“That’s… not everything,” Gus said. “I apparently ripped open a portal that had been left behind when I tracked Janelle. I didn’t fly out to that prison.”
“A portal,” Vanessa said.
“A portal. Apparently from a planar lord. The Curator said it sounded like a planar lord or something like it,” Gus said.
“Is that all he said?” Melody asked. “About the portal and the planar lord?”
“Yeah. Didn’t seem like it really interested him, more of a passing thing,” Gus said. “Why, is that significant?”
“Yes and no.” Melody frowned. “I can ask my nephew-in-law to check on the portal. He’s a planar lord. He could probably even tell us who made it if he gets there soon enough. I’ll give him a call. Probably not a terrible time for you to meet him and my niece anyways.”
“What’s he like?” Gus asked curiously.
“He’s an Incubus. Sex Demon,” Melody said, pulling out her cell phone. “Hottest man alive you’ll ever meet. Though I swear if he brings Jes along I’m going to beat him to death.
“The last thing I need is for you to see a Succubus. I may be confident, but I’m not that confident.”
“Never met an Incubus, Succubus, or planar lord,” Gus said. “Met Demons and demon-kind aplenty though.”
“It’s… complicated,” Melody said. “They’re Demons, but not. It’s like calling a fallen Angel a Demon. They’re really not. They’re just Angelics.”
Shaking his head, Gus didn’t bother trying to follow that. He’d never done well with the Demons, Angelics, or Devils. There was too much crossover into religious territory that made him leery of the whole thing.
“Looking at the map, it seems like all the incidents are central in one area,” Vanessa said, staring at her screen. “I’ll call that area first.”
Trish nodded, then took Gus and Janelle by the arms and led them away. Toward Indali.
“Now, how about you two, Indali, Hailey, and I all go have lunch? I think we have a lot to talk about,” Trish said, smiling at Gus. “Besides, those two will be quite busy for a while with their own tasks.”
Gus couldn’t really deny that he expected both Vanessa and Melody to be neck deep in their dealings for a little while.
“We can bring them back some food,” Trish said. “And in the meantime, we can figure out what we can do to assist. It wouldn’t do for us to sit around doing nothing.
“Even if it’s just cleaning.”
Except Gus didn’t quite believe her. He was detecting faint undertones in her voice. Something that almost always had to do with her Dryad nature.
What are you plotting, Trish, and why do I get the feeling I won’t like it?
Chapter 21 - Dinner
Driving onto the naval yard grounds once again, Gus really wasn’t sure how to carry himself.
Last time he’d come through it was with a captain and by invitation.
This time he was with a colonel and had a handwritten, authorized, assigned, and validated in triplicate pass from a two-star general and the only living director of the Fed, past or present.
That was more than enough clearance for most anyone who’d be on the base. There certainly wasn’t a rear admiral or above on base, or anyone who would be willing to go after the Fed and a major general who was on board.
Gus walked up to the guard and held the orders out to the man.
Who waved him away visibly, not even wanting to touch the orders.
“Just go on in, Agent,” said the gate guard. “Base commander—that’s Captain Hershey, sir—made everyone aware of your arrival.”
Captain Hershey, huh? That’d be the navy equivalent of a colonel in the army, right? Step below a rear admiral or a brigadier general.
Pretty sure it is.
Looks like our glorious leader Fin rang someone’s bell in the Navy.
“Thank you.” Gus handed the envelope back to Melody, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
After what’d happened last time, they’d been told to drive up in a black-on-black sedan.
That and Melody had insisted on coming.
It was Gus, Melody, Vanessa, Janelle, and Trish all in the car. Minus the addition of Janelle, this felt a lot like “the team” when Gus thought about it.
The new recruits were nice, and Indali had a place at his side, but the team was the women he’d be living with for a long time.
“Goodness,” Melody said after Gus’s window rolled back up. “With that kind of response, it’s almost as if the base commander got their ass handed to them. They knew who you were without wanting to see anything of you.”
“Not quite,” Janelle said. “I looked into it a bit. Being a full colonel granted me far more in the way of available information than I thought it would.
“The previous base commander, a captain as well, was immediately detained after what happened was reported up. They were found dead in their cell from what appears to be suicide.”
Fat chance of that.
They sent another Boogieman assassin, I bet. Using those nasty little portals, they could get one in there. Up close and personal without an issue.
“I think… that’s the base commander,” Janelle said. “On the left.”
Gus looked away from the road he was following. Off to one side was a man in a naval officer uniform. He was a bit too far away for Gus to see his ranking insignia.
“That’s him,” Janelle confirmed a few seconds later.
Where the base commander stood was next to a parking spot that had clearly been set aside for Gus.
Holy shit, Fin. Did you skull-fuck the Navy?
Remind me not to piss her off.
Pulling into the space that felt like it had been set aside for them specifically, Gus got out with some celerity. He didn’t want the base commander standing there waiting for him.
There was a certain amount of respect one had to pay to a rank, regardless of the person.
Respect the rank, not the man.
Getting out, Gus adjusted his coat, making sure Indali was there at his side.
“What is it?” she asked in her own mind. He’d taken to simply being linked to her at all times. It was easier that way, and it meant he could fine tune her shots with what he wanted her to do.
“Uh… nothing. Just… making sure you were at my side,” Gus thought back to her.
“I’m here, Gustavus. Don’t fret,” Indali’s tone had a smile in it.
“You must be Agent Hellström,” said the captain, holding out a hand to Gus. He had dark-brown hair, soft blue eyes, and a stern-looking face in his forties. “I’m Captain Hershey. Most just call me Hershey.”
“Yeah, that’s me. Thanks for greeting us, Captain Hershey,” Gus said, taking the man’s hand. It was firm. He didn’t try to pull Gus in or push him away, and he didn’t try to turn his palm toward the ground or crush his hand.
Confident, intelligent, cautious.
He’s a survivor.
“Thanks for the welcome,” Gus said.
“Mm. Isn’t every day I get an admiral calling me to give me orders who isn’t my direct superior.” The captain released Gus’s hand. “Not sure who the hell your boss is, but they’ve got half the Navy bending over and the other half begging to be bent over rather than what they think is coming.”
Gus didn’t know how to respond to that.
It sounded like Fin had way more power than Gus had even begun to suspect.
“I just work for the Fed,” Gus said as the captain turned toward Melody.
The captain shook each person’s hand and exchanged simple pleasantries.
“Well, Mr. Just Works For The Fed, my orders were simple. Give you the keys to the base, answer any questions you have, and get the fuck out of your way,” the captain said. “Anything you need?”
“Access to that building right there.” Gus pointed back to the entry gate. The same building Janelle had vanished in.
“And access to a ship that’
s landing tomorrow at around noon,” Melody said. “No one can get off the boat, no item can leave it, and we need it locked down completely. But no one can know that’s the order until it’s pulled into port.
“We can’t risk something happening to the cargo or crew before it arrives.”
The captain’s eye twitched at that, but then he nodded his head.
“Consider it done,” he said. “As for the building, burn that fucker down for all I care. It seems to be the center of a great deal of woes I’m dealing with. Might actually make my life easier if it went up in an inferno.”
“Problems?” Gus asked, curious.
“Yeah, problems. Never-ending ones,” Captain Hershey said. “Missing requisition papers, missing personnel and paperwork, what one of the night guards thinks is a non-existent cat that has everyone believing the damn thing is haunted.
“Already had a damn Contractor come out and give it a clean bill of health, but that won’t change superstition.”
Whoopsie daisy. I hope they didn’t do anything to the guard.
“Nothing else?” Hershey asked, looking from person to person.
“I’d ask to see all the paperwork on that building,” Janelle said. “But I get the impression you don’t have it and would love to see it yourself.”
“Damn right I would,” Hershey said with a huff. “I’ve been here all of two days and I already hate my life.”
Gus grinned; he couldn’t help himself.
All soldiers complained. It was what they were best at. Didn’t matter what service, branch, department, affiliation—you complained.
And complained loudly.
“I’ll be sure to let my boss know you were most helpful, Captain,” Gus said sincerely. The man had definitely gone out of his way to make sure Gus and his team felt welcomed.
Hershey nodded at that. “I’ll be in my office if you need me. Still settling in.”
Without anything else said, the man turned and started heading away.
“I can only imagine what Fin did,” Melody said. “But I’m so glad… so very glad… that you called the Curator in front of her.”
In other words, if she does find something out about me, she’ll be less likely to do anything about it.
Saying nothing, the group fell in behind Janelle as she led the way. She was dressed in a service uniform and had the look of someone you didn’t want to get in the way of.
She’d already been vanished once after heading into this building.
Moving up to the front, Gus leaned in toward Janelle.
“Might want to get a hold of Navy IT and see if we can’t pull a backup of their personnel database,” Gus said. “I can’t imagine the number of people who can just delete records is large. More than likely they’d have to leave some type of trail behind one way or another.”
“I assumed the same,” Janelle said. “Was planning on having it dug into. This isn’t just some… company. This is a branch of the military. I can’t even begin to think for a moment that they’d be able to get rid of all the safeguards made specifically to track this sort of thing.”
“Me neither,” Gus said, stopping in front of the building.
Janelle reached for the door, but it was locked up tight. She couldn’t pull it open.
“Hm,” Melody said. “Maybe Captain—”
“Ah, sorry about that,” said a young man walking up to Gus’s group. There was a light sheen of perspiration on his brow, as if he’d been running. “Captain sent me over with the keys.”
In several seconds, the door was unlocked and pulled open wide by the young man.
“I’ll just wait here in case there’s anything else you’d like opened,” said the man as he held the door.
Wordlessly, Gus’s team trooped in and went through the lobby.
“Guess I spoke too soon,” Melody murmured as Janelle tapped the elevator door button. “Captain Hershey is doing exactly what he said he would. We really should tell Fin he complied completely.”
“That’d be the plan,” Gus said.
The elevator doors slid open with a ding and everyone filed in.
Janelle tapped the top floor, and the doors shut once more.
Then Gus felt a hand on his rear end. Long fingers grazed along the curve of his bottom.
Unsurprised, Gus didn’t even need to look over his shoulder to know it was Trish. She got a bit handsy in private situations now. The shy, quiet woman was only visible in public and around others.
In private, she was something else entirely.
When the elevator dinged the top floor, her hand left his backside as if it had never been there.
“This is where I just… can’t remember anything more,” Janelle said, walking straight out of the elevator and towards the office.
Yanking the door open, Janelle stomped inside and looked around.
“They really did clear everything out. This was decorated and looked like any number of offices I’d seen before.” Janelle turned to the others. “I can’t see the portal though.”
“It’s there,” Gus said, walking over. He could still see the magic dot, though it was little bigger than an ant now. He could feel it more than see it. “It’s much smaller now.”
“The residue fades with time,” Melody said, pulling papers out of the folder she’d been holding. “Don’t touch it though. We really don’t want to alert anyone on the other side we’re here.”
“Huh.” Gus looked away from the portal. “Hadn’t planned on it. It’s rather cold over there right now.”
“Very cold,” Janelle grumbled.
“Speaking of your excursion,” Vanessa said with a frown. She hadn’t taken it very well when they’d explained Janelle had been naked and clutching Gus for their entire escape from the prison. “I got an interesting email the other day. From one Serafina.”
“Don’t know any Serafinas,” Gus said, leaning up against the desk. He was watching Melody laying the papers she’d just pulled out onto the ground.
“Yes we do,” Janelle said, walking over to Gus and tapping his hip. “Move over.”
Gus complied, moving over to the middle of the desk and looking at Janelle.
“We do?” he asked.
“The PID office. You used her cell phone.” Janelle took the spot he’d just vacated and leaned up on the desk in the same way he was. “That was her name. Serafina.”
“Well, apparently she did some digging after she met you,” Vanessa said, watching Gus with her brow slightly lowered. “She emailed me asking for info about you. Apparently whatever database they’re working with hasn’t been updated. I was still listed as PID.”
“Oh, she emailed me as well,” Trish said, coming over to sit on Gus’s other side. She pressed her hip up into his. “I forwarded it over to Mel.”
“She wants a job,” Melody said, leaning over the center paper on the ground. “She put together everything she knew about Gus, what she’d figured out about the situation, and what happened with the prison. She used it as her resume, I guess.
“She starts next week. Who am I to not hire someone that determined and intelligent? I think she and I will get along fabulously when I have to find puzzles for Reixhitz for his annual contract.”
“Who?” Gus asked.
“Oh, he’s a Torment. My nephew-in-law introduced me to him. He’s a really old spirit with a great deal of knowledge available, and he can find things,” Melody said. She was pressing the tip of a blade to her fingertip. “He’s the spirit I contracted Orange to for power.”
Ah. Extra-planar spirit.
No sooner had Melody’s blood drop hit the paper than a portal opened up right there.
A man stepped through immediately, followed by a woman.
They were both the single most attractive people Gus had ever seen in his entire life.
The man had long dark brown hair in a ponytail that looked extremely out of fashion. He was dressed in business casual and looked like he was ready to go out f
or dinner. His eyes were dark. Almost black.
The woman next to him was incredible. It was the only word that could describe her.
She had long, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes that were almost purple. Describing her as being easy on the eyes was putting it mildly. If he ever saw someone better looking, he’d eat his own badge.
Beyond that, she looked like she’d been built one surgery at a time and had a perfect body.
“Mel!” shouted the woman, hopping out of the portal and wrapping up Melody in a hug. “How are you?”
“Hey, Jes,” Melody said, hugging the woman back. She sounded partially annoyed, but still happy. “Fine. Good to see you. You weren’t around when I visited last time.”
“Oh, you know, business. Was a small cartel, but they were worth some money,” said the woman apparently named Jes.
“This is Jes,” Melody said as she held the woman out at her side. “Jes, this is Gus, Janelle, Trish, and Vanessa. Janelle isn’t one of my contracts. Gus is my Indigo.”
“I’m so excited you finally got your Indigo,” Jes said, patting Melody on the shoulder.
Rather… strange.
“Oh, he’s rather handsome,” said the man, walking up next to Melody and getting a hug from her as well. “And a Boogieman? Goodness. Didn’t you luck out?”
“Yes. Yes I did,” Melody said, her cheeks coloring. “Ah… this is Sam. My niece’s husband.”
Gus nodded his head at the man, trying not to look at the woman. She gave him an uncomfortable feeling he didn’t quite like.
“So. Portal?” Sam asked, looking at Melody.
“Oh, yes. Gus said it’s right over there.” Melody pointed toward the general area.
“Really? Hm. I’m afraid I can’t sense it,” Sam said as he moved over that way.
“It’s right there.” Gus pointed at it.
“Ah… I’m afraid it’s beyond my senses,” Sam said, peering at the spot Gus indicated. “Could you perhaps come over and show me more closely?”
Gus shrugged, then got up walking over. He held a finger up right next to dot.
“Here,” he said.
Sam got in close to the spot, his eyes seeming to search for anything at all.
Swing Shift: Book 2 Page 23