something telepathically as she hugged me tighter.
Shaking Nicholas’s hand I looked down at my daughter as I grew concerned about their reaction to what they had learned. “What’s wrong with you two?”
“Nothing’s wrong with us!” Kira pushed herself off me.
“He didn’t share the information with him that he shared with us, is all I can guess.” Nicholas spoke mystified.
Nothing like being left out of whatever was going on yet being the center of attention to quickly piss you off. “What the hell are you two going on about?”
Kira looked as if she were suddenly burdened with more than she could handle as she tried to explain what Mir had shared with them. He had not only given them a crash course in nanotechnology but felt a need to share my entire life story with them. Apparently they had found my life compelling as she spoke of the highs and lows of what I’d been through.
The worst fate to befall a parent was forced upon me today as my daughter’s opinion of me forever changed. When she was given the knowledge of what I had done during my life she would never look at me the same way again. Whatever innocence I hadn’t already robbed her of earlier Mir had crushed under the weight of a lifetime of hard choices, loneliness and the will to survive at any cost.
Chapter 27
December 4th
Waking with a start on the sofa in my new office I felt better than I had in a long time. I checked the wounds on my chest to observe that they had closed on their own accord. The nanites it would seem had taken the liberty of cutting the stitches free as they fell away at the slightest touch. Tossing the bandages in the trash as I passed my desk I headed to my private bath. To my surprise someone had left a change of cloths on the counter along with travel size toiletries to get me through till I could buy proper bath supplies. After a quick shower I was hopefully ready for whatever the day held for me.
Opening the door to the office I found Mir sitting on the couch shoulders slumped with his head hung low. Part of me was still angry with him. Correction. Not angry but hurt and wounded by what he had done yesterday. A part me knew that it was necessary even though it caused me pain. Trying to keep my voice even I greeted him as cheerfully as I could.
“Good morning.” Strolling past my desk to the little kitchenette I grabbed a bottle of water.
“We should talk...” His voice was weak and shaky as he stood and faced me. “I found Smith for you.”
Something told me he was dodging the heart of the matter but finding Smith was higher on my priority list than throwing a temper tantrum. “Was that all you wanted to talk about?”
“Yes... and no, but for now we should concentrate on the problem at hand which are Smith and his mistress Gullveig.” He stepped around the chair in front of the desk and appeared to take a seat. “The other can wait till we have more time to sift through things.”
As in nearly turning me into a villainous monster in my daughters eyes I thought?! ‘Yep still pretty pissed off about that, but he was right about needing to shelve it at least for now. After this mess was all tied up we were going to hash some shit out and set some ground rules!’ “Where can I find the pencil dick?”
“I was able to track him to the abandoned theme park in New Orleans East, but we should talk about what makes him dangerous.” Now was a great time for him to suddenly become concerned with my safety and general wellbeing. “The bones that were implanted in Helena, George, Galvez and Smith imbued them with muted abilities similar to your own.”
“Muted?” How could their abilities be muted? They either had them or they didn’t! I thought. Of course I didn’t open my big mouth and say that, but as it turned out I didn’t have to sine Mir was reading my thoughts. This was going to be very uncomfortable if I weren’t able to have a private thought ever again.
Mir gave up trying to communicate verbally and entered my thoughts flooding my mind with the knowledge of what he was trying to convey. During the time that Helena, Creepy George, Galvez and Smith each had held a piece of Gullveig’s cane they were gifted with certain abilities which left them at the time of their death or removal of the foreign object. Mir theorized that when the bones were removed they most probably would have died without the extra help that the nanites had provided. Their bodies would have become reliant upon the nanites to function. While each of them developed a unique set of abilities as a direct result of the symbiotic relationship with the nanites they were hardly comparable to a fully functional model such as myself, Kira, Nicholas or even our good buddy Gullveig.
For instance Creepy George had developed extraordinary strength and agility as a direct result of the nanites. On the flip side he had been unable to create shields of any type or even manipulate the elements into any sort of viable threat. That explained quite a lot considering how easily he had thrown me around during our encounter. While it had hurt my pride at the time I had otherwise been unharmed.
Thanks to Nicholas Mir was able to use a sophisticated scanner to zero in on the frequency emitted by the nanites contained within Nicholas, the cane and even Smith. There was a bit of good news to go along with all the creepiness. The mysterious fifth member of the cult was in Mir’s words ‘offline’, which was a very nice way of saying terminated, dead, worm meat... Sorry got a little carried away there for a moment. It did put the odds more in our favor than I’d dared hope. He didn’t know for how long he’d been ‘offline’ but I didn’t care. It didn’t change the fact that he was no longer in the picture or a threat, which meant that when we faced them there wouldn’t be any sudden arrival to save the day on their behalf. One way or another when Smith and Gullveig were put down this whole nasty little scenario would be finally put to rest.
Mir released me suddenly from our psychic connection and stood there before me with a troubled look on his face. “There’s more to it than that.” Mir confessed.
Son of a bitch! One day I was going to learn to stop thinking in such absolutes! Just when I thought there was going to be an end to this crap I had a feeling that Mir was about to disappoint me. “Like what?”
“While there are only two entities emitting on that particular frequency I found another frequency, corrupted as it may be, a few miles away from their location..” Mir looked more and more confused as he spoke. “It’s a weak signal but there are thousands of them!” Fear gripped him as he suddenly looked weary. “They don’t seem strong enough currently to be a threat but there’s something about them I find familiar. I just can’t place it.”
Seeing that look on his face tied knots in my stomach, making me highly uneasy. “Is it something I should be concerned with while hunting down these two?”
He stomped across the office as he threw his hands up irritated. “I just don’t know for sure.” He growled as he turned around with equal amounts of anger and fear mixed across his face. “If I could only find the memory I could tell you with more assurance but since I can’t I ask that you proceed with caution.”
Falling back into my chair I let out a huff as I considered this new wrinkle. “Do what you can to keep an eye on whatever ‘they’ may be. For now let’s focus on dealing with Smith and his mistress.”
According to the readings that Mir compiled Smith was emitting up as a very strong signal implied that he most likely had at least two implants. This meant that he would be blessed with double the abilities of his little creepy buddies. Boy was my day shaping up nicely! We surmised it was Smith who created the firestorm that took the lives of several people during our raid on the compound twenty years ago. He was clever, powerful and nursed a pretty big hatred of all things me! Mir was able to track his movements over the last twelve hours and noticed that he patrolled the perimeter every two hours while Gullveig stayed back in one of the dilapidated administrative buildings. My best bet was to catch him alone on the far side of the park during one of his regular patrols.
About an hour later I gave Gregory a call and gave him the scoop as we quickly finalized the plan. Getting up to grab my gear I quickly remembered that it was mostly burned up or buried in my old office. Over the years I had grown to dislike fire! While it purified an area it was one of the more destructive elements, destroying a part of your soul as it took your home. Guess it was a good thing that I wasn’t sure someone like me even had a soul after all the things I’d done in my life.
Grabbing my coat I headed for the stairs taking them two at a time. According to the records Mir provided, we had an armory on the main floor in the restricted sector. Hitting the last step I opened the heavy metal door only to be greeted by Justine who stood there waiting for me.
“You do realize there are stalking laws these days right?” Her smile was breathtaking. Hell even at my advanced age I can appreciate beauty when I see it. For the record after the first hundred years of celibacy you get over the whole age difference debacle that your mind gets caught up in. Normally I had a rule about dating anyone under thirty five but there are always exceptions.
Giving me a sly wink as she seemed to know what I was thinking she looped her arm in mine as she guided me across the lobby. “You spent the night in your office didn’t you?” It was a rhetorical question as she already knew the answer. “Look, you can go to the armory in a minute. First you will join me for breakfast, it's the least you could do.”
Okay that’s just creepy. How the fuck did she know where I was headed? Then it hit me and I stopped short causing her to nearly trip. “Least I could do?”
“Exactly!” She tugged my arm turning me toward the cafeteria. “I was hired under false pretenses!” Smirking as she pulled me along. “Besides who wants to hunt bad guys on an empty stomach?”
She had a point and I was hungry. Smith would still be there in an hour, and if not thankfully Mir could track his movements. “It’s a date then?” I aksed
She giggled as she blushed crimson. “Breakfast hardly rates as a date. How about we call this a preliminary date?”
“Seriously?” Stopping to open the door and letting her pass through before following. “There are preliminary dates these days? Things have really gotten complicated.”
It was nice to sit for a few minutes and forget about the outside world as we ate our breakfast. She was an interesting woman both inside and out. She was older than I thought but at my age a decade really didn’t make that much of a difference in the scheme of things. She served in Afghanistan for two years before leaving the armed forces and returning home to take a job at Charity Hospital and eventually ended up in my employment. Time slowed for me whenever she smiled. While I didn’t like to admit it I was captivated by her sense of humor, intelligence and beauty. This was the furthest thing from the right time she could have picked for a preliminary date but when I thought about it when was there ever a good time? I was always on the hunt for something and if it wasn’t Gullveig it would be something else.
This was also hardly the time to be hypocritical after the advice I had given Kira about seizing the moment and such. The hour passed and our time together was over more quickly than I would have liked but there was work to be done. She assured me I had passed the preliminary qualifications for an actual date and when I got back from the days work we could finalize our plans. It was hardly the time for semantics and use of the word ‘if’ instead of ‘when’, so I excused myself and headed for the armory in a far better frame of mind.
The armory officer was exceedingly helpful as I retrieved six new PX4’s, flash bangs, as well as several actual grenades. It didn’t take more than fifteen minutes to compile the items but it took a further forty to fill out the paperwork involved. Returning to my office I changed into the body armor I picked up and stowed my gear in a duffle bag. As I was checking the last few items to make sure they were secure I heard the door swing open. I didn’t even have to turn around to know it was Nicholas and Kira chomping at the bit to be included in the mission.
They were coming along, but they weren’t going to like what I had to say. “You two can calm down you’re both coming.”
“Damn right we are!” Nicholas grumbled as he marched across the office. “She killed my mother and I want my pound of flesh.”
Digging in the bag I pulled four pistols out of the side compartment handing two to Nicholas and placing the others to my left for Kira. “You do know how to use those right?”
Nicholas dropped the clip and cleared the chamber before I got the words out of my mouth. Eyeing the weapon closely he demonstrated his comfort level with the weapon. “I’m familiar.”
Kira and Nicholas were dressed in similar body armor to my own. Surprisingly Kira picked up her weapons in silence holstering them as she waited for the catch. “You two will be coordinating with the SOG ensuring no one escapes the park.”
“Like hell we will!” Nicholas bellowed.
Kira put a hand on his shoulder as she gently pulled him back. She fondled the handle of her pistol as she made one of her mother’s highly disapproving looks. “So you plan on going in alone against them?”
“Not exactly.”
Nicholas tried to take a step forward but Kira held him in place. “Let’s hear what he has to say.” Giving me a stern look she kept Nicholas in check. “Who knows, he might actually have a plan.”
They would coordinate their efforts with Gregory and the SOG to secure the area. While they handled the perimeter I would already be inside the park hunting Smith. The goal was to catch Smith at the building nearest the merry-go-round. Hopefully I could catch him by surprise and end the situation quickly without raising Gullveig’s suspicions. If I failed in that option they were to enter the park immediately through the main gates to keep her busy till I arrived.
If things went smoothly we could initiate phase two of the plan by using our O.D.I.N. implants to keep in constant communication to coordinate our arrival. Once Smith was down we would proceed to Gullveig location as a unit and terminate her physical form. According to Mir the three of us were incompatible hosts for her but Gregory and his team were not. This was the main reason to keep Gregory and the SOG as far away as possible. Th
e only reason she was able to inhabit her current body was due to the fact she took it within the first few hours of birth before the O.D.I.N system could reject the invasion. With The Staff of Gungnir we would be able to terminate her even in her ethereal form or such was the working theory.
While they had their reservations they agreed that there weren’t a lot of other options. Kira and Nicholas headed out to meet Gregory who had been even less receptive of the plan. It was only the fact Gullveig could escape while destroying one or more of his men that he finally agreed. Everything had been set in motion, but something continued to tug at my memory as I headed for the door. Mir seemed to know more that he had divulged to me but there was no time to deal with that now. It was something we discuss later. Closing the door I headed for the stairs once more as the hand of fate weighed heavily on my soul.
Chapter 28
The day was warm even as the skies above turned charcoal gray as a thunderstorm rolled in off the lake. It wouldn’t be long before the sky opened up to cleanse the land of its impurities. Justine slowed the car to a near crawl as I rolled out onto a barren stretch of Paris Road near the rear entrance of the park. Using my shields to camouflage my arrival I blended into the background as I entered and cut through the park. Mir was taking the continuous communications a little too literal as the three of us shared visual and auditory feed. It didn’t take as long as I thought to adjust to the extraneous input but it was still a bit disconcerting to see through their eyes.
What had once been a joyous place to bring children had turned into something much more sinister. A suffocating blanket of dread accompanied the unnatural silence that enveloped the park. Nature, neglect and the elements had taken a toll on the once vibrant theme park which now lay in a creepy, crumbling, hollowed out hulk of what it had once been. The atmosphere here twisted itself into the eerie mirror image of what it once was. The stench of rot and decay permeated the area as if searching for something new to corrupt. The aging behemoth of a roller coaster that once marked the highlight of the park now barely stood as its supports rusted and fell away. I couldn’t help but shiver at the sheer perversion as nature and man fought for supremacy. The park refused to give up the ghost as nature had long ago won the battle leaving this dismal reminder of how helpless man was against the awesome power of the elements.