House of Dolls 5

by Harmon Cooper

  “Sorry, it’s kind of a convoluted story. The safe house he was living in, where the Eastern Province government was experimenting on him, blew up mysteriously. He escaped.”

  “An explosion at a covert safe house? That doesn’t sound so mysterious.”

  “No, it doesn’t. Luckily, Nadine made sure Eli and Lisa got away safely. I even forged passports for them.”

  “Centralian passports?”

  “That’s right. The agency wants me to go after those two, Eli in particular. They don’t care as much about Lisa; while her Soul Speed power is unique, there are others who can do similar things. Our government wants the healer. So that’s the first part.” Roman took a sip of his wine and shook his head. “The second part is they want me to kill Nadine, whom I consider a friend.”

  “Anything more than a friend?”

  Roman felt that telepathic creep again, a frown taking shape on his face. “I asked you not to do that. I’m telling you everything, just give me a chance.”

  “But it’s fun to jump ahead,” Emelia said with a playful pout.

  Roman canceled his next thought, that he could feel her flirting with him. Emelia always flirted with him, and he was pretty sure something could happen between them if he so desired.

  And there was a part of Roman that wouldn’t mind giving in to that desire.

  Emelia was a beautiful woman, the colors of her hair and eyes making her seem mysterious, forbidden in a way. She had a tight body, and Roman had an itching feeling that she would be great in bed.

  But he also actively avoided hooking up with telepaths, and even though she was an empath, she had some telepathic tendencies.

  So no.

  Definitely no.

  Out of the question.

  “I care about Nadine,” Roman said after a long sigh. “We have been through a lot together, and there were plenty of times she could have betrayed me. But she never did. She’s always had my back. If it weren’t for her…”

  A memory flashed in Roman’s head of his battle against Margo, when Mister Fist’s team had shown up and Nadine had fought off a team of exemplars to save Roman.

  She had balls.

  Roman couldn’t help but smile when thinking of Nadine. His smile shattered when he remembered he was supposed to kill her.

  “Is there another part?”

  Roman nodded. “Yeah, sorry. The first part is to find Eli, the second part is to kill Nadine, and the third part is to prevent the usage and spread of whatever the East has created through the dissecting of my power. I’d assumed this would have me going to the Eastern Province, which was confirmed when I found a set of passports and travel documents in the apartment they provided me.”

  “The first task sounds doable; the second sounds like it will be a personal struggle; but the third sounds practically impossible. Who knows what they’ve done with whatever technology their techs have derived from your ability.”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “And how are you supposed to simply prevent this?”

  “I guess ‘prevent’ isn’t the correct word. I was told that I need to find out as much as I can about what they’ve done with the data collected from my power. I just assumed that went along with doing whatever I could to stop it.”

  Emelia held her wine glass out for a moment, swirling the liquid inside. “That sounds more doable. It seems, if I may, that all roads lead to Nadine.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’ll know what they’ve done with your power, and if anyone knows where Eli and Lisa are, it will be her. Is she still in communication with you?”

  “Yes. She wants to meet, or at least I’m assuming she does. She already sent me a message today, but I ignored it. For all she knows, I’m still away.”

  “What do you want?” Emelia asked suddenly, tilting her head as she looked at Roman. “What does Roman want? I think that’s one thing that needs to be discussed here.”

  “Me?” Roman considered this for a moment. “I guess I want to be left alone. I don’t mind working for the government, but I don’t want to be used as an assassin. I would like to be trained better, because I feel like I’m lacking, especially when it comes to intelligence gathering. I would like to not be asked to kill someone I care about. And there’s another thing I want.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I want Margo. She is still around, still trying to get to me, and I want to put an end to that.”

  “That’s curious. They didn’t task you with finding or killing Margo, did they?”

  Roman shook his head. “They didn’t. And I wish they had. From what I can tell, they may have other ideas of what they should do with Margo, but that sounds incredibly foolish to me. There is no controlling her, and she’s damn hard to kill.”

  The waitress came by again and asked if they would like another bottle of wine. Rather than say anything, Emelia simply looked at the woman. The waitress nodded and walked away. Emelia’s voice softened. “I’m about to give you some advice here that might not be the best advice a friend could give another friend.” The empath’s eyes darted left and right. “There might be a point in the future when you look back at this conversation and wish I hadn’t said what I’m about to say.”

  “Yeah?”

  Emelia paused for a moment, composing herself. Her cheeks were a bit red from the alcohol now, her violet eyes just a little glossier than they had been thirty minutes ago. “It seems to me that everyone wants you to do something for them, and they keep dangling carrots over your head that will theoretically forgive you of a past transgression. This sound about right?”

  “It does.”

  “But you don’t know if they’ll actually forgive you or not, do you? Didn’t you go to the West for this very same reason? Didn’t they dangle the same redemption?”

  “They did. But then more information…”

  “It doesn’t matter. This will likely be how they treat you for the rest of your life. Can’t you see that? It’s always going to be something, and the reward is going to be your continued existence. I have a similar situation, although with less at stake. So the way I see it, you have a few choices. Your first choice is to fall in line and do exactly what they ask of you. You will work with their operatives, find Eli, kill Nadine, and discover what you can about what the East has done with your power. That’s option number one.”

  “And the others?”

  “Another option would be to do exactly what you want, what’s best for Roman, and perhaps use your powers to get to a place where they can’t find you,” she said as the waitress brought over another bottle of wine. The woman filled Emelia’s glass with what was left of the first bottle and left quickly. “Margo has been able to elude capture this entire time. Why can’t you?”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Roman said as he finished his second glass of wine. Or was it his third? He couldn’t remember now, and he definitely recalled Emelia topping him off at some point.

  “There’s another option.”

  “Yeah?”

  “There’s always the option of going out with a bang.”

  “Going out with a bang?”

  She nodded. “Show up at the Centralian Intelligence Agency and bring the place to the ground. Kill yourself in the process, because you know they’ll do terrible things to you if they take you alive.”

  “Are you suggesting a suicide mission?”

  “Those are just three options off the top of my head. Now, obviously, there’s one that I don’t agree with, the third one. I definitely don’t want you to do something like that; I’m just pointing out that it’s an option. I don’t know what good it will do killing innocent exemplars, even if they do work for the agency. There are always people waiting in line to take their places, so it’s not like it would cause anarchy or anything. But it is always an option, especially with your ability.” She sighed, again swirling her wine. “There may be another option, one in which you play all the sides against one ano
ther,” she said as she watched the liquid in the glass, “but I’m not at the point where I can figure out the angle on that one. Not yet anyway. But it’s something you should think about.”

  Roman raised his wine glass. “Decisions.”

  “Yes, decisions,” Emelia said, raising her wine glass to meet his.

  Chapter Two: Fiery

  Emelia tried to smile, but Roman could tell she was disappointed.

  “Next time,” he told her, inching away from the beautiful empath.

  “I know, it’s stupid…”

  A gust of wind picked up, rustling through the ends of her light-pink trench coat.

  “It isn’t stupid; I’ve just never been into cosplay cafes. I’ve tried. They just aren’t my thing.”

  “But with my powers…” She stopped herself, the empath sulking a bit. “I can make it fun. I could make you forget your current problems.”

  “That…” Roman nodded. “That doesn’t actually sound like a bad idea. How about next time we have drinks? We can go then. Sound good?”

  “Why do I get the feeling you’ll just blow me off again?”

  Roman tried not to visibly wince and failed. She wasn’t wrong in this assumption.

  “It’s fine,” she said. “I’ll get a teleporter.”

  “I can walk you…”

  “Twenty blocks? No. It’s fine. Roman, you be you.” She turned to him, her smile starting to crack.

  “I appreciate your advice,” he told her as a wisp of smoke lifted from the pavement.

  A licensed teleporter appeared from the smoke, a man with droopy eyes and a hooked nose.

  “Bye, Roman.”

  Still with a grimace on his face, Roman ordered his own teleporter. The ground in front of him started to rumble. Roman watched it, expecting the teleporter to appear.

  “Behind you,” came a woman’s voice.

  Roman turned to find yet another licensed teleporter, this one with her shirt pulled into a knot just above her behind. “It’s part of my power,” she said once Roman looked back at the place where the ground had been rumbling.

  “Sure.”

  The woman reached out to him. “Well? Are you coming?”

  “How?”

  She looked down at her extended hand. Roman scratched the back of his head for a moment.

  He was drunk, definitely drunk.

  “Sorry,” Roman said, touching her hand.

  Everything started to shake, Roman immediately feeling it in his gut. His body vibrated so quickly he could no longer make out the details around him, his periphery a blur of light and color.

  “Ugh,” Roman said once things started to solidify. He was in front of his new apartment, the doorman standing by the entrance staring at him intently.

  “You’ll be all right,” the teleporter said before clapping Roman on the back.

  The ground quaked again and she was gone.

  Roman bent over, his hands on his knees as he tried not to throw up.

  “Are you all right, sir?” the doorman asked.

  He was a big man, clearly a Type II Class C employed by the Centralian Intelligence Agency to watch the building. While the fifteen-story apartment building looked innocuous on the outside, it was exclusively used by the government, with security stations on each level.

  “I… I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting that.”

  Roman spit, and some of it dripped down to his chin. “I wish teleporters came with a warning.”

  The man chuckled. “You and me both, buddy. By the way, you have a visitor,” he said, offering Roman a tissue.

  “Thanks. Wait, did you say visitor?”

  “Yes. A woman. She had the proper ID, so I let her up.”

  “Do you recall what she looked like?”

  The doorman considered this for a moment. “She told me not to tell you.”

  Roman stood and placed the tissue in his back pocket. “And you said she had ID?” he asked, immediately thinking of Margo.

  “Yes, and it all checked out. No need to worry, Mr. Martin.”

  Roman gave the doorman a hard look. “You don’t know the type of people that want me dead; you don’t know what they’re capable of.”

  The big man cleared his throat. “She was vetted by our telepathic service as well.”

  “There’s a telepathic service here?” Roman asked, looking up at the building.

  “Before the outer door can open, people are remotely vetted by a telepath.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Look, Mr. Martin, I’d tell you, but she made me promise not to.”

  “It’s fine,” Roman said as he made his way into the building. “I’ll take my chances.”

  Roman stepped into the elevator, wondering as he looked around how he’d been remotely vetted. There wasn’t anything to indicate he was being watched, but that didn’t mean the Centralian government wasn’t keeping an eye on him.

  As the elevator reached his floor, Roman braced himself, taking in his surroundings and seeing what he could potentially use as a weapon. There were only two rooms on his floor, and as he made it to his door, he thought about giving consciousness to the wall so he could get an idea of what was on the other side.

  Roman canceled this thought.

  Coma, Celia, and Casper were in his home, all of them animated.

  If something had happened, he’d know about it.

  Even though his nerves were tingling, Roman unlocked the door and opened it to the foyer.

  “He’s home,” Casper said as she came running down the hallway. “Your teacher is here, and she’s being a drunk bitch.”

  “I’m going to melt you alive!” Roman heard Ava call from the other room.

  “Of course,” he said under his breath as he dropped to a knee and Casper made a running leap onto his leg. She scaled her way up until he offered her his hand, the tiny doll cursing at Roman for not being more of a gentleman.

  “What did you tell her?” he hissed to Casper.

  “I didn’t tell her anything, promise,” Casper said. “I learned my lesson last time.”

  “Good.” Roman took the tiny doll’s life away and placed her on the table near the door. He stepped into his living room to find Ava resting on the couch, an unopened bottle of wine on the table. Coma sat in the chair across from her, poised and ready to go if need be.

  “Welcome home, Roman,” Celia said from the kitchen. She came around with two wine glasses in her hands.

  “Thank you,” he told the redheaded doll. “Please take a seat.”

  Celia placed the glasses on the table and did as instructed, first sitting at the bar.

  “A different chair, please,” he told her, not yet paying attention to Ava. Celia sat next to Coma, and once she was settled, Roman took the power away from all his dolls.

  “Good, they were starting to annoy me,” Ava said, her face red, the fire user slurring her words a bit.

  “You showed up drunk?”

  She smirked. “Not drunk enough yet.” Her eyes dropped to the bottle. “Care to do the honors?”

  The cork squeezed out of the bottle on its own accord.

  Roman poured Ava a glass, then poured a glass for himself.

  She raised her wine glass to his. “Have you been drinking too?”

  “I have,” he told her as he took a seat next to her.

  “With who?”

  “Alone.”

  “Why do you lie? Were you out with Miranda?”

  Roman gave her a funny look. “Miranda the telepath?”

  “Do you know another Miranda?”

  “No, and I’m not into telepaths.”

  “She seemed to be into you,” Ava said with a jealous shrug.

  “I didn’t notice,” Roman lied. “Why are you here?”

  “Is that really how you want to ask me that question?”

  “Is there another way to ask it?” Roman noticed that an extra button on her blouse was undone, a swath of her flesh visible.


  “I thought you could use the company.”

  “I already have company.”

  Ava took a deep breath in and finished the wine in her glass. “Relax, Roman. It’s me you’re talking to.”

  “I know. You could have messaged me.”

  “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

  “Why?”

  “Why not? There aren’t enough surprises in life,” she said.

  “I could argue differently.”

  “Let’s not argue.”

  “I agree with you there.” He took a sip of his wine. It was good stuff; Roman was no connoisseur, but he could tell by the crispness that it wasn’t the cheaper crap he normally drank.

  “I…” Ava poured herself another glass. “I was feeling lonely.”

  “Sometimes that’s a good thing,” Roman said. “Sorry, you just got me riled up. I didn’t know who to expect. I thought it was…”

  “Miranda?”

  “What? Why do you keep bringing her up? No, Margo. I thought she’d figured out I was here and she’d be waiting for me.”

  “If Margo comes here, every exemplar employed by the Agency will be here in a matter of minutes. This apartment is secure.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  Ava scooted closer to Roman.

  He could sense in the air that she wanted him, that there had been a shared tension between them ever since she’d come back into his life. But he was troubled by what he’d seen of Ava in the Western Province, how quickly she’d changed her focus to the serums Kevin had while Jess was injured.

  Roman didn’t have a lot of scruples, but something in that moment had made him despise Ava, even if Jess wasn’t exactly a friend of his.

  “It was hard, that month we didn’t talk,” she admitted. “But I was upset, and something I learned long ago about myself is that when I’m upset, I need my space. It’s my power. It can feed off my anger, so I have to be careful.”

  “It was a much harder month for me than it was for you,” Roman said bitterly. “Imagine having your power taken away…”

  “Really? You’re going with this argument again? I’m sitting here confessing to you…”

  “It was a shitty month for me too,” Roman said, cutting her off.