Walker

by Michael Langlois

  The most startling thing, however, was seeing two incandescently bright figures ahead of him beyond the tree line. While his sense of the Veil at large was mostly a sense of feel, his perception of the world around him remained visually oriented, only now it was very strong and clear.

  His eyes snapped open and he saw nothing but a dense barrier of trees and foliage at the edge of the yard. Concentrating with his eyes open this time, he found the silhouettes again, guided by Veil sight, about fifty yards past the point where his normal vision was obscured.

  One figure was dimmer, and standing with its hand on the other figure’s shoulder. The brighter one appeared to be holding an invisible staff, with one hand high and the other low at the waist. As Daniel watched, the low hand came up and hovered near the figure’s head, while the other was held out in front, palm up and fingers curled.

  “RIFLE!” Daniel shouted, and threw himself into Iyah in an attempt to move her out of the way. Daniel fell heavily to the ground, while Iyah gracefully spun away from the tackle and dropped to a crouch near him. She was scanning the trees and nearby rooflines rapidly.

  “Straight ahead, in the woods. There’s two of them,” said Daniel, pointing.

  Without a word, Iyah dropped her staff and launched herself towards the trees, her blade appearing suddenly in one hand. Moving in a blur, she hit the tree line in an instant and went through the dense brush like a cannonball, not even slowing down as she hit the larger stalks and trunks.

  Daniel saw the two figures recoil in alarm. A white-hot blaze of power sprang to life in the figure that had been dimmer, and then jumped through its hand to the other person. Both figures vanished just as Iyah’s own dazzling signature arrived on the scene. After a few moments her power dropped to a faint shimmer and she stalked out of the jungle, effortlessly navigating the wreckage of crushed bushes and splintered trunks.

  “They’re gone. It must have been an assassination team. A Walker for transport and a Protector to make the hit. I just caught a glimpse of them before they crossed.”

  She searched Daniel’s face. “How did you know they were there? Another minute and you’d be missing the back of your head. They would’ve been gone before your body hit the ground.”

  “They were both pulling power from the Veil, which seems kind of sloppy if you’re trying to hit another person with affinity.”

  Iyah frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “I saw them out there, drawing power before the hit. They were pulling hard, too, really making themselves stand out. I never really thought to look around me like that before, but it would be a dead giveaway to a pro like you or Saul.”

  “You mean you can sense someone drawing power from the Veil? You detected them from here?”

  Daniel nodded, “You can’t?”

  Iyah shook her head slowly. “No, Daniel. I can’t. Not without touching them, anyway. Nobody can.”

  The hair crawled down the back of Daniel’s neck. If he hadn’t gotten bored and started playing around just then, he’d be dead. Iyah wouldn’t have known they were in danger until the shot was echoing through the jungle. He hadn’t realized just how much he relied on Iyah and Saul’s experience and protection until just now.

  Sometimes when you follow, you stop thinking for yourself, and your focus narrows to doing what has already been decided. Being in the lead tends to focus you instead on the future, and on those things outside your control. For the first time since coming to the Guild, Daniel felt like he was out front, that the well-being of himself and his friends was entirely in his hands.

  It was like looking up from the ground in front of you and seeing the whole landscape for the first time.

  Iyah put one hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”

  Daniel nodded. “I think we need to tell Saul what just happened. He’s still asleep in his room.”

  Iyah glanced up at the side of the inn, then back at Daniel. After a brief hesitation, she picked up her backpack and started towards the building.

  A few minutes later they were inside Saul’s room. His surly demeanor after being woken up by the rude pounding of Iyah’s fist on his door rapidly gave way to stunned amazement. After Iyah completed her story, everyone sat around the small room staring at each other. Or more accurately, everyone sat around staring at Daniel.

  “You just discovered this ability today, right before the attack? Really?” asked Saul.

  Daniel nodded.

  “Most people practice what they’re taught. Why in the world would you try to do the impossible all of a sudden?”

  “I wasn’t trying the impossible. You forget that I haven’t spent years in the Guild culture soaking up the ins and outs of this stuff. I’ve had a week of training for some very specific things and zero background information. How am I supposed to know what’s possible and what isn’t? Shit, all of this is impossible if you ask anybody sane.”

  Saul rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Okay, so what else can you do besides what you learned in your classes?”

  “Nothing you don’t already know about.” Daniel got a faraway look in his eyes. “But you know, I should really find out.”

  He stood up and absently rubbed his chin, already lost in thought. “I’ll be in my room, come get me when it’s time for dinner.”

  17

  Iyah and Saul showed up in Daniel’s room that evening as agreed, but instead of leaving for dinner, Daniel pulled them inside and sat them down. He closed the door and faced them, still standing.

  “I want to ask you guys for a favor, a big one. But first I have to tell you something that you might not know, and I want your word that you’ll keep it to yourselves.”

  Saul shrugged, “If I was going to rat you out, I sure wouldn’t tell you, now would I? You can’t just take somebody’s word for something like that.”

  Daniel looked Saul in the eye. “I think I can take yours.”

  Saul sighed and said, “Fine, I’ll keep it to myself.”

  “Iyah?”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay.” Daniel took a breath and then said in a rush, “Doctor Wolternel is planning to escape, and I’ve decided that I’m going with him. We’re going to take a group to the new world and stay there, out of the council’s reach.”

  Saul opened his mouth to speak, but Daniel held up a hand and kept going. “But if we do manage to escape, the first thing they’re going to do is kill my mother. Vincent already has men guarding her. So, here’s the favor. I want you to help me rescue her and move her somewhere safe.”

  Daniel put his hand down and braced himself.

  “First of all,” said Saul calmly, “we already know about Bruce’s escape plans. We’ve decided to leave you out of our … discussions, so that you can make your own decision. Your own wrong decision, as it turns out.”

  Iyah frowned at that, but didn’t speak.

  “Second of all, going to Earth would mean hitting a Sanctuary, which would alert everyone to our movements. Not to mention it might expose you to another assassination attempt.”

  “If it weren’t for the inhibitor, I could take us there myself.”

  “Well you can’t. I’ll have to do it, and I’ll have to go through the Sanctuary. My home site is wired with the understanding that if I use it without prior authorization, I’m a dead man.”

  “Are you telling me that you don’t have some friends back home that let you come and go unannounced? Seriously?”

  Saul pursed his lips, then sighed out of his nose. “Yeah, I might know a guy. But there’s a big difference between me slipping home to do some shopping, and taking you through there with me. And besides, if Vincent’s guys are guarding your mom, the whole thing will probably turn into a fight, and people could get hurt, including your mother.”

  “I’m pretty sure you and Iyah can run rings around Vincent’s goons, if half of the stories I’ve heard are true. What’s the real reason?”

  Saul’s expression became grave and his eyes searched D
aniel’s face. “I’m going to ask you if you’re absolutely sure if you want to do this.”

  Daniel opened his mouth to speak, but this time it was Saul’s turn to roll over him. “You want to tell me that you’re sure, I know that, but you aren’t answering the right question. You want to tell me that you’re sure that you want to rescue your mother. You’re running on hope and desperation here, and you don’t see any options, so of course you’re sure. But that’s not what I’m asking you.”

  Daniel felt his stomach churn. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest.

  “What I’m asking you,” Saul continued, “is what life you want to lead. What your future is going to be. Because that’s what you’re deciding on, right now. Most people never know when those moments that define their lives happen. I’m telling you that for you, this is it. Hell, this is probably it for me, Iyah, and Bruce, too.”

  Saul put one hand out, palm up. “In this hand, you have a life of wealth and power. Respect and security. You have to do what the Guild tells you, but your mother remains safe and you get to be an important man in the big machine.”

  He put out his other hand. “In this hand, you can be a fugitive from the most powerful organization of all time if you’re lucky, dead if you’re not. Your friends and mother might be killed because of you, and even if you live, you end up in a life of secrecy and fear. But you’d be free, your own man. You might even save some other people, making that small group the only truly free people in all the held worlds.”

  Saul put his hands down. “Once you decide to do this, you can’t go back.” He lowered his head and looked Daniel directly in the eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Daniel looked down at his own hands, then back up at Saul. “I only got involved in the first place to help my mom. That hasn’t changed.”

  Daniel shook his arc under Saul’s nose and continued, surprised at the vehemence in his own voice. “But this? This is bullshit. I’m getting out, and I’m taking anyone who wants to go with me. So yeah, I’m sure I want to do this. If you’re worried that it might be too risky, then no problem. I can find a way without you. But no matter what, I’m doing this.”

  Saul smiled ruefully. “It’s not me I’m worried about, dumbass. I’ve been getting away with this kind of shit for longer than you’ve been alive, and under the noses of way smarter folks than Vincent’s boys. You know that my job is to track down escapees, right? Well, let me tell you how I spent the early part of last week.

  “I tracked down a man who had broken into a maintenance locker, cut off his own arm with a hacksaw to get rid of his Arc, seared the stump shut with a blowtorch and ran for it. Yeah, how about that? He was the head of the chemical warfare division. He’s the guy whose job it is to come up with new poisons, then inject them into prisoners to see what they do. Not all of them are adults, either. They test everybody.

  “He didn’t ask for the job, but in the Guild, if you can do it, you will do it. Or else. Took about a year for him to stop caring about ‘or else.’ He snapped and just starting hacking parts off so he could escape. I caught him, Walked him to another world, and then reported him dead. All so he could start over and try to stop seeing the faces, as he put it.”

  Saul blinked and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. “See, the difference between my approach and Bruce’s is that he still thinks that we can get out with the people we help, as if we could still be saved, or that we deserve to be saved. The truth is that the best we can hope for is to help others, and do as little harm as possible until either we retire or they catch us.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I think we can get out, Saul. We have a chance. And if it helps, I don’t think you’re doing any harm. You got that guy out clean, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Saul said. “But I can’t let ‘em all go. In order to remain trusted so that I can free a few, I have to catch most. I can only afford to let one in ten go, if that. The rest I drag back in chains. You ever put handcuffs on somebody who’s crying and begging, and then hand him back to his captors? You can tell yourself that it’s for the greater good, but you have to wonder if that’s true, or if you just don’t have the balls to fight back.”

  Daniel put a hand on Saul’s arm. “Bruce is going to help us ditch the Arcs so we can’t be tracked, and I’ll take us to Autumn. It’ll work.”

  “Autumn?” asked Iyah.

  Daniel shrugged, “It’s as good a name as any. What do you say, Saul?”

  Saul’s eyes were haunted, but his voice was strong. “Where do you want to take your mom?”

  “Anywhere safe. Maybe somewhere beautiful, she deserves that.”

  Saul took a deep breath and stood up. “Iyah and I need to get a few things from our rooms. We’ll meet you back here in ten.”

  Eleven minutes later, they were on Earth.

  18

  They arrived in a cavernous white room, inside a ten-foot-wide black ring painted on the floor, one of eight. On one side of the room stood a gurney and a miniature trauma center. On the other side was a row of cubicles, all open to the room, but with partitions for privacy between them, filled with serious looking men and women. An armed man with a clipboard got up from one of the cubicles and walked towards them, a smile appearing on his face as he saw Saul and Iyah. But mostly Iyah.

  “Well, hello Saul, good to see you again! And very good to see you Iyah, it’s been too long.”

  “Hi Charlie,” said Iyah, without enthusiasm.

  Saul smiled and shook hands with the man, clapping him on one shoulder.

  “Who’s this?” asked Charlie, grabbing Daniel’s hand and giving it a friendly shake.

  Saul said, “This is Brian, he’s a new Tracker that I’m training.” He put his head close to Charlie’s. “Strictly speaking, he’s not supposed to be leaving Olympus just yet, but we’ve been working him pretty hard, and I promised him a little R and R, you know what I mean? Can we keep this under wraps?”

  Charlie grinned and gave Daniel a wink. “Sure thing, Saul, I gotcha covered.”

  “Thanks Charlie, I owe you one.” Saul led them to an elevator and stepped inside. Charlie called out after them, “Bye, Iyah! Come back when you have more time to visit!”

  Iyah waved with the fingers of one hand, and the doors closed. “Ah, hope springs eternal,” said Saul with a smile.

  “Shut up, Saul,” said Iyah.

  “I take it that’s your inside man?” said Daniel.

  “Yeah, he leaves my unofficial visits off the books for me. Every once in a while I’ll get him something from offworld to pay him back. He usually asks for booze or the occasional unearthly knickknack. But the last thing he asked me for really went over big. I might even be in the clear forever.”

  “Really? What was it?”

  “Saul …” said Iyah.

  “Just a vacation picture. You know, sun, sand, the ocean. He’s a real nature lover, Charlie is. He just wanted a few snaps of our last vacation in Greece, just me and Iyah. Well, mostly Iyah. On the beach. In her bikini. He was very grateful.”

  Saul’s laugh turned into a coughing wheeze when Iyah’s elbow connected to his gut. Daniel stifled a laugh, trying hard to avoid a penalty shot himself.

  “You’re not going to repeat that story, are you, Daniel?” It wasn’t really a question.

  Daniel cleared his throat and forced the corners of his mouth down. “No ma’am. Not a word. Hey Saul, was that the only picture you had, or … oof!”

  The elevator opened into the lobby of an office building, all glass and black marble. Hurried people pushed past them to get into the elevator. The clock above the security desk read 8:45.

  A twenty minute cab ride got them to La Guardia, and then it was a two-and-a-half hour flight to St. Louis. Daniel had never been in first class before, so he tried to enjoy it.

  They rented a car at the airport and drove across the river to Caseyville. The trip was about forty minutes of preoccupied silence, ending when they were finally park
ed at Magnolia Acres. Assisted living homes get few visitors to begin with, but on this weekday morning their car was the only dark smudge in the otherwise bright white glare of the empty visitor’s lot.

  The reception area was just as Daniel remembered it. Sleek, modern, and utterly incapable of disguising the nature of the place. Plush leather chairs were arranged artfully across the expansive hardwood floor, framing an elegant glass-topped coffee table.

  It could have been mistaken for a boutique hotel, except for the antiseptic smells swelling powerfully under weak lilac cover-ups and the institutional fluorescents overhead. It wasn’t that it was a bad place as such places went, in fact it was one of the very best. But the best place to wait to die is still grim, no matter how hard you might try to disguise it.

  Daniel approached the reception desk, feeling that old fusion of guilt and duty well up inside him, and addressed the day nurse. She was a heavyset woman in her forties, careworn but upbeat. Daniel had always liked her immensely, even admired her for her unflagging optimism in the face of the inexorable tide of mortality that she rowed against daily.

  “Hi, Mrs. Beaumont, how are you today?”

  Mrs. Beaumont smiled energetically, her slightly yellowed smoker’s teeth still bright against her dark face. “Doin’ fine, Mr. Thorsen, thank you for askin’. You here to pick up the rest of your mama’s things? We got them all boxed up in the storeroom since we didn’t know when you was going to be coming back.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows came together in puzzlement. “I’m sorry? Her things?”

  “Well, your uncle didn’t mention anything about it, so we just assumed you’d be coming by sooner or later.”

  In that split second Daniel knew exactly what had happened. An image of Vincent standing coolly relaxed at this very counter flashed before his eyes, despite the fact that Daniel knew full well that the man would never stoop to performing a task this menial personally.

  Daniel surprised himself by saying, without missing a beat, “No ma’am, not today I’m afraid. I’m really just stopping by to pick up my copy of the paperwork if you don’t mind.”