by C. G Harris
I shook my head. “Just before his vanishing act. Do you remember what he said to us about miracles?”
“Yeah, he said, ‘Will miracles never cease.’ So what. He was surprised anyone had enough brains to track him down, I guess.”
“No.” I held up a finger. “He said, ‘It looks as if miracle won’t cease.’ What if he meant MiRACL, as in the company? I think he was taunting us.”
Alex seemed to consider this for a moment then shook her head. “I don’t care.” She drew out the words as if she were speaking to someone who only understood Mandarin Chinese.
“This has nothing to do with us. Let Simeon use Nick as his personal dress up doll. It’s no business of mine.”
“You don’t mean that.” I let the silence between us pause a beat then continued. “I understand doing what you have to in order to stay with the agency, but don’t try to sell me on being some heartless monster. I know you better than that.”
Alex glared at me, but I didn’t back down. After a minute, she glanced away and sighed. “How did I get saddled with Sigmund Freud for a partner?”
“Just ...”
“Yeah.” She held up a hand to stop me. “Just lucky, I guess.”
After a moment she shook her head. “I still don’t care about Simeon. I mean, yes, I don’t want anything bad to happen to Nick. He’s one of the good guys, but there’s nothing we can do about it.” Her frustration began to twist her face into a knot of conflict and anger. “We have to let it go. That’s what ...”
“We do.” I finished the sentence for her this time. “I know. But what about our mission? We’re supposed to make sure Nick and MiRACL stay running without a hitch, right? Maybe this Voodoo stuff has nothing to do with the Judas Agency at all? What if this is a conspiracy my cousins cooked up? What if this whole thing is a way to stop the operation we were supposed to be supporting?”
I hated to outright lie to Alex like that, but I already saw the wheels begin to turn in her head. The possibility that our mission was under threat got her moving in my direction.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s go up and take a look around. But if this is some sort of scheme to do your Robin Hood act, so help me.”
I held my hands over my heart and gasped. “Maid Marion, you wound me.”
Her eyes went down to the deep puncture wound in my leg. “On second thought, maybe you should go up alone. Something is happening to me, and I don’t understand ... I never meant to ...”
“This isn’t your fault. Those ghost things I told you about in the Skin Quarry warehouse? I wasn’t kidding about that, and it wasn’t the first time I saw them.” I cringed at the implications of telling her more, but I needed to let Alex off the hook for her actions.
“You saw them back in that alley. That night I shot at you.”
It was a statement not a question.
“I thought they were some kind of crazy hallucination.” I lied, hoping to avoid the torture void of the coin. “So, I didn’t say anything. Then they were down here too. Both times, they whispered in your ear, and you attacked me. It was like they controlled you somehow. This,” I motioned to my leg, “wasn’t your fault.”
Alex blinked at me. Then she punched me in the shoulder. “You let me think I tried to kill you—twice? I should kill you.” She drew back to punch me again, but I held up my hands.
“Could we stop punching me now? I think my body’s about had it.”
Alex looked down at my leg again. “Did the ghosts do that too?”
For the first time, I realized I stood in front of the Judas Agency shooting everyone the moon, thanks to my half-burned pants. My hands shot behind my back, and I did my best to cover my bare cheek from public scrutiny.
Alex just stared at me. “We should go if you want to check your theory. We can find you a pair of assless chaps while we’re up there, then you won’t have to worry so much about spontaneous combustion.”
She tried to shove me forward and head back into the building, a grin spreading across her face. “What’s the matter, you shy all of a sudden? Lead the way, cowboy.”
I groaned and turned to walk back toward the locker rooms. After walking a few steps, a shriekingly loud wolf whistle came from behind me, calling every eye within a hundred yards. Alex jogged by and smacked in a good game as the cherry on top of my humiliation pie.
“How did I end up with such an irritating partner?”
Alex turned her head back, joyful glee written all over her face. “Just lucky, I guess.”
Chapter Forty-Five
“What do you mean we can’t see him?” Alex and I stared down at the young assistant sitting at her desk outside Nick’s office. Her eyes were so puffy it looked like she had broken up with a lifetime of boyfriends all at once. Tears had washed away any vestige of makeup, and she still dabbed at her eyes, trying in vain to keep the dam from breaking again.
“I’m sorry, I may have come off a little harsh.” I glanced over at Alex for some sort of confirmation, but she only shrugged in response. “I understand we don’t have an appointment, but our firm has been working with MiRACL on this project. We just want to have a quick word.”
“I understand.” The woman cleared her throat, barely able to put three words together without sobbing. “If you could ... wait for our ... research director.”
“Look, if this has anything to do with our last visit ...”
I was cut off by a gentle hand on my shoulder. We didn’t age in the nine. Even though I had been there for more than forty years I still looked like I was in my twenties. The guy I turned around to see looked to be even younger than me, barely out of his teens. He wore his clothes like he had borrowed them from his parents, and his dark hair was somewhere between neat and just rolled out of bed. He peered at me with that vague look of wonder young people had before they got old enough to become jaded.
“My name is Zach. Can I help you?”
I raised an eyebrow and eyed him up and down. “I doubt it. We need a word with Nick Powell. Unless you can make that happen, I’m not sure how you can do anything for us.”
“Maybe we should step into his office and talk.”
I stared at him for a moment, then down at the hand he still held on my shoulder. He got the hint and pulled it away.
“Please.” His eyes flicked to the woman sitting at the desk. She had her eyes down and seemed like she had a harder time than ever keeping it together.
“All right,” I said. “After you.”
I held out a hand, and Zach hurried for the door to Nick’s office. Alex and I followed him, and he shut the door behind us.
“You may want to sit down. I have some bad news.”
He motioned to the guest chairs, but we didn’t move to use them.
“What do you mean bad news?” Alex intercepted my impatient tone with a tender voice. “What happened?”
Now even Zach looked as if he might lose control of his emotions. His eyes reddened, and tears threatened to overcome their barriers and fall. To his credit, his voice was solid steel.
“I am afraid there’s been an accident. Mr. Powell—Nick was killed in a car accident late last night. He was driving home from a fundraiser, and a drunk driver hit his car. Everyone in his vehicle died.”
I staggered back a step, and my mind reeled through the possibilities. If Nick wasn’t the target for the possession, then who? Or was this a real accident? Did the Council of Seven seat their Catastropher only to have a freak turn of events destroy all their plans? That all seemed too good to be true.
“I’m so sorry.” Alex covered her mouth with her hands. “No wonder you’re all so upset. Is there anything we can do?”
Zach shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m not all that familiar with your firm, but Nick had great things to say about you. At this point, MiRACL’s future is unstable. It’s hard to believe we’ve come so far, and it all may be for nothing.”
I shook my head. “What you’re doing here is way to
o important. Losing Nick is horrible, but you’ll bounce back. Ryan still owns the company, and he has Ian to work in his best interest to keep the company on its feet.”
I thought about Ian again and wondered if he was the possession target after all. Without Nick, he would be in a great position to seize control of MiRACL, even if he didn’t technically own part of the company.
Zach shook his head, and his eyes let loose the tears he had dammed up until now.
“I’m afraid Ian was in the car with Nick. Both they and their wives were ...”
He trailed off unable to finish the sentence.
Alex still had her hands on her face, and her eyes were wide enough to flash signal Morris Code.
“Wait.” I tried not to state the obvious but couldn’t help it. “Nick and Ian were both killed?”
Zach nodded in the affirmative but didn’t say anything else, his voice finally betraying him as well.
I pressed my palm to my forehead and paced the room. All my theories were out the window. Either fate had come down and stomped a big heel all over the Council’s operation, or I had missed my mark by a mile.
“Thank you for seeing us.” Alex recovered before I did and reached out to shake Zack’s hand. “I know this will be a tough time for everyone. If there’s anything we can do, please don’t hesitate to contact us.”
Zack nodded and showed us to the door. “We can find our way out.” I smiled. “Thanks again, and I am so sorry for your loss.”
My eyes went to the young lady at her desk as we walked by. She tried to smile at us as we walked away but couldn’t quite manage it and dissolved into tears instead.
“Wow. That is horrible.” I pretended not to notice when Alex swiped away a tear. “I hope they’ll be all right.”
“Me too. Someone has to pick up the ball on this project. What they’re doing is too important. I can’t believe all their work could fizzle out, especially after all the breakthroughs they made.”
Alex nodded as we made our way down the hall. We passed a familiar door, and I remembered one last person this tragedy would affect. Maybe more than anyone else. Ryan.
I grabbed Alex’s elbow as we approached the entrance to his lab. We had passed it during every visit. The door anyway. Ryan had a big sticker pasted across the front, middle-school style, that said, Ryan’s room, keep out. The door was always closed, but today it hung open. I took a chance and poked my head inside.
The room was huge, pretty much what you would expect of a lab space. Lots of counter tops and whiteboards covered in mathematical scribblings rivaling Einstein’s theory of relativity.
In the back of the room sat Ryan, perched on a stool turning something over in his hands. I couldn’t see what it was. A black counter jutting into the middle of the room blocked my view.
I took a tentative step inside and tried to catch his eye. “Ryan? It’s Gabe and Alex. Do you remember us?”
Alex moved in with me, and we stood for a moment, waiting for him to respond. When he didn’t, I walked in a little further.
“Ryan, is it okay if we come in? We want to say hello and see if you’re doing all right.”
It seemed almost cruel, considering the circumstances, that he should be in this room all alone. Someone should be here to console him. To reassure him or at least be here for him.
A few more steps.
“Can we do anything for you? Alex and I would be glad to get you something or call someone if you need to talk.”
I glanced over at Alex. She remained a pace or two behind me. Her eyes were on Ryan. She did not have a concerned expression but rather a look of wary suspicion.
I wasn’t sure what she saw. Maybe it was just a feeling. Whatever it was, I wasn’t getting it. Ryan kept working on whatever he held in his hand, eyes down and silent.
“Could you let us know you’re okay? Say hell ...”
As I rounded the counter, the item in his hands came into view. Worse, so did his position on the floor.
His stool was situated in the center of a ritual circle. It looked as if the writing had been burned to ash somehow and much of it had blown away or was smudged into the wood at Ryan’s feet, but the magical construct was unmistakable. There were four items placed at the four corners of the circle. One was the little doll, then a lock of hair from the horseshoe, the exact color and texture of Simeon’s now that I saw it again. The other two items were a feather and a key. They had come off the rough-cut dreamcatcher made of old twigs and twine.
I stared at Ryan as he inspected the top hat in his hands. He had affixed a couple of the turkey feathers from the dreamcatcher, along with what appeared to be a pheasant quill, on the front, all standing straight up like some sort of strange crown. Exactly the way Simeon’s hat had looked down in The Nine.
“What do you think?” He donned the hat and gave it a tap. “Not as refined as the original, but I suppose it’ll grow on me.”
Alex pulled up beside me with her Luger pistol in hand.
“Such a poor welcome, my peach. And after all we’ve been through together.”
“I’m not your peach.” She raised her gun and aimed it at his head.
I wasn’t sure what to do. On one hand, I was not one to be a party to cold blooded murder. On the other, killing Simeon would solve all our problems.
I reached out and knocked the gun away before she fired. I couldn’t let her shoot. Yes, it might rid the world of Simeon, but Ryan could still be in there somewhere. I wasn’t ready to give up on him yet. Besides, since when was Alex so eager to murder an innocent civilian?
“An excellent choice, Gabriel. Thank you. I’m afraid your partner is not thinking things through.” Ryan … Simeon … whoever, stood and sauntered over to us. “You may be able to kill me here, but I will pop right back up in The Nine. When I do, I’ll have lots of secrets to tell anyone willing to listen.”
He let that settle in for a moment.
Simeon was right. If he died here, he would come back down under and blab all his secrets about the Denarii Division ... or could he? Was he still bound by the oath of the coin? If he tried to tell anyone, would he be sucked back into that void world reserved for traitors of the order? If he was, could he find his way out again? He did it once. Why not come back over and over? Even considering all the possibilities made my brain hurt.
“Hold on a second.” I took a step toward him and eyed the circle on the floor. “What about Ryan? Why did he agree to this? Where is he now?”
Simeon chuckled. “I’m afraid young Ryan never knew about any of this. He just carried out his orders and poof, here I am.”
“Orders?” Alex said. “What orders?”
His eyes flicked in her direction. “I believe you, of all people, should understand how persuasive a Whisper Wraith can be.” He made a hacking motion toward my leg and chuckled again. “Ryan set up this circle and carried out the ritual without ever knowing what he did.”
I glanced at Alex and mouthed the word ghosts as if she hadn’t caught on yet.
“You still haven’t told us where Ryan is.” Alex tried to sound confident, but it was more than apparent we had already lost.
Simeon walked by us with a knowing grin, refusing to answer. “You two should run along and ponder that. In the meantime, I would hate to call security because you are hassling the poor, autistic owner of a future multibillion-dollar company.”
He paused at the door and winked at us. “I will be making a miraculous recovery from my mental ailments, by the way. All thanks to the advancements of MiRACL’s amazing medical technologies, of course. You two have a wonderful day now.”
Simeon slumped and took on a very Ryan sort of demeanor, then went shrieking down the hall as if we’d inflicted him with an atomic wedgie.
Alex and I looked at each other.
“I don’t even know what to say.” Alex holstered her gun and headed for the door.
“Whatever it is, we better say it on the way out. I don’t think we’re going
to be all that welcome around here anymore.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Our trip back to The Nine was anything but what you would call conversational. Alex and I made small talk, avoiding any subjects like dastardly plots to dominate a world changing medical technology. I couldn’t wrap my head around everything that had happened, and I knew far more than Alex did about the whos, wheres, and whys. I couldn’t imagine what she thought. I was thankful for the silence though. I had filled my mouth with so many lies where Alex was concerned, I wasn’t sure I could keep them straight anymore.
As soon as we got back, she headed to Sabnack to make our report. She said it would be better coming from her alone. Apparently, the big, lion-faced hellion found me annoying. Go figure. At any rate, it gave me the perfect excuse to duck out and make a report of my own. I just wished Judas found my quirky personality traits more endearing than Sabnack did.
“And you are sure Ryan took on Simeon’s persona?”
Judas seemed ... well … not angry. That always concerned me. Angry meant he was emotional and in the moment. Calm meant he had decided on his course of action. He was at peace with whatever he had decided to do, even if that meant feeding me to an angry herd of monster llamas with huge buck teeth and acid spit.
Sometimes my imagination got away with me in Judas’s office, but I was sure anything he came up with would be far worse than that.
“No doubt.” I stood behind a brand-new human bone chair. I wasn’t sure if I was more disturbed that he had an extra chair or enough spare bones to build a new one. “Ryan suffered from severe autism. Up till today, he barely made eye contact, much less interacted with us. Now he’s ready to do stand-up on the Johnny Carson Show.”
Judas blinked at me.
“Johnny Carson. Don’t tell me you never saw the late show down here?”
A spark of irritation sparked in Judas’s eye, and somehow, I found it comforting. It meant he wasn’t a total agent murdering robot today.
“Simeon is loose Topside. He didn’t give us any hints about his plans, but I’m sure they’re not good. Also ...”