Hard Corps (Quentin Case Book 2)

by John Hook

  “Yes, but we have to assume he didn’t know that when he started, so he probably entered it.”

  I turned to Rox and Kyo.

  “Anyone know anything about this place?”

  “Did an escort job in a place like this, but it wasn’t here. It’s rare for someone to hit one of these before they encounter a border town.” Rox studied the city for a moment. “Places this large usually mean a higher status demon. They tend to be pretty brutal because managing such a large number of humans in the way demons want them managed usually means constant abuse so there is no chance of an uprising. In the border towns, they don’t have to work as hard to achieve that.”

  “What do they get out of it?”

  “Demons serve masters. More humans seem to be a sign of power to the demons. Pain is almost an economy here. Demons accrue humans and misery like someone in life would accrue wealth.”

  Kyo looked at me. “I’m going to circle around and do some reconnaissance. I suggest you all stay here and wait for me to get back.”

  “You don’t want us to go with you?” Izzy asked.

  “She can do it without getting noticed,” I guessed.

  Izzy rubbed his head. “True. You are pretty bad at not being noticed.”

  “We can’t all be ninjas.”

  Kyo studied me for a moment.

  “You aren’t going to wait, are you?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Because you promised Anita you would look for her husband.”

  “That and the fact that I have no patience.”

  “This isn’t a border town. You will be facing some tough odds in there.”

  “If I worried much about odds, I’d be some demon’s slave in Rockvale right now.”

  “Probably mine,” Rox added coyly.

  “If you waited, I could bring information that might allow us to come up with a plan.”

  “I have a plan.”

  “Which is?”

  “You have to ask?” Izzy looked at Rox and they giggled.

  Kyo shook her head. She looked at Blaise. Neither one said anything, but I could see some chemistry going on there. Maybe he could be a ninja.

  “Do what you have to. My mission is still, first and foremost, reconnaissance and threat assessment for Rockvale. I’ll circle back when I can and if I don’t see you, I’ll try to find you.”

  I bowed and Kyo was gone into the trees.

  “We going down?” Rox asked.

  “I’m going down. You three could stay and wait for Kyo.”

  “And leave you to have all the fun?” Rox was already headed down the slope toward the city.

  Izzy grinned. “There will be hopeless odds. And you will be pissing off demons.”

  “It generally works out something like that.”

  “Why would anyone want to miss that?” Izzy headed after Rox.

  Blaise came up to me with amusement on his face. “There’s an expression I heard once. ‘His men would follow him anywhere, if only out of curiosity.’”

  Blaise followed Izzy, laughing.

  “Tally ho,” I said and ran to catch up.

  The first thing that struck you when you entered the city was the smell. It was rank. It was hard to know why. In life, if you encountered a city that smelled this bad, you would assume it had primitive to no indoor plumbing or sanitation. Here, we didn’t actually have some of those normal bodily functions. Also, this was a different kind of smell.

  It wasn’t death. Demons could die, but they weren’t the ones being tortured.

  It was as if the city had a malaise that had settled down on it. It was on the walls and in the dirt and even on the people.

  The humans were odd. They had the kind of grayness and drabness of the humans we called “the mass” when I first encountered them in Rockvale. However, these humans were fearful. They moved about alone or in small groups, but they seemed afraid or at least wary of anyone else. They seemed especially afraid of us and many times scurried away down a twisting alley to avoid us.

  “Do you think I should take this personally?” I asked no one in particular.

  “It’s not always about you, Quentin.” Rox was scanning around. “Can you feel it?”

  “I feel something, Blaise noted. “There is something not right about this place.”

  “It’s Hell.”

  “Yeah, okay, but there is something so dark here it’s palpable.”

  “Exactly,” Rox confirmed in a whisper.

  “Run into anything like this before, Rox?”

  “I’ve been lucky enough to stay a small town girl. We’d better be on our toes. Whatever it is, it will come for us sooner or later.”

  We came out on a narrow street of shops and stalls. Shops mostly had the strange little comfort wares I had seen in Rockvale. Some were illusions, like glamours, that the demons allowed humans to have. That still baffled me. Some shops had wares that humans created and bartered. Food, sweet water, blankets, clay pots, even furniture. None were necessary but all provided comforting reminders of their human past.

  “Anyone notice anything odd?” I asked.

  “I think you need to narrow your query a little,” Izzy remarked.

  “No demons, at least here in the streets.”

  “Then what are these people afraid of?”

  I crossed to one of the very dingy walls. Something had caught my eye.

  “Look at this.”

  The other three came over.

  “Blood. Human blood.” Rox touched it and a slight darkness passed over her eyes. While Rox was capable of compassion and, it turns out, love, she was aroused by others’ and her own pain. It had been bred into her.

  “Someone went through some major hurt here. No one even cleaned it up.”

  We wandered past the shops. Some were little more than self-service stalls where people could take what they wanted. Others had humans behind the counters, bartering and offering their wares.”

  “What do you make of them?” Blaise wondered aloud.

  “Who?”

  “The merchants. They seem a bit more like our citizens. They seem less afraid, although still wary. It’s almost as if they are a privileged class.”

  “Could be. Could be how they get to run shops.”

  One shop owner, who was heavyset and seemed very jolly with his customers, looked our way out the front of his shop. His expression changed to one of fear mixed with disdain. We moved on.

  “I need to get some answers.”

  I walked over to a woman who was walking a little bent over. It wasn’t like someone with a physical problem but like someone trying not to stand too tall or be noticed.

  “Excuse me, Miss.” I tried to be as pleasant and non-threatening as possible in the context.

  She looked up and her eyes went wide. She backed into a wall and her nostrils flared with fear. Rox stepped over and put her arms around her. She was trying to calm the woman down, and for a moment it looked like it might work. Then it was as if she realized that the calm she was feeling was being imposed by another. She thrashed in complete panic and broke free, spittle coming from her mouth. Her arms flew every which way and she almost looked like she would bite. When she broke free of Rox, who wasn’t actually holding her, she ran like a frightened gazelle, taking huge strides and disappearing down an alley.

  “Why, you old charmer, you,” Rox teased.

  “I may have to brush up on my pick-up lines.”

  Across the street was a small place that had the appearance of a bar and café.

  “Let’s see if we have better luck with the merchant class.”

  We walked into the place, called the Dirty Glass. It was like a pub with dark, polished wood everywhere except the floor, which was some kind of stone tile. Dingy wooden tables were arranged around the room. Against one wall was a clay fireplace filled with wood ash, though nothing was burning now. The walls were bare, and there wasn’t anything cozy about the place. At the far end was a bar with wooden
stools and behind that, shelves. The shelves were laden with food and bottles. The foods were glamours.

  Behind the bar a man was standing. He was tall and wiry with a pronounced nose and a thin face. He looked alert as we approached. There was no one else in the place except one drab man drinking something. It was probably sweet water. As soon as he saw us he jumped up and cleared out.

  The bartender, who wasn’t doing much tending, stared balefully at us as we sat down.

  “Rolling Rock all around. You have any peanuts?”

  His face didn’t change.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” He said without moving closer.

  “You know, I think I’ve figured out why you don’t get more of the tourist trade here.”

  There was still no change. He didn’t move, he just glowered.

  “Bad for me. Worse for you.”

  “Tell you what. Answer a couple of questions and we’ll get out of here.”

  “I don’t know nothing.”

  I turned to Izzy. “Doesn’t that mean he does know something?”

  “Might just be sloppy grammar.”

  Apparently we were finally bothersome enough. The bartender leaned over the bar, frustrated.

  “What do you want? You can’t be here when the dark men come.”

  “Let’s start there. Who are the dark men? You mean like him?” I pointed to Blaise.

  “Nice.” Blaise smiled.

  “No, not one of them.”

  “Them.” Blaise smiled even more.

  “Look, you don’t want to know.”

  “Actually, I do.” I met the bartender’s gaze. He tried to hold it but averted and went back to looking through me. He stopped talking.

  “Okay, let’s try something different. Has anyone like us come through here?”

  “Sometimes. Not often. Bad things happen to those that do.”

  I was beginning to get more of a feel of what the bartender would and would not talk about. I figured if I could get him answering questions he was willing to talk about, it might be easier to circle back and trick him into saying something about what he wasn’t willing to talk about.

  “Anyone come through here recently? Maybe more than once?”

  “Yeah, sure. There was a guy like that.”

  “His name Philip, by any chance?”

  The bartender looked at me blankly. “How the fuck would I know? I don’t want to know anyone’s name.”

  “Guess this isn’t Cheers.” Izzy giggled.

  I tried to keep a straight face. The bartender didn’t seem to get the reference, but then he didn’t seem to get much of anything.

  “Did he ask a lot of questions like I am? Was he asking about anything in particular?”

  “He tried. I told him the same thing I’m telling you. I don’t know nothing.”

  “What questions was he asking?”

  The bartender sighed. “He wanted to know about the Haven.”

  “The Haven? What’s the Haven?”

  The bartender went into a frustrated rage. “How the fuck do I know. I told you…”

  He grabbed a heavy club from under the bar and was about to wield it, but suddenly found Rox’s slingshot gun aimed at his face.

  “I know. You don’t know nothing.” She winked. He stepped back and lowered the club.

  “I’m not answering any more questions. Get out. For your own good. If the dark men find you, you will all find out how painful not being able to die is.”

  As much as there was a threat in his words, he was more fearful than anything else. He wasn’t the one making the threat. Obviously, the dark men were.

  I decided we had gotten as much as we could for now and we went back out into the street.

  “Now what?” Izzy asked.

  “I think Blaise is right. This merchant class has privileges. He had emotions and he acted like someone with something to lose. He was more afraid that we were going to upset his situation than anything else. Not sure he actually cared what the dark men would do to us. He just didn’t want them doing it there.”

  “You know what that means?” Blaise asked.

  “Yes. It means that they do come here. Which means we’ll be back.”

  “Because we’re sure the dark men will find you as charming as everyone else does.” Rox was looking mischievous. She was hot when she was looking mischievous.

  “No doubt. Right now, I want to see what we can find out from people who aren’t privileged.”

  “Isn’t that what we tried a bit ago?” Izzy asked. “Didn’t seem like that went too well.”

  “Let’s find out if we can get some variability on panic level. Also, we’ll try a different context. They might feel more vulnerable out on the street.”

  “Vulnerable to what?” Izzy looked around. “We haven’t yet seen an actual threat.”

  “Good question. No demons so far. Probably has something to do with the dark men. Whatever it is, Philip managed to come in here, maybe several times, and avoid it.”

  “And then he didn’t,” Izzy interjected.

  “We don’t know that. That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

  I took off down an alley that joined up to a much narrower street than where the markets were. The street was lined with four-story apartment buildings. I walked up to one. The front door didn’t even latch. I went in and the others came in with me.

  “Think anyone will talk?”

  “Same as when I first came to Rockvale. Won’t know ‘til I try.”

  “We have fewer avenues of escape in a closed building.”

  “Can’t be helped. The only way I can find out anything is to keep running at it.”

  “So is your plan to keep annoying everyone in Hell until they throw you out?” Blaise asked.

  “Uh oh, my secret is out.”

  We went up the first set of steps. I asked Blaise to stay on the first landing to look for trouble coming in the door. Probably anyone who lived here would just scurry past him, but if a demon came in the door he could come up the stairs to alert us. Izzy was to follow us and stay on the landing of whatever floor we visited both as backup for us and so Blaise could find us. Rox would stick with me in case her empathic ability could help with my attempts to get information.

  We tried a couple of places on the second floor but just got the people going uncontrollably squirrely on us. Both were couples, although one was male and female and the other were both male, but clearly a couple and very protective of each other. The type of couple made no difference. They were like animals in a trap that were so fearful they would bite their own legs off. There was no way Rox could have calmed them down enough for them to talk. I was beginning to think that was life here.

  We went up to the third floor and tried an apartment at the far end of the hall. We walked in. There were six men sitting in the room. They all turned when we walked in. Instead of becoming panicked, two of them nearest us stood and balled their fists. They weren’t getting ready to attack; they seemed to be steadying themselves. Their faces were grim, determined.

  “Go ahead. Do what you want. We figured you’d come back for us.”

  “I just want to ask questions.” I stepped into the room and Rox came in behind me. “Did you think I was a dark man?”

  “Yes, we kind of did.” They looked at Rox. “I guess you’re not. Don’t think she’d be with you willingly if you were.”

  “Is that why everyone is afraid of us and why the shop keepers want us to go away?”

  One of the men stepped up to me and looked at me closely and then did the same thing with Rox.

  “You’re outsiders.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “I don’t. But you’re going to get hurt, you stay here.” He motioned with his thumb in Rox’s direction. “Her especially.”

  “How are we going to be hurt and why?”

  “Outsiders come here sometimes. Think they are different and won’t get hurt. The dark men don’t care. The dark men alway
s get what they want.”

  “Who are the dark men?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Then you’re a fool.”

  “No doubt. I still want to know. Where can I find them?”

  “They’ll find you.”

  “Have you seen others like us?”

  “Sure. They all come here thinking it will be different for them. Never is.”

  “Why do they come?”

  “Demon King. He likes to trick them.”

  “Trick them how?”

  The lead man who had been talking looked up at me. Something cloudy passed over his eyes.

  “No. I’m not telling you anything. You need to go. You need to get her out of here.”

  They turned and went back to staring out the windows. There wasn’t much we could do and I couldn’t think of what we could have to threaten them with. As we were leaving I stopped at the door.

  “Why are you so less afraid of us than the others?”

  “No one’s afraid of you. They are afraid of what will happen because you are here asking questions.”

  “Then why did you talk to me?”

  “We don’t have much to lose that we haven’t already lost.”

  “Why not help us?”

  The man turned. The look on his face was pure hatred.

  “No one helped us.”

  5.

  We sat in what, for this city, was apparently a small park. I use the term loosely. Like everything else here it was gray, dirty and drab. The ground was mostly bare and rocky. There was a stand of very twisted, thorny trees and some kind of sticker bushes. There was a small cemetery off to one side. We realized with horror that many of the headstones were glamours. I’d seen it before. There are people so badly traumatized by what goes on in this place that they essentially will themselves out of being entities and become objects. They aren’t actually made out of the materials that their glamours show. It is still a kind of flesh. But they take on the appearance of objects. In this case, each headstone had the name of the former person that had become the headstone, or so we guessed. Something in this place had caused a number of people to not be able to cope.

  We didn’t learn a lot more from our wanderings through the city. The streets got narrower and more twisted. Buildings were more crowded together. And at the center of the city was a wall with more of the city beyond it. There was a gate, but it was completely sealed by a massive wooden door. It was the only place in the city where no one was even milling about. That made me suspect we had found where the demons were.