by P. S. Power
Speaking to himself, he whispered. It reminded him for a moment of when he was very young. Before he had a voice at all.
“Then, if this is a mental process, creating a vision map of what will come… Think about Donald. What do you know about him? What did he look like? What were his connections.” The form things took in his mind was different than what he’d seen before. Instead of an instant vision of a single scene in three dimensions, he saw lines that were mainly blue and red, with a few being green and pink, that moved in straight vectors from one idea to another.
After trying to see what would happen, after several years, projecting ahead in time, the world suddenly shifted. What he saw then was different than before. Instead of bombs and explosions, it was Donald sitting in a chair, across from an older gentleman. Don was still bald and in a nice suit though a different one than he’d been in before.
He was a bit thinner, and darker of skin. A tan, it looked like, or possibly makeup.
The other man had words underneath him. That indicated the scene was on television. Some form of news program. That would, Liam figured, make him the host of the program.
It was that one who spoke.
“Mr. Brogan. You’re a successful non-fiction author. A number one bestselling writer on six different occasions, in fact. Why write a book about vampires at this stage in your career? In the past, you focused on politics and government corruption. How does this help you, going into the future?”
Donald, his head not shining at all, seemed deadly serious when he spoke.
“This isn’t about me, or even a best-selling book. Not that I don’t like being successful, like anyone else. We have real evidence, proof, that vampires and other beings exist in the world. Worse, this is really a story of government corruption. Rogue elements of our own government have been trying to wipe out various populations. Citizens of the United States, in many cases. Innocent men and women, who yes, are different in some ways. For years our own government has been fighting a one sided war, trying to kill anyone that they please, on U.S. soil. That has to be disclosed. If the idea of vampires doesn’t work for you, or werewolves, then think of them as people who have different lifestyles. I’ve seen proof of more, but that doesn’t mean much to some people. What should, is that everyone deserves to have a life. If you are a citizen and following the law, then the government shouldn’t be trying to take that, your life, away from you.”
He was looking at the camera while the speech was made. Grandstanding. After that things were less distinct, though Liam was able to pick up the gist. The rough time it should be taking place, as well. It was nearly two years in the future.
He’d be ancient by then, Liam had to figure.
After that, he worked several different issues, to see what might come of them. Not all of the answers were good, though most were neutral and a little boring, instead of being harmful to anyone. There were, to make things turn out, some things that he, Liam, had to do in fairly short order. Making friends with people that he wasn’t wild about, mainly. In a few cases he needed to be seen as stronger than he was as well. More dangerous and deadly, at least if people crossed him.
Mostly, he needed to focus on helping people, even if it wasn’t that fun all the time. That was going to take a lot of his time and work that was different than he would have imagined before that point.
Sitting there, with his eyes open, not seeing anything was how he was found, by Tiffany. The woman had been around for a while, having showered and holding a cup of coffee as she was.
“Liam? Are you doing all right? You’ve just been sitting there, not moving for about fifteen minutes.” She sounded concerned, so he smiled at her and nodded.
“I figured out how to have visions of the future. On purpose. It isn’t really psychic or magical, just analyzing data and making pictures based both on what is there and what might be, in the negative. Anyway, I have some things to do, it looks like. I need to chat with some people about things that aren’t really my business, except that I want good things for my friends. Vampires, an elf or two. Oaks, of course as well as some others in my family. That and I need to really ramp up the medical and dental practice. I haven’t been doing all I can to be helpful that way, yet. I… I need to get set up for house calls. I’ll need a van or something like that, I think.”
Rather than seem upset with him for showing a new ability, the woman blinked at him, then nodded.
“We can do that last part, at least. Probably the rest as well. I’ll be on the look out for a good vehicle. We can get the supplies in for it, so we don’t have to constantly take things out of the clinic here. That… A lot of people can’t really travel and there are only a few people that are willing to work on them in the country, right now. It’s worse… A lot of people are dying, in different places. Ones from the community. Vampires and wolves, that tribe up in Washington. Some elementals. Mitchel was talking to me about that last night, actually. The others we had that are willing to deal with the hardest hit groups are doing less than normal, afraid they’ll be killed if they get too close. It’s the government, of course. I… We didn’t find who was in control of the SAU at the FBI. It has to be one of a small handful of people. Everyone else has been compelled. We need to work that out. Right now, we’re at a dead end.”
He bobbed a bit, sort of nodding, without really doing that at all.
“I can ask about that, tonight. We should set something up, so that can be done. Something… I don’t know, that everyone will come to, without it being too suspicious. A party or event. I… Don’t know about that kind of thing.” He’d never been to a real party before at all.
A thing that had Brenner snapping her fingers.
“Right! I meant to get you a cake, when you turned one. Which was almost six months ago. We can do that… Call it in four days? You want Carlisle, Kim Simpson and Daugherty there, right? I know how close you are to all of them.” She said it as if it weren’t true at all.
Which, for one of the men was true. Daugherty wasn’t a person that he’d ever met at all.
So he nodded.
“That would be good. I’d like to see if we can get people used to being around prometheans, if they have trouble that way. Agent Carlisle would be good for that, if he’s willing to try it? That will be hard for him, but he hasn’t attacked me yet, which shows good personal control. Ask him if he’s willing to try, in a kind of exposure therapy? Kim is nice, so that’s a good enough reason to have her in for that. We need a reason for that last person to come. I… don’t know enough about them to make a plan for that, I’m afraid. I don’t even know if they are a man or woman. Or, I suppose, something else.”
“He’s a man. I can handle that part for us. I’ll ask him to come in order to meet with some members of the alternate community. He’s not new but having more contacts never hurts. Good. I’ll get that cake then. Don’t eat anything that day, since you’ll want to try mainlining sugar and fat. It’s kind of amazing.”
He nodded, even if he didn’t think that sounded correct at all. He was kind of big on fruits and nuts. Sugar was a thing that he could take or leave.
Chapter seven
It was clear, after no more than six hours, that Brenner’s idea of what Liam should be doing and what the projections showed him as being needed were two different things completely. She wasn’t trying to stop him or even stall things. She simply did things in the human way, which was, in the end, slow and filled with needless posturing and requests to do things that went out to people who didn’t matter at all in the given situation. That last part took Liam about half an hour to work out, as to what it really meant.
For instance, she called up both Mitchel Warner and Agent Carlisle to make certain they were both fine with Liam driving around making house calls. The thing there was that, not only were they both okay with it, everyone involved could easily see that they didn't get a say in the matter. Even the FBI didn’t have a reason to try and control the movement of so
meone like Liam, if he wanted to travel from state to state. He was, as far as they were concerned, licensed to practice both medicine and dentistry. That was his stated reason for going, so, to them, they didn’t have any real reason for concern at all.
On the other hand, Mitchel was involved with most of the other groups, so took the idea of him being asked not as a need for permission, but him being allowed to spread the word on the new service. He did that, almost instantly, using the same deep web pages that Liam would have, after he had a vehicle secured.
The whole thing went on that way, however. At first Liam honestly suspected that it was down to him being young and the adults working out ways to give him limited freedom, without truly doing so. Only, when he considered it for a while, it was clear that they did everything that way. All the time.
Adding in steps that weren’t needed, for some unknown reason. It was worst in the Humans, for the time being but he had to suspect that the vampires and other groups had that kind of thing going on as well.
He felt something that he hadn’t really noticed being all that strong within him before that point, after several hours of this slow marching. Annoyance. It wasn’t a blistering rage or anything, of course. Just something that he noticed inside of himself. No one was trying to be a problem for him. They simply were one, by their very way of doing things.
Worse, he didn’t really have a specific schedule that needed to be kept for anything. Except that, at nightfall he would have to get with the vampires and see if it was possible to work something out that way. A way to keep Donald alive long enough to write his book. That specific projection seemed to be fairly important to their future. Not Liam’s. The vampires and perhaps some of the other groups.
People, average ones would, eventually, need to know at least enough about their kind that the human government would be backed off from their war footing.
It was different than Liam, and he thought, everyone else he knew, had considered before. Everyone had figured that the trick would be about finding the guilty inside the government and making them all vanish. That or taking a battle to them directly. What he’d gotten was different than that. A softer thing that involved making it too public to go after the walking undead or those who changed shape.
At about five in the evening, two things took place almost at the same time. The first was that the phone rang. It was the cell phone that he used, the one that Agent Brenner had gotten for him. The other was that a knock came at the door. As he moved to pull the phone from the pocket of his trousers. That meant walking and speaking at the same time.
Liam spoke first, trying to manage the two events that were taking place in a reasonable fashion.
“Hello, this is Liam, how may I help you?” He tried to sound polite, since no one deserved to be hit with a grumpy tone when they tried to talk to him.
“Dr. Liam? I’m Edith Vera… I don’t mean to be a bother, but I seem to have something of a fever. I don’t have a car and… Traveling outside of the forest isn’t something I’m comfortable with. Would it be possible to meet you in the woods? I have some nice gems that I can trade for your efforts?” She coughed then, as Liam opened the door in front of him. Behind that were three people. Except that they weren’t human beings at all.
They were all tall, though it seemed to be two adults and a child, with the younger seeming one being very pale, thin and with a left arm that was bent between wrist and elbow. The other arm cradled it carefully. None of them had hair, but he could tell who was a man or woman, since they also weren’t wearing any clothing.
He waved them in, still speaking on the phone.
“I seem to have a person with a broken arm walking in. Can you be comfortable in the woods behind Tiffany Brenner’s house? We could find someplace larger.”
There was a muffled sound from the phone, then a gasp.
“Ah! I can go there. Call it… An hour?”
He nodded, smiling and looking at the arm of the boy, without touching it.
“I’ll be there. See you soon, Edith.”
Then he placed the phone away and started to work on the arm, which needed to be set and splinted, in case swelling was an issue later. As soon as the bones meshed back together, with only a bit of pulling and twisting on his part, there would be need of a splint. The two naked adults, who had large green eyes and pale white hair, both stood there mutely, the whole time. The boy grimaced in discomfort, but didn’t scream in pain at any point.
They had pointed ears that were long and angular at the top. It was attractive really.
After he put the metal and foam splint on the boy, wrapping it in an ace bandage, Liam finally tried to communicate with the people.
“He needs to wear this until the bones heal. If in doubt, come and find me and I’ll check it. Can you come back in seven days?” If it were on a human boy it would have been three to six weeks for it to fully heal.
On this kind of person, it could be anything from days to months, however. The only thing he could do was to just check things and stay on top of it. At least if they didn't speak to him. When he held up fingers, seven of them and then tapped his chest they nodded at him, seeming to get the meaning. Not that he had any way to test it.
By the time they left, just walking outside and vanishing before they got to the sidewalk out front, turning invisible except for a floating splint, showing why they were naked, Liam had to grab a bag and head out to the woods. Looking for Edith.
Of interest, she was simple enough to find. The woman, who was dressed like a very normal human lady, seemed to be in her thirties or so. She also walked directly out of a large tree, seeming to grow out of it, being formed of wood first. Then her color shifted, starting from her finger tips, running all over her body. She had a black top on and blue jeans. Her shoes were clearly manufactured, instead of being made by hand.
He waved at her, moving over at a firm walk, stopping about ten feet back, since they were in the woods and Liam didn’t want to scare her, in particular.
“Hello! I’m Liam. You’re Edith Vera?” The woman did seem a bit flushed, if her skin tone was human in nature. She looked that way, like a white lady, so completely that it was hard to credit her as being something else.
Most humans didn’t travel through trees, of course.
He pulled a thermometer, hoping that the idea wasn’t going to frighten her.
She just took it from him, nodding, speaking before doing anything with it.
“Thanks for seeing me. This time of year… It’s kind of like agoraphobia, really. I can’t bear to leave the woods most of the time. In spring and summer it’s easier, of course. My tree… Where I live, or, well, it’s in my back yard… It’s an evergreen, but the winter still tends to shut me down. It’s fine by the way. This fever… It was the first thing I checked, of course. A healthy tree is the most important part of life.”
He nodded since that all made sense to him.
“You’re a dryad?” He thought he had that right. A tree spirit, except that this woman wasn’t a spirit at all. She was, clearly, solid.
She also smiled and nodded, then tucked the thermometer under her tongue, clearly knowing how to use the thing. When it beeped, a minute later, Liam pulled it and saw what it said, which had him nodding. She was running temperature of a hundred and three. That was warm for a human and clearly, she was similar in many ways to that kind of person.
The examination was strange, due to the fact that they were standing in the woods, the daylight starting to fade slightly as he asked her a dozen different questions.
Finally, he nodded.
“It really seems to be the flu. Force liquids, get plenty of rest and keep an eye on your tree. If anything changes, with any of that, or if the fever doesn’t break inside a day, get with me again. In the meantime, cool compresses and tepid baths are in order. Do you have someone to keep an eye on you?” She didn't need to stay there, for the time being. She had a serious fever, but it didn’t seem to be
dehydrating her. Not yet.
She grinned at his words.
“Oh, sure. My husband. He’s… human. He knows. I mean, what I am? It doesn’t really come up most of the time. I just… Couldn’t go into the city today. Thanks. For meeting me out here. I know this is weird.” She waved around herself, to show that she meant the miniature forest they were standing in.
Packing things up, what small bit he’d gotten out of the bag, he shrugged.
“It’s important for people to be comfortable. We can’t always do that, but when we can, we should.” He was simply going to walk back into the house, when the woman smiled and put her hand out, closed, as if she were going to drop something. That was placed over his upturned palm, with two small green gems being dropped into it. Edith winked at him.
“Is that enough? I can get more, if you want. It’s a gift of my people, being able to uncover things in the Earth. The hard part is explaining why I have gems and gold around all the time.” She laughed, and, after he nodded and smiled at her, examining the pretty rocks, she waved and moved back into the same tree.
She touched it, seeming to turn into tan wood, with the grain visible over her entire body, as if she were carved and polished, then she flowed into the tree, a low sound coming from the ground for a moment, moving away from him very quickly. Easily at thousands of miles per hour.
Once back inside, darkness already falling, he readied himself to call Sondra of the vampires, to try and work out a way to save Don Brogan, so he could write his book about them. He figured that was going to be almost impossible to pull off. They were entrenched in the idea of not allowing humans to know they existed. Then, the book wasn’t going to convince most of them. It would just be enough to get the criminals inside the human system to back away from their long-term plans.
When the phone rang again, he took a deep breath, and settled the bag, a large cloth knapsack, on his table. Not too far from his laptop. When he answered the phone, doing it the same way as before, he smiled. After all, it was important to show that kind of thing all the time, even if he was alone. Habit was powerful, but only if you used it.
