by P. S. Power
By the time he reached the room he knew what had happened. The Demon in the body had made it to the Nexus point and gone through to who knows where. Vaun shook his head.
“Demon.” He said, looking at Zack.
“I know. I recognized him. We should get back and make sure everyone's all right.”
They were all fine, except for Zack. The Djinn had automatically pushed the explosion away from themselves, and everyone else at the table. Unfortunately, since the force had to go somewhere, they had no choice given the shape of the room except to push it right past him.
He picked up his chair, which was remarkably untouched, and sat back down at the table as their version of guards or police came to take over for Hilda and Lars who had subdued the two gunman that remained alive. A medic had also been called for him. That was fine, but looking down at his leg, nothing seemed like it would kill him.
He told them about the Demon, dressed in black. Only Hilda responded with anything except speculation about why the Demons would be trying to kill them.
“A demon in black, do you think it was...”
“Oh, I know it was. He still has the same body. It's the demon that possessed my dad. I saw his face, it's him.” This set off murmurs from administrators when the translators spoke.
He looked at the officials carefully, and asked if any of them knew anything about this at all. This was spoken on both levels. All of them denied any knowledge, and all of them were being honest. Scared. Worried he'd blame them. Concerned that he wouldn't feel safe coming to Lesser Shia anymore. None of them tried to have him killed though. If the target actually had been him at all.
“So, about that agreement? I agree with one caveat, we cut the transport fees by seventy-five percent. This should increase trade and let people move more freely. If we have to add hours or days to make up the difference we do it. Agreed?”
They scrambled, first for words, then for contracts, though they offered to wait until he had a clearer head and his injuries had been treated. He signed it making sure he had enough room to get days off when he needed them. It actually gave him remarkable flexibility, he realized. They wrote it with the understanding that he could choose when to work or not and didn't even obligate him to a given amount of hours per week, setting it all up to fit his schedule rather than the other way around.
The medic came and wrapped bandages around Zack's wounds as they hammered out the other deals. He agreed with most of the requests, turning down only mass military transport. Rescue missions, yes. Sneak attacks, no. This angered Brin Patterson, who'd added it at the last minute. She did get in on several other deals that would bring her kind a lot of buying power, which soothed her a bit by the end of the day.
Before they went home a group of Demons headed by one in the body of a type of person he had never seen before, came to talk to them.
“We wish to assure you that we, as individuals and our kind as a whole, didn't have any part in today's actions. If a single individual or small group acted in such a wasteful fashion, then please don't let that reflect on the whole. This is not us. We didn't take these actions.” This came from the strange being, all white, like an albino, but with eyes of pure red that were larger, nearly twice the size, of regular Human eyes. Their leader.
Zack knew he couldn't speak civilly, so he held his tongue. That they claimed something made little difference. Demons didn't lie all the time, but had no qualms about doing it, and would lie if it suited their purpose in the moment. They simply didn't have the same morality that he did. Not even close.
Hathe and the others were obviously relieved. They'd gotten through the day and made deals that would serve their people well for a long time. That Zack played a central part in these transactions didn't escape anyone, they just thought that this had to do with a personal issue or sour grapes on the part of some demon. Maybe it did, he thought, even though he couldn't think of a single reason for it to be that way. With Demons you couldn't know, that being part of what made them so dangerous.
Somehow, he knew, he'd find that particular demon and destroy it. He didn't know exactly how, but he knew who to ask about doing it. Later he'd try to find out if it would be possible. When everyone else had been taken care of.
For now, he'd learn, and wait, and try to stay alive. He had a serious disadvantage in that others knew where he'd be and when, at least roughly. This demon could be anywhere and come at any time. He could act through proxies and bide his time, being immortal. He could switch bodies and come at him or those around him at any time, from fresh directions no one would ever suspect.
Even if he could learn how to kill the thing, finding him may be nearly impossible, except if he actually tried to attack Zack himself.
He couldn't survive that way. No one could. This burned in his mind. He must be ready.
Now, he reflected, if he could only figure out what getting ready really meant.
The demon kept speaking, saying that they welcomed this bit of competition, since most of it didn't touch their business at all. Their businesses didn't overlap, due to differing demographics. Indeed most of their business didn't have anything to do with the exhausting process of line travel at all, instead dealing with... other factors.
That demons might find line travel exhausting caught his interest. Did they have limits as to what they could do then? Could they move too often leaving them unable to do more for a time? This could potentially prove useful. He filed it away for later.
Locking everything down, all of his emotions, he finally spoke.
“Thank you for coming and sharing that with us. Hopefully cordial relationships will be maintained and last well into the future.” While he couldn't remember the name of the program, the way he tilted his head and nodded downward he copied from a science fiction show Troy liked to watch old reruns of. It should look both regal and condescending at the same time.
If it did, the Demons didn't react to it. Instead they made rather pleasant sounding goodbyes and left, walking in unison.
Lisa and Hathe wrapped things up, giving everyone copies of agreements and expressing how pleased they were. A little distracted, he tried to focus on his surroundings, and stay alert. He made his goodbyes to the officials, all of them worried about something, trade and revenue mostly.
He got them all back to Candles and More quickly, so quickly that they all looked at him a little funny. He asked if they were all right.
“Yes, I just... did you actually come and go each time? It seemed like people just started walking into the line, like you weren't there...” Brin said.
Vaun nodded at this. “Indeed, I couldn't make you out on several of the transfers. When I went, I felt your presence, but not your hand on my arm...Very odd.”
He shrugged and said he hadn't noticed.
When they left and got out of easy ear shot, even for a Vampire, Lisa turned to him, eyes practically glowing with excitement.
“Do you have any idea how much money these contracts represent?”
“Honestly? No. I haven't had a clue about how much money we're dealing with since you handed me my first pay packet with twelve hundred dollars in it. Everything else might as well have been imaginary as far as I'm concerned.” He shrugged.
She tilted her head. “I guess I can see that. It's all been happening pretty fast, huh?”
He smiled and laughed a bit, softly.
“Look, Lisa... You need to be careful. We don't know who they were after. I seem like the likely person, but who knows? There could be things, no, there are things we don't understand happening here. So kind of like combat protocols or something. Or like you have a crazy stalker. Just assume they're always there, even if you can't see them.”
He looked at her, gave her a hug and said, “No matter what, none of this is worth dying over. Be safe first.”
He left and went directly to his appointment with Patty. She looked at him, a mess with bandages and torn clothing, and raised an eyebrow.
�
��What's all this? A new look?”
“Hmph. It seems like it, doesn't it? No, a hit squad set off a bomb and tried to shoot, well, somebody. It could have been someone else in the room, or all of us, which seems the most likely answer. Sorry, I need to focus on this. What do we do first?”
It started with a book, one that described the nerve structure and sensitive organ placement of the body. She told him to memorize it. He could take the book home to do that though. Right now he needed to write out his shopping lists.
He did it fairly quickly having actually thought about it for a while the evening before.
Looking at his lists for a minute, nodding at him, then looking again she asked, “All of the Succubi and Incubi working here made your personal list? Val of course, but why the rest? They aren't lovers, that I know of. You and I haven't reached that level at least. Well... Not yet.”
He shrugged, which he'd been doing a lot lately.
“I don't remember a lot of it, but as far as I've been told, four Alede showed up and were there for me, pouring in energy to help me out when I needed it, even though that couldn't have been interesting or fun. I'd say they pretty much count's. It was you guys from here, right? I mean you didn't call in others? If so, I should know, so I send things to the right places.”
After a moment the very gorgeous woman smiled at him in a way that could make a person's toes curl up just a little bit.
“It was indeed us and you are very kind to ask. We're contractually obligated to provide services for five years though. So you really don't owe us anything.” She stroked the edge of her desk, in what had to be a suggestive technique meant to arouse. Her Shadow told him he had that right, but didn't mention if she did it on purpose or not.
“It's not about owing something, it's about appreciating what others have done and who they are and letting them know that you noticed. I can take their names off the list if it's offensive or something. I don't want anyone feeling awkward, but otherwise I think they all earned their way onto that list. You too.”
She looked at the list again and nodded. “All right. I'll try to come up with some ideas tonight.”
When they finished working on that, he read for a while in her office, then realized she may actually have other things to do and apologized for not thinking about that earlier.
“Well, you do get cut a little slack on any day you get blown up. It's a rule around here. Now get. Take Val with you, we won't need her for the rest of the night.”
Val waited outside the office door with her jacket already on. She of course had heard the whole thing. He considered this and spoke, as they walked, “I already decided on your gift. Noise canceling ear plugs. It's the only way I can keep a secret around here....”
Val laughed.
At home Zack showered and changed then read until just before nine, trying to commit the information to memory. Then he left to get Merri and Hilda from work. Which took about ten minutes all told, because Hilda had to break off from a serious discussion with Merle first. She didn't mention what it had been about, though she hugged him and smiled a lot the whole way home.
Claire came in at about ten, he asked her if she had some time to talk, in a way he hoped came off as casual to her.
“I came here to be with you, so, of course I have time. What would you like to talk about?”
He abruptly said that he felt like a frozen yogurt, of all things, and asked if she'd walk with him to her shop, as annoying as that would be. She grinned wondering about how he had suddenly started to act, but agreed.
He grabbed a jacket and she took his arm. A few moments later they stood in her store, Blake waiting on them. He ate the treat quickly then took her hand.
“Come with me?” He headed toward her back room, she looked bemused but followed. In the back he walked to the Nexus point and right through, coming out in a field.
“What, where are we?”
“Trolleinkein lands. I needed to talk to you someplace we wouldn't likely be overheard, at least not by anyone that cares. I need your help. I'm going to need to disappear for several days, maybe more. It needs to look believable, as if I took a trip or something. I don't want anyone becoming suspicious.”
"When?"
“As soon as possible. I need to go into the void and find the creature that helped me before, the Big Shadow I called it, as a child.”
“Why?”
“Because, when we were together in the void, sometimes when it became needed, we'd hunt Demons. It can kill them in the void and maybe out of it.”
Touching his arm her Shadow self expressed concern.
“So you want it to kill the Demon that possesses your father's body? You know your father isn't in their anymore right? He hasn't been for a long time.”
“I know, that's not what I want though. I want it to show me how to kill a Demon, if I can learn how.” He looked off into the distance. “Because I'm going to track this Demon down and kill it. Kill it so it never comes back, utterly and completely.”
Hugging him she stood quietly for a long time.
At first she thought he must be kidding, or deranged with anger, he realized. Then she thought about what he'd already done and wondered what he may actually be able to do, if he tried. Finally she nodded.
“All right, I'll help you.”
Chapter twenty-eight
Claire told him it would take time to invent a plausible reason for him to be gone for nearly a week and asked for a month or two to come up with something.
“I have an idea, but... it may be better if you don't know just yet. Let me see if I can set it up.”
As the days passed, no one tried to kill him or anyone around him, which he figured was a good thing, though he didn't let his guard down.
The Lesser Shia project meant a lot more work for Zack, as it turned out. Even starting slow, like they were. Lisa had taken to grouping people together in batches for him to transport in the mornings, all of them going to the same locations in each grouping. Sometimes nearly a thousand people would pass through the Nexus in a few hours. Then he'd do the same thing, traveling to different locations, with the starting point being another major hub. He did one or two of these per day.
The afternoons he spent in Lesser Shia. Contact had been made and solidified by day four of searching out the old Nexus points, most of which had fallen badly into disrepair, being unused for generations. He found all of the places listed in the contract with help from people that came from those lands or who had once been there.
Then, just before he left, he'd bring bags and boxes over for Ghurian. They found that if they loaded a rolling cart, he could bring about a thousand pounds at a time with him. He made ten to twenty such trips per day doing that. Tiring, to say the least, it left him breathless when taking such large loads, but he could do it.
After that, Zack would either go straight to Wu-Li's, or the Gym, or shower and meet up at Patty's office. Given everything, Dan and Wu-Li had stepped up his martial arts training. He didn't feel comfortable with the physical aspects yet, though he seemed to do all right with the energy moving exercises.
Dan said he felt a bit jealous.
“I mean, don't get lazy with it, especially now, but your skills in moving energy, manipulating it... It took me nearly thirty years, working four to ten hours a day, to get to the stage you have after only a month of light work.” He looked a bit sad about it.
He did buoy a little when Zack explained the time differences in the void and how long he had spent there, learning things that overlapped a bit.
“Think of it like knowing how to ride a BMX bike, and then someone teaching you to ride a racing bike. They're different, but similar enough that you look good at first, making the cross over. The work still happened, it just doesn't show in the same places. And some things don't overlap at all... I guess I just had a lot of time riding a similar kind of bike, is all. A lot longer than thirty years. A few thousand? Or maybe a hundred thousand. I don't know. So
, you get the idea, don't be too impressed with my progress so far.”
His fine motor control still gave him problems, after the poisoning. Zack could barely write legibly, much less use sophisticated nerve strikes or even joint locks. Dan taught him a style of fighting he could use, with big moves and only enough grappling to get away from someone when he was grabbed. The style didn't have a name, since Dan made it up for him as they went along, based on what he could actually do at the time. It lacked grace, Wu-Li said, but would serve.
The older Master insisted that Zack practice sending out and returning energy with every move he made though, to increase the force and lethality of the blows.
Hilda, who Zack figured, not for the first time, might be part saint, brought him food every two or three hours. Merri made sure that the quality stayed high, too. He felt a bit bad, because he didn't get to spend much time with Merri, not with his current hectic routine. Still, survival had its merits, and the more time he spent with the small woman, the more danger she'd probably be in. It was bad enough that everyone stayed at his house all the time now. Thankfully nothing had happened there, so far.
Patricia seemed pleased with his progress, in regards to the sexual instruction course she gave him. It had been all book work so far, though she'd mentioned a small hands on test for him that he'd have to pass the next time he came in. Even after having gone through his ordeal, fighting all those bad memories, that news wasn't very welcome. It wasn't that he didn't think he needed to try, or that Patty wasn't attractive. That would be so backwards of him that imagining that would mean he really was insane. No, it was nerves. Pure and simple. Just thinking about doing whatever it was that she'd require of him caused a fine sheen of sweat to pop out all over his body.
It had to be done though. No matter what.
It reminded him of something that Lars, at the gym had told him. All he had to do was try. He had experts to handle the rest for him, as long as he actually did his part and didn't give up every time his tummy fluttered a little.
