Swing Shift: Book 2

by William D. Arand

  “Agreed,” Vanessa said. “Thinking of canvassing neighborhoods of known or suspected SA activity?”

  “Yup. Just cause I’m a Fed doesn’t mean I’m not a detective,” Gus said with a snort. “Figure we do that, then maybe hit up all the holding facilities. See if any suspected SA members are being detained right now. All I need is a few minutes to ask questions and we can start prying our way in. Questions and answers will give me more to work with. And that’ll be more questions and answers. I’ll just see where it takes me.”

  “I like it,” Melody said immediately. “That’s a perfect way to figure out what we’re starting with. It isn’t like we can ask the previous division. They’re all dead. If we’re lucky we’ll find some informants or people they were working with.”

  “Well, guess that means we figured out what your role is, Gus,” Vanessa said, smiling at him.

  “Oh? What’s that?” Trish asked before Gus could.

  “Lead detective, interrogator, and senior recruitment interviewer,” Melody answered with a laugh. “It fits perfectly. Right?”

  “Exactly,” Vanessa confirmed. “We can just let Gus go at anyone we want to get a really good look at.”

  “Oh! We could eventually get him listed as an actual psyker if we do it right.” Melody leaned over the table. “Like maybe he just developed it recently kind of thing.”

  “Uh-huh,” Gus said, trying to change the subject. “If that’s my job, fine. I’m actually alright with that. I’ll be good at it.”

  Getting to his feet, he tapped the table with his fingers.

  “Alright, I’m going to go sit in my office and start callin’ around to all the local detainment facilities. See if we’ve got anyone. Also the longer-term facilities that handle vamps.”

  “I guess I’ll look at our finances,” Trish said with an odd pout to her lips.

  “I’m going to go see if I can’t hire some people,” Melody said. “Since apparently we need a whole bunch of people. Maybe I’ll call my niece. She always has a good idea of what mercenaries are around and looking for more stable work.”

  “Guess I’ll start walking through all the CIs I know of and branch my way out. After that I can do some canvassing of the locals,” Vanessa said. “I get the feeling maybe some of the ones I used to know might know about the coven.”

  “Oh, we should reach out to—”

  Melody’s voice was cut off as Gus closed the door to his office.

  It looked just like everyone else’s. There was nothing waiting for him, and it seemed like it was just exactly that.

  An office.

  Sitting down in the chair, Gus moved the mouse slightly.

  Instantly, the screen flickered to life. He found himself looking at a PID login screen that had clearly been repurposed for Fed usage.

  “Did you gut the PID of everyone useful?” Gus said with a chuckle. He was fully expecting that if he called the IT department, he’d get Michael. “In fact.”

  Gus realized he didn’t have login credentials, so he was going to have to call IT anyways. Unless Mark took care of it and put it somewhere for him.

  Opening the top desk drawer attached to his desk revealed several pristine pages of paper. The top paper was indeed his credentials.

  “Good work, Durh,” Gus muttered. “What else did you leave me?”

  Checking the two other drawers, he found nothing.

  He got up to check the overhead cabinet above his desk.

  No sooner had he opened it than a flood of packaged condoms rushed out.

  Unable to close the cabinet as the unending load of prophylactics rained down on him, Gus gave up and just sat down.

  After ten seconds passed, the tsunami of birth control had ended.

  Now that the cabinet was empty, Gus could see a piece of paper that’d been taped to the inside.

  “Keep the talent happy, hugs and kisses,” Gus growled, reading the letter aloud.

  The door to his office opened and Gus found Vanessa standing there.

  “Oh,” she said, taking in the mess. Dismissing it in the same glance, she cleared her throat. “Did Mark leave you login credentials? Did it have mine on them?”

  After brushing a handful of condoms off his desktop, Gus opened his drawer and looked into it. Peeling back the first page, he found that it did indeed have everyone else’s as well.

  “Yeah, here ya go.” Gus pulled out the paper and handed it over.

  At the same time, a condom fell out of his cuff and landed on the paper he was holding out.

  “Mm, thanks. You can keep the condom; we don’t need them, remember?” Vanessa said, then left his office.

  Nodding to himself, Gus leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

  He had to plan his revenge for Mark.

  A soft tap on his door got his attention again.

  Opening his eyes against his better judgment, he looked toward the door.

  Standing there was the Construct he’d met earlier, Indali.

  “Hello again, Indali,” Gus said, ignoring the condoms. It might go easier that way.

  “Agent Hellström,” Indali said, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly. “I was told to come see you by Agent Lark.

  “Would another time be more appropriate, after you’ve… cleaned up? Perhaps check the rest of your office?”

  “No,” Gus said, shaking his head and pointing to the second cabinet above him. “Because I’m sure the other cabinet has just as many in it. Or something as bad or worse. Mark doesn’t hold back when he decides to do something.”

  “Ah… yes.” Indali nodded. “What is it you wished to see me about?”

  “I honestly have no idea. She didn’t tell me anything,” Gus said. Leaning to one side, he tried to peer out the window beside his door. Melody was likely right there. “Melody?”

  “Hire her for the front desk!” Melody shouted back. “Calling about a mechanic!”

  Turning back to Indali, Gus raised his hands in defeat.

  “It would seem I’m supposed to hire you to work our front desk. You saw it out there, I’m sure,” Gus said. At the same time, he took a needle-thin thread of his telepathic power and easily slipped it right into Indali’s mind.

  Ever since his brush with death, he’d found the telepathic powers he’d inherited from his father had become stronger.

  “I did,” Indali asked, her eyebrows lifting. “And what is it you can offer me that Deputy Director Ehrich can’t?”

  She was surprised. She had no idea what Gus actually needed from her.

  There was a dark part in her mind that had immediately gone to the idea that Melody had asked her over to come see Gus because he wanted to make a pass at her. It’d happened to her in the past, and she’d come to expect it to a degree from humans.

  “I have no idea,” Gus said honestly. “Is there something you want that he didn’t get you? I probably can’t beat him on salary since he dictated me my own, but… you never know. I might have something he doesn’t.”

  Gus doubted it, but he wasn’t going to go against Melody. If she was working this fast already, it meant she had a plan, and he wasn’t going to get in its way.

  Following Indali’s thoughts was easy. As a Construct, she was predisposed to a linear way of thinking.

  Linear, straight, to the point, and very physically oriented.

  Indali wanted to be hired by the government itself, as an agent or otherwise. Except she didn’t have the right background or paperwork to make that happen.

  She wasn’t a citizen, she wasn’t technically living, and she was young as far as Constructs went. She’d only been built during the formation of British India.

  And beyond that, the most unfortunate reason she was trapped in her job was that she had a record. She’d been involved in a murder that wouldn’t be cleared from her files for a long time.

  A Construct she’d been friends with had killed several people and fled. Leaving Indali as an accessory and the only per
son to put the blame on.

  Fifteen years of her life had been spent behind prison bars in India.

  Mark had done what he could to get her hired on, but even he couldn’t force her through the bureaucracy that was the Fed.

  They were starving for people, but he’d told her he simply couldn’t convince his boss to put her into agent training.

  “I’m afraid there really isn’t anything you could offer me,” Indali said with a sweet smile. “Though I’m flattered by your wish to hire me specifically.”

  Gus frowned. He had an option available to him that Mark didn’t.

  He could call the Curator and ask him for a favor.

  Melody had said he wasn’t available, that he was moving, but there was always the possibility he would pick up.

  “No? Nothing?” Gus asked, staring hard at Indali.

  “No,” said the woman with a shake of her head.

  “Are you really sure?” Gus asked again. He needed her to tell him what she wanted. He couldn’t do anything about it otherwise.

  Indali stared hard at Gus, her thoughts working from one to another as she considered telling him.

  All he could do was smile at her and wait.

  And that was apparently the right answer.

  She entered his office and closed the door behind her.

  “I want to work for the federal government itself,” Indali said, turning to face him. “I’m technically working for a third-party company employed by the federal government to staff their entry lobby.

  “I’m sure if I took the job you’re offering, I’d just be a third-party hire like I am today. It’s a contract.”

  Shrugging her shoulders, Indali gave him a cold and dead smile.

  “And you can’t because?” Gus asked.

  “I have a record that prevents it.” Indali folded her arms behind her back.

  Her memories flitted to her time in prison.

  A prison they sent Paras when they didn’t care if they would come back out again. Where she’d been locked in a form she wanted nothing to do with and couldn’t escape.

  She’d managed to protect herself in that hell hole, protect her “honor” as she called it, though she’d killed a number of other inmates to do it.

  “Okay. I can probably have that wiped out,” Gus said.

  Reaching over to his desk phone, he began moving condoms out of the way. Then he picked up the receiver and tapped a number into the pad.

  He’d memorized it a while ago just in case.

  “You… what?” Indali asked. Her mind was a whirlwind of hope, fear, and violent negativity. She came over to the front of his desk, then sat down in one of the chairs there.

  Several condoms fell off the edge of the desk and into her lap.

  The line suddenly picked up.

  “Hello Gus, how’s it going?” asked the Curator on the other end of the line.

  “Hey Dave,” Gus said. “Not too bad. Trish fixed my broken back. On a job now with the Fed. Contracted formally with Melody. I’m her Indigo.”

  “I’m aware,” Dave said. There was a definite pleased undertone in his voice. Gus couldn’t quite understand it, but he was happy the Curator was happy.

  “So… I know you’re moving and all, but I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor. Obviously with a favor for another time to be paid back.”

  “Sure, not a problem. What d’ya need?” Dave asked.

  “Need all records wiped for a person and replaced with something placid,” Gus said, leaning sideways in his chair. He had no doubt the Curator would call in for information from him since he worked for the Fed.

  Gus didn’t care.

  He had no loyalty to the Fed, who were likely to kill him and his whole family for no reason other than what they were.

  Boogiemen as a species were a “destroy on sight” race.

  “Huh… alright. I can do that. Name?” Dave said.

  “Indali Jaya, Construct race. Material type,” Gus said.

  “Alright. Probably going to take a few months, but it’ll be done,” Dave said.

  “Great, thanks. Oh, uh… probably… ended up moving much sooner than we thought we were,” Gus said. “You wanted to know if we moved, so… letting you know. Didn’t want to leave you in the dark.”

  “Haha, thanks Gus. I gotta go but I’ll take care of this,” Dave said.

  “Great, thanks Dave. I’ll see you later,” Gus said and hung up. “There we go. Can you start tomorrow for us?”

  Indali started to slowly nod her head. “Tomorrow… yes. Tomorrow. Who… who was that?”

  Gus grinned and flicked several condoms out of his lap.

  “The Curator. He’s… a friend of mine, I guess.”

  Chapter 4 - Questions

  Gus adjusted his tie as he got out of the black sedan.

  After closing the door, he opened up the rear driver’s side door and pulled his jacket from the hook attached to the “Oh Jesus” bar, as he called it.

  He pulled it on, then buttoned the top button and sighed.

  “That wasn’t so bad,” Trish said, closing her own car door. She pulled on her coat and then adjusted it at the hips and shoulders. “The plane ride was worse. I can at least stretch out in the car.”

  Gus grunted at that and shut the rear door.

  Looking at the massive concrete building in front of them, Gus wondered, not for the first time, if this was a bad idea.

  They’d taken a flight north over the border and then driven for three hours to get here. After this it was a forty-five-minute drive to their hotel.

  “That and it was rather nice to be able to just… talk. Even if the lady next to you kept trying to listen to us on the plane,” Trish said as she walked around to his side of the car. “Was nice just to talk.”

  “Yeah, that’s fair. Kinda felt that way, didn’t it?” Gus adjusted his new Fed medallion so it rested better on his chest and against his tie.

  Now that he really put his mind to it, it had been rather nice just to sit and talk with Trish the entire way up.

  He’d learned quite a bit about her life in Saint Anthony.

  She’d been very recalcitrant to talk about her life before that, however. He’d pressed a little bit and had immediately been shut down.

  It was surprising given everything they’d… shared… with each other, but he wasn’t going to push her further.

  He didn’t want to risk actually hurting her feelings. After all, he’d had a strange crush on the quiet cleaning lady long before he’d met Melody.

  “Do I look alright? This seems almost silly. Maybe I should put it away,” Trish said.

  Looking at the Elven-Dryad Sorceress, Gus paused.

  She was fussing with her Fed medallion as it rested against her coat. Her clothing did a very good job of de-emphasizing her spectacular figure, but the medallion drew attention back to her chest in an odd way.

  “Yeah, probably tuck it away. These people are monsters. Quite a few of them haven’t seen daylight in decades, or a woman. Let alone someone of your… er… looks.” Gus sighed.

  Trish nodded her head.

  “I appreciate the compliment,” she said, then pulled her medallion off over her head and slid it into one of her coat pockets.

  “Thank you for waiting,” said a voice from one side.

  Turning that way, Gus found himself looking at what seemed more like a soldier than a prison guard.

  It was a Were in full hybrid form, wearing fatigues, body armor, and a combat rifle.

  He looked like he was ready to simply stroll out into a warzone.

  “Of course,” Gus said. When they’d gone through the perimeter fence a mile back, they’d been told to wait at the parking lot at the end of the road. “I’m Agent Hellström. This is Agent Ash.”

  Gus held his hand out to the soldier while keeping firm eye contact with the Were. He wasn’t about to back down from a soldier, nor show him disrespect.

  Weres could be prickly after
all.

  “Sergeant Bittersmith,” said the Were, shaking Gus’s hand with his shifted paw. Then he turned and shook Trish’s hand as well. “That list you sent over? They’re all ready. We had them all pulled into control rooms to facilitate it.

  “I had a looksie over your request myself. Looks like you’re either going for a coven or Vampires.”

  Waving a hand at Gus and Trish, the Were turned and started walking up the path leading to the big concrete prison.

  Gus nodded at Bittersmith’s words. He wasn’t surprised in the least that the sergeant had looked. He’d be more surprised if he hadn’t.

  “More or less,” Gus said. “How long do you think it’ll take for that information to filter back to Saint Anthony?

  “Do I have any lead time to work with?”

  “Probably two weeks, give or take a few days,” Bittersmith said with a chuckle. “We keep ’em locked down pretty tight here, but people do eventually finish up their sentences and leave. That’s where the information gets out from. We work on a bi-monthly release setup. Yesterday was release day for the most recent group. It’ll take ’em a few days to get home.”

  “That makes sense. Thank you, Sergeant,” Trish responded before Gus could. “Is there anything we should be aware of before we go in?”

  Bittersmith didn’t say anything. Instead he kept walking along the path, his combat rifle ready in his hands, his head moving back and forth and scanning his surroundings.

  “You do time in the sandbox?” Gus asked instead, realizing the Were rightfully didn’t trust either of them.

  Bittersmith’s head cocked to the side at that, then slowly turned Gus’s way.

  “Honorable discharge. One hundred and fourteen confirmed. Additional ninety-two unconfirmed. Almost all Elves,” Gus said, interpreting the man’s glance. “They released me because I found out about the Para world and couldn’t serve in the regular divisions anymore.”

  After staring at Gus for another several seconds, Bittersmith finally looked ahead again.

  “Don’t trust the assistant warden; don’t cross him either. Warden’s fine. Don’t give the inmates any information about yourself. Especially you, Agent Ash.” Bittersmith’s voice softened. “You’re about to get a lot of shit as soon as you walk in there.”