Agents of Order

by T. R. Cameron

  Angel nodded. “However, you have this one chance to walk away unscathed. Should you cease your attempt to master the daggers, we will vanish, and you need not die in the pursuit.”

  She frowned. “How many have reached this point?”

  Demon laughed. “Some.”

  “And how many have survived?” she asked and turned her head to stare at him.

  He sobered and looked down. “Far, far fewer.”

  Cara shrugged, the decision made before she’d asked the questions. “Well, what will be, will be, I guess. I’m many things, but I’m certainly not a quitter.” She turned her gaze back to Angel and stepped into a fighting stance, her front dagger low and angled up and the back blade high and angled down. She bared her teeth in a grin. “Bring it, Casper.”

  The figure in white paused for a moment, then smiled, clearly having pulled the reference from her mind. She advanced, weaving her blades in circles and ellipses, and Cara focused on using quick strikes to deflect and block them while she learned the pattern. When she thought she had it and was ready to counter, though, Angel changed her tactics and forced her to skitter away and reset against a whole new set of attacks. The process repeated twice before her tiring brain realized what was up.

  Shit. She can read my mind.

  The conclusion was rewarded by a nod from Angel and an increase in the tempo of her assaults. There was no way she would be able to maintain her defense endlessly, and if the other woman could read her thoughts, there was only one option. She reached for the state of no-mind that Nylotte had been coaching her toward as a means of exploring her magic without burning herself out. It was a useful approach because she had experienced no-mind many times before in her martial arts training—those moments where the body merely worked on its own in the absence of conscious direction. Those occasions had always seemed like short trips to paradise to her and summoning them deliberately was invariably a challenge. It seemed to be one of those “The harder you try the farther away you get” kind of things. But on the barren battlefield, it came instantly at her call.

  A small smile twisted Angel’s lips as Cara began to intercept the sweeping blows with greater ease. After a minute, she had managed to work in ripostes and counterattacks and blended elements of the circular style of her opponent with her own more direct style. When the opportunity came, she only realized it was there as her daggers tapped Angel’s high enough to pass over her shoulders, which gave her an opening to stab her arms forward and plunge her own knives into the woman’s chest. The keen steel slid through the leather barrier without hindrance. She shoved the blades in all the way with a shout, then tilted her head to apologize.

  Cara stumbled forward as the resistance vanished. Angel reappeared ahead at Demon’s side, unharmed. Both now wore sheaths on their thighs with the hilts of their daggers protruding. Together, they bowed to her and intoned, “You have succeeded and won the right to wield us.”

  She dropped to sit cross-legged as adrenaline fled and exhaustion swept over her. “Does this mean you two will listen to me, obey my wishes, that sort of thing?”

  Their laughter rang in her ears as she fell out of the space. She woke with a start and a deep gasp to thrash against the bands that held her in place. When she looked down, her shirt was damp where the cut had occurred in the other world. Diana leaned into her line of sight, a worried expression on her face. “Cara? Are you okay?”

  She laughed hoarsely. “You might want to rethink finding the sword, boss. Weapons with personalities are jerks.” Her vision constricted into a tiny dot of light that quickly succumbed to the blackness of unconsciousness.

  Chapter Two

  Diana hurried into Kayleigh’s lab at a run. She’d listened in over the comms but wanted to be with her team for this particular experience. The blonde tech was in her usual place and Deacon, Tony, and Anik were gathered around the worktable. In the middle stood a speaker that fed the intelligence signal from the bugs they’d distributed throughout the Remembrance warehouse.

  Sloan had pinged them earlier with a coded warning that Marcus was on the way, and they’d monitored the feed ever since. A glance at the nearby areas revealed that the two techs were partway through a variety of different projects, judging by the exposed wiring and tools carefully set aside away from the table's surface.

  Tony grinned at her. “I love good investigative work.”

  Anik countered with a mock frown. “As if you did anything. It was all Kayleigh and Rath.”

  “Yeah, well, I was there in the idea phase. I’m an ideas man.”

  Diana snorted. “Uh-huh, sure, whatever.” She slipped between the field agents’ chairs to lean on the table and looked across at her housemate with mirth in her eyes. “So, did she tell you how she was thrashed by a twelve-year-old in—”

  Kayleigh raised a hand, her palm out. “Stop right there if you value your life. I can have Alfred deploy the defenses against you, you know.” After Nylotte’s warning, they had increased the house’s active and passive protections, some of which were now downright violent. The tech had assured her the AI would use them wisely, but Diana still felt a little nervous approaching the house in the moments before the system recognized her.

  The others laughed, Deacon the most boisterously. He had been present for that battle, apparently, but was sworn to silence. She had considered the best way to blackmail him for the full story, but so far, his close relationship with the tech seemed to preclude it. Until they take the step across the line into romance, of course, and I’ll have leverage on both of them. Mwa ha ha. She chuckled inwardly and pictured herself twirling a handlebar mustache but was jolted back to the moment by the sound of a slamming door.

  Sarah’s voice was more acerbic than usual. “What do you want? I have things I need to do.”

  In previous recordings, Marcus had been calm, maybe even bordering on cowed once or twice. This time, however, his confidence was obvious, as was his antipathy toward the Remembrance’s head witch. “I have some information that might be important for you to be aware of.”

  She barked a laugh. “What could you possibly know that I do not, human?” The brittleness in her voice was a counterpoint to her bold words. Diana imagined that Marcus heard it as well because there was laughter behind his next statement.

  “You sit here in your depressing office, plotting and planning and pulling at the strands of your web. You have secret discussions with Dreven using your little statue and feel confident that you are the master of all you survey.” He paused, and she pictured the woman seething, inches away from drawing her wand and trying to strike him. Which might be more difficult than anyone thinks, based on what Sloan’s told us about his mechanical arm.

  Sarah’s voice was a growl. “Do you have a point, other than insulting me?”

  “Only to tell you that while you’ve been in here being so clever, our enemies have listened to every word you’ve said.” Kayleigh frowned and looked at the table, hiding her eyes behind the mane of her hair.

  The witch sounded murderous. “Explain.”

  Marcus laughed, seemed to catch himself and be about to speak, then laughed again. Finally, he regained his composure. “There are electronic bugs all through the warehouse. They must be in here, too. They wouldn’t do the one without the other. And you had no idea.”

  “How did you discover this?”

  “My people are good, and they’re more interested in making sure our base is secure than in comparing the lengths of their wands.”

  Tony chortled, and Anik stretched behind Diana to slap him. Kayleigh hissed. “Shhhh.”

  The feed was deathly silent for several moments, and they exchanged glances. Then there was a sizzle and a pop, and the connection went dead. The techs both sighed, and Deacon said, “Well, I suppose we got almost everything we could out of that one.”

  Kayleigh shook her head. “Probably. But it’s not enough. Not by half. We need a way to get Sloan out of there.” Her despondent tone revealed
that she’d hoped the bugs would be a path toward accomplishing that.

  Tony tapped his fingers on the table. “We might go old-school while we have nothing else going on.”

  They all turned to face him. “Well, any idea you come up with is old by definition,” Anik responded. “Do you care to elaborate?”

  The former detective rewarded the quip with a raised middle finger and a thin smile. After the ensuing chuckles had subsided, he shrugged. “We put surveillance on her. Drones where we can—high up so she can’t detect them—and people where drones won’t work. Telescopes. Long-range microphones. The tried-and-true.”

  Diana frowned. “We don’t really have the person-power for that, do we?”

  He thought for a moment. “Well, if we do two shifts a day and use cameras and recording equipment while she’s asleep, Anik and Hank and I could handle it. For a while, at least, until we come up with something better.”

  “We can probably rig some useful stuff to help out,” Deacon added. Kayleigh nodded her agreement.

  Diana pushed back from the table and stood, stretched her spine, and raised her hands high. “All right. Put together a plan and let me take a look at it. Anything that makes her life more difficult is a win for us.”

  After the initial outburst where she swept the walls and ceiling of her office with power to destroy any listening devices that might be there—and send a message to the human in the chair opposite her—Sarah had maintained her calm reasonably well. She’d discussed security improvements with Marcus and reasserted her position as his superior by virtue of her promise to discuss it with Dreven at a convenient moment.

  And with Iressa, but he certainly doesn’t need to know about that until it’s time for him to die.

  She’d spent another hour in the room to demonstrate her lack of concern, but it had been entirely unproductive. The sense of violation was everywhere, and the fact that he had been the one to reveal it made the feeling exponentially worse. With a growl of annoyance, she stood and opened the safe to withdraw the statue with a sly grin. I’ll use this occurrence as an excuse to justify my need to speak to Dreven alone and in the safety of my home. That will put Marcus even further below me, where he belongs. She shoved it in her bag and headed to the door.

  The witch kept her steps slow and stately as she descended the stairs. Marcus’s people scurried about and checked the rest of the warehouse for surveillance devices, and her own were seeking any telltale signs of magical watchers. So far, they had found none. Since Wysse’s death, Sarah had resisted naming another of the group as superior to the others, so she checked in with each individually before she departed. They’d also discovered nothing, as expected.

  She stepped out the front door, cloaked herself in illusion, and turned to walk to the far side of the building. With a flick of her wrist, she opened a portal to a secluded corner of the parking garage that served her apartment and stepped through. It was a short elevator ride to the top floor and a shorter walk to her door, which swung open at a flick of her wand. She entered with a grateful sigh.

  Since returning from the World in Between, her condo was her only true sanctuary. Even before the discovery of the listening devices, she had not believed herself secure in the warehouse. Here, though, far above the ground and protected by wards on all sides, she was able to relax. At least as much as the memories will allow. Lately, her sleep had been interrupted several times each night with visions of the creatures she’d met there, and the awakenings found her covered in sweat, her heart beating as if the endless flight from danger in her dream had been real. That was her most vivid memory of the place—running until her chest felt like it would explode but knowing that to stop was death.

  Sarah sighed and dropped her bag, closed her eyes, and rolled her neck to loosen it. The thump as the statuette struck the marble floor was alarming, but she discarded her concern after a moment passed and no danger materialized. Sometimes, breaking magical objects resulted in volatile catastrophes far out of proportion to their size.

  She wandered to her bedroom and gazed through the large windows at the distant horizon and the sun sinking slowly toward it. A quick change of clothes increased her comfort considerably, and she sat before her mirror to brush her long black hair. She peered closer, noting the increased length of the worry lines at the corners of her eyes. The frown that followed revealed the same changes at the edges of her mouth. Things were easier when Vincente was here and I could be the power behind the figurehead rather than everyone’s target. She threw her brush across the room, but the gesture lacked any ferocity and it bounced lamely off the bed to clatter on the floor.

  The necklace that permitted communication with Iressa never left her, and she stood with a surge of energy as it warmed to indicate that the council witch was willing to speak to her. Sarah had sent the magical request hours before and had been prepared to wait hours more if necessary. She strode down the short hallway that connected the bedroom to the living room and sat on the white leather couch. As she leaned back, she whispered the activation phrase and her mind went hazy as it was drawn elsewhere.

  Each time she had communed with her patron, the locale had been different. On this occasion, she stood on a cliff that overlooked the raging surf far below. Birds flew overhead, shrieking at the indignity of having to deal with a human presence. As before, she wondered if they were in a real place and perhaps existed as shadows perceived only by the wildlife around them. As before, she found no answers in the setting, nor in the eyes of the witch who materialized before her.

  Iressa possessed the supreme confidence that Sarah pretended to. Her face was perfect and her body the same. On Earth, she could be a starlet, the most in-demand femme fatale to ever grace the screen. On Oriceran, her desires had clearly taken a different path, one that her acolyte hoped to follow. Power and influence would bring all the other things she craved.

  “Iressa. Thank you for responding so quickly.”

  The other woman nodded, then turned to stare out at the sea. “I had a moment. Events are in a lull, it seems. Hopefully, it will be brief. I expect a summons from Dreven any day now.” The woman’s sneer as she said the Remembrance leader’s name fit Sarah’s opinion of the wizard perfectly.

  “I have not heard from him recently, either.”

  Iressa gave no sign of having listened. “What is concerning enough that you wished to speak?”

  Sarah straightened as the memory of the invasion struck her afresh. “Our base was compromised. There’s no telling how much our enemies might have overheard.”

  Her superior’s gaze cut back to her. “Not of our conversations, surely.”

  She was quick to stammer a reply. “No, no, certainly not. I only speak to you from my own home and behind layers of wards. But of my discussions with Dreven, undoubtedly. And those with Marcus.”

  The witch’s lips twitched, and Sarah knew she’d betrayed her hatred of the man yet again. “Yes, your most-loved co-leader. It’s a shame he is still alive. We will have to do something about that at some point.”

  “He was virtually gleeful in telling me about the warehouse surveillance. Almost as if he had taken part in it.” Suspicion grew at the notion, the same suspicion that poked her every time she thought of the enemy’s murderous attack on Wysse and her sisters.

  Iressa shook her head. “You do not need to seek new enemies when we already have so many. Certainly, he bears watching. Killing too, perhaps, if the moment presents itself. But do not narrow your focus overmuch. We must be ready to strike whenever and wherever fate gives us the opportunity.” She turned to face her again. “To that end, you will pressure Dreven to come to Earth personally to lead your group.”

  Sarah frowned. “Whatever for?”

  The other witch laughed. “You need not know the reasons and only need to do as I ask. Rest assured, it is an investment that will bring great dividends of power and authority for us both .”

  As if her superior had cast a spell with her wo
rds, warmth and desire spread through Sarah. Her grin matched the other woman’s when she replied, “Well, then, of course I will.”

  Iressa strode forward, grabbed her by the arm and threw her off the cliff. She screamed involuntarily, then jerked to wakefulness on her couch. When she stopped hyperventilating, she stood shakily. I hate it when she does that. She shook her head and looked around, speaking her thoughts aloud. “Now, where the hell did I put that statue? I have an idiot wizard to manipulate.”

  Chapter Three

  “Son of a festering hobgoblin.” Kayleigh’s curse was muttered under her breath but still earned her a snort from Deacon’s position across the lab. She frowned at the back of his skull. “Aren’t those huge ugly-ass headphones you wear supposed to be noise-canceling?”

  He waved, clearly unmoved by her comment, and returned to nodding his head in time with whatever music he was listening to. She sighed and picked up the tiny piece that had flicked out of her pliers a moment before and placed it inside the sensor boundary. A holographic image of the circuit board and of the miniature soldering iron she used to fix it appeared in her glasses and hovered above the work surface. On the second attempt, she got the job done without any drama and set the component in its proper place in the fist-sized electronic device beside her.

  She raised the sides and attached the temporary restraints that would hold it together until the design was complete. Most of it had been constructed from off-the-shelf components, probably the only part of her job at ARES Pittsburgh that Kayleigh disliked. With a proper fabrication facility, we could do so much more. Well, that and more time. She set the squat black box onto the table. “Alfred, check power and signal flow.”

  There was a pause before the AI’s aloof British accent replied, “Functioning within expected parameters.”