by Steve McHugh
I was about to say more when the guard who’d been speaking to me returned. “If you both can follow me, please.”
Ellie and I did as he asked, following him through the raised barrier, and on past the checkpoint. We stopped by a jeep, and the three of us piled in, finding two more guards, including the woman who’d talked to Ellie, sitting in the front.
“Well, this is cozy,” I said as the jeep started up and we drove through the break in the trees, and then up the road to one of several large buildings that serve guests who were about to enter, or leave, the realm.
The jeep pulled up outside the building and we all got out, with the guards taking Ellie and me inside. The whole place reminded me of an expensive hotel, with beautiful furnishings and pleasant music playing in the foyer. The armed guards were somewhat of an oddity amongst all of the beauty, but at least none of them were pointing weapons our way. The guards led us up a set of stairs, and down a corridor, stopping outside a room that sat opposite a massive bay window, overlooking the courtyard below.
“If you would go inside, someone will be with you shortly,” Hendricks said.
“Thanks,” Ellie and I said in unison.
“Hope I didn’t cause you any trouble,” I said.
Hendricks shook his head. “No trouble, sir, I hope you have a pleasant visit in Camelot.” He paused for a moment, allowing his comrades to walk away slightly. “I’ve heard of you,” he whispered. “I wanted to say thank you.”
“What for?”
“You used to work for Merlin. I’ve heard some of the tales from older members of the SOA. You did a lot of good. I just felt I should say thanks.”
I stared at him for a moment, unsure whether he was being serious or not. “I was happy to,” I said eventually.
He nodded once and then walked off to join his comrades.
“Well, if the rest of the day is as nice as that, then this might turn into a pleasant visit,” Ellie commented.
“If the rest of the day is as nice as that, I’ll eat my hat.”
CHAPTER 12
The room Ellie and I had been placed in was very nice. There was a TV, a computer with Internet access, and a very comfortable couch. The windows overlooked the rear of the property, which consisted of a well-maintained lawn and some colorful flowers of unknown species. I hated it. I hated the waiting, no matter how nice the surroundings, I hated not knowing what was going on, and most of all I hated that there was nothing I could do about it.
Ellie fared considerably better than I, and found that one of the TV channels was showing Ghostbusters, and sat down to enjoy. Normally I’d have joined her, and I still managed a smile every now and then, but I wasn’t in the mood to be made to laugh.
“You know, there’s nothing we can do,” Ellie said, without looking up at me, just as Bill Murray proclaimed that the man beside him had no dick.
I sighed. “I know. But I also don’t know why Avalon has decided that I need to speak to someone if I’m not on any kind of restrictions list.”
“We’ll find out soon enough. Just sit down; your constant pacing is beginning to make me nervous.”
I did as was asked and sat beside her, forcing myself to watch the remainder of the film. Fortunately, it ensured that I wasn’t checking my watch every few seconds, and the time became more manageable.
As the credits rolled, Ellie checked what was next. “Mannequin!” she shouted with delight.
“What?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s eighties-tastic, but it’s got James Spader and Andrew McCarthy in it. You’ll love it.”
I didn’t really get a chance to find out my opinion on the film as there was a knock on the door only a few minutes after it started.
“Damn it,” Ellie proclaimed, as I opened the door and found a young woman standing in the corridor. She wore a dark blue suit, which couldn’t cover the bandages that were wrapped around her hands. Her brown hair was pulled up into a bun and stuck in place with a chopstick. She wore no obvious jewelry and smiled briefly as she saw me.
“Lucie,” I said, and offered her my hand, which she took.
“Nate,” she said, releasing my hand as I moved aside to let her into the room.
“You’re the Avalon person we’re waiting for?” I asked.
Lucie nodded. She was the deputy director of the SOA, directly under Kay. Our relationship was an awkward one. We trusted one another, but weren’t exactly friends. I’d spent a large portion of the first decade that we’d known each other lying to her about the circumstances surrounding her family’s murder. When I’d finally been allowed to tell her the truth, our relationship had improved, but it was too late for us to ever become firm friends.
I introduced Ellie and Lucie, and Lucie caught the slightly strange look that she got from Ellie as she paused before shaking Lucie’s hand.
“It’s the bandages, yes?” Lucie asked.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. I just wondered why you have your hands bandaged. I don’t want to hurt you if you’re injured.”
“I’m an enchanter,” Lucie told her. “I’ve placed runes all over my body. But they have to be constantly covered, otherwise I’d keep activating them by accident. I find the bandages to be easier to wear than gloves.”
“Wow, that must be some serious body art.”
Lucie smiled. “That’s one way of looking at it.” She turned to me. “We need to talk.”
“I’ll go for a walk if you like,” Ellie offered, getting to her feet.
“That’s okay,” I said. “I trust her, Lucie. She came here with me; she might as well know why you needed to talk to me.”
Lucie nodded. “You might want to sit down.”
I did as she advised and waited for her to continue.
“I heard about Liz and Edward Williams,” Lucie started. “And the attack on West Quay. An agent informed Kay, and I happened to overhear the conversation. I doubted he’d have told me otherwise. He seems to want to keep knowledge of those behind it a secret.”
“The Reavers,” I said.
“That would be the group. I can understand Kay’s reluctance to let everyone know that a group of highly trained psychopaths are running around killing people. But I disagree with him. Seventy-two hours ago one of my agents was contacted by Liz Williams with information that she had been threatened by the Reavers, who wanted her to help them find Felix. A man I’m sure you know, Nate.”
“We go way back, yeah,” I admitted.
“Forty-eight hours later, that same agent was attacked in her own home. She’s currently in intensive care after being stabbed with a silver blade, which was coated with jorōgumo venom.”
“I have the same stuff going through me,” I said.
“So I hear. My agent is a conjurer and should be able to fight it off, but she’s in a coma.”
A dark cloud settled in my mind. “Oh, no,” I whispered.
“You know her?” Ellie asked.
“It’s Fiona?” I asked Lucie. “Isn’t it?”
Lucie nodded solemnly. “I didn’t realize you knew her.”
It felt like I’d been punched in the gut. “We worked together in the past. Does her husband know?”
Lucie shook her head. “Someone is killing people who have either gone against, or are looking into, the Reavers and their return. The stab wound on Fiona was on her back.” Lucie turned and pointed to a spot just above her kidney. “She let them into her house, which means she knew them, and they stabbed her. Then they ransacked the place, looking for something, and left. We decided it best to not tell her husband anything for the moment. He’s due out of prison in six months. Right now, Fiona is stable. Telling her husband about the attack is more likely to make him angry enough to do something stupid. I’d rather we know exactly what was happening before we do that.”
“He deserves to know,” I said.
“And he will. But I don’t want to have to put The Hole on lockdown after we tell him. We both know he’ll attempt to es
cape if he finds out.”
It wasn’t like I was best friends with Fiona’s husband, but I liked the guy and still felt that he should be told. I know I’d want to be.
“So you’re here to warn us?” Ellie asked.
“Yes,” Lucie explained. “I knew that Nate was looking for the Reavers. I knew that without ever being told. As soon as I’d heard you were there when the Williamses were murdered, I knew you’d make your way down here. There are people in Avalon who support the Reavers, Fiona told me that much, but she didn’t have the names. If they thought she’d figured out who they were, or even knew that she was investigating them, then there’s no doubt they’d try to kill her for it. They’ll try to kill you too.”
“Best of luck with that,” I said, and let the heat of my anger into my tone.
“I don’t want you turning Camelot into a war zone, Nate,” Lucie said. “I don’t mind you looking around, or even talking to people. Hell, you probably know more dirty little secrets than I do, but this is an SOA case. If you discover anything, you bring it to me. And only me.”
“You don’t trust your own people?” I asked.
“Fiona’s supervisor is missing. There aren’t enough agents I trust, so I trust no one. I only trust you because I know for a fact that you’re not a Reaver.” She turned to Ellie. “I assume you’re not.”
“I doubt it,” Ellie said. “I only heard about them for the first time a few hours ago.”
“I want to see Fiona,” I said.
“You sure?” Lucie asked me.
I nodded. “I want to see her house too.”
“We can arrange that.”
I stood up. “Let’s get going then.”
It didn’t take long to make it out of the building and across the island to an identical building, which housed SOA agents and the realm gate.
The guardians opened the realm gate and the giant circular device, made of wood and rock, shimmered slightly before the empty center filled with the image of the realm on the other side of the gate.
The realm itself was called Albion, an entire world linked to our own by a gate controlled by the forces of Avalon. The largest city in Albion was Camelot, which housed upwards of two and a half million people. A few million more lived in the dozen or so smaller towns and villages that had been created away from the large population of Camelot.
“You ready for this?” Lucie asked.
I wasn’t, but I stepped through the realm gate anyway and instantly found myself on Albion ground. An SOA guard, one of the same elite as those who controlled the island I’d just left, ran up ready to catch me should I pitch forward. Some people’s first trip was a little on the discombobulating side.
“I’m good,” I told him, and he stepped back as Lucie and then Ellie came through the gate.
“Ma’am,” the guard said and snapped to attention.
“We’re going to need transportation,” Lucie said to the guard, who ran off, I assumed to arrange something.
“What are we taking to get around?” I asked.
Avalon had its own power source, and had long since joined the technology age that the realm of Earth took for granted. Anyone wanting to get messages from Albion to Earth would have to travel to Earth to do so, but while in Avalon they had mobile reception, something approximating Wi-Fi, and even an underground tube system that made regular stops in all parts of the city, as well as those places outside of its limits. There’s a reason humans tend to get the best technology a few years, or decades, after Avalon; and it was mostly so Avalon could keep it for themselves.
The Albion realm gate sat inside a massive hall that was a few miles away from Camelot. A mansion had been built beside it at some point, and housed several dozen SOA agents, along with some BOA. Everyone coming and going was checked before being allowed anywhere.
A half dozen guards stood inside the room, their weapons—a mixture of bladed instruments—hanging loosely from their sides.
We made our way through the mansion and out into the rain that was pouring outside. Avalon rain is clean enough that you can drink if it you so wish, although it has a slightly odd, almost sweet, taste to it.
The guard whom Lucie had sent to find us transport was waiting diligently, the rain slowly soaking him more and more. A car sat behind him, although it looked like something out of a science fiction film. It was sleek and black, with pulsing yellow lines down one side.
“What the hell is that?” I asked.
“Ah, you’ve not seen these before,” Lucie commented. “About ten years ago Camelot put together a system that allowed cars to be automated. You program in a destination and the car takes you there. There are sensors all around the car that feed back to similar ones under the ground. They measure speed and distance, and things like that. It was a nightmare to come here for a few years while they were digging everything up, and they’re limited to only certain routes, but they’ve been incredibly useful.”
The guard opened the door, changing the pulsing color to red, and Lucie, Ellie, and I stepped inside. The interior was dark, with lights in the roof providing all the light you needed, considering the windows were blacked out.
I took a seat opposite Lucie and found it to be incredibly comfortable. “Are these always blacked out?” I asked.
Lucie nodded and tapped the side panel. “The windows don’t move, and they’re always blacked out. No one uses these for more than short journeys. They basically go between the main buildings in Camelot, or to the realm gate. There’s no deviation from that.”
“It’s certainly impressive,” I said, although I found the idea of automated cars a little creepy, but that was probably due to the need for me to retain some control over my destination.
“Hospital,” Lucie said, and after a few seconds the car lurched forward and then set off as some classical music came through speakers on the roof.
“Is there anywhere you want to be dropped off ?” Lucie asked Ellie.
Ellie turned to me. “You going to be okay without me for a while?”
“I think I can manage.”
Ellie smiled. “The hospital is fine. I can grab the tube from there to where Olivia and her family are staying.”
“Where is that?” I asked.
She fished out a piece of paper and pen and wrote down the address, which I instantly recognized.
“Thanks, I’ll make my way there once I’m done.”
“I’ll tell them you’re coming. Hopefully Kasey hasn’t asked anyone else to be her sentinel.”
“You’re going to be a sentinel?” Lucie asked. “Is that Thomas Carpenter’s daughter?”
I nodded.
“I heard he was in the city. I was going to take time to say hi, but things have sort of gotten away from me. The SOA lost a good man when he left.”
“The SOA seems to be taking a very active role in security,” I pointed out, wondering about why there were so many on Avalon Island.
“That was Kay’s doing before I took the post,” Lucie explained. “He wants to make sure that Avalon is safe.”
“And tanks do that?” Ellie asked.
A thin smile crossed Lucie’s lips. “After what happened at Tartarus last year, there was some concern that people might try to attack Camelot in the same fashion. Kay took it upon himself to . . . protect the people here.”
A group of insane idiots who’d claimed to be from the Vanguard, a paramilitary-style pro-Camelot organization, attacked Tartarus with the aim of releasing Cronus. They succeeded, but were all killed by their own allies to keep them from talking. Those same allies—a coven of witches—ended up putting a number of children in harm’s way, just so they could continue Hera’s insane plan to free Cronus.
“You know they wouldn’t,” I said. “You’re still watching those witches, I assume.”
“Indeed we are. Officially we’re still concerned that their exposure to Cronus must have had a serious impact on their psyche. How’s the girl doing?”
Chloe Range was the daughter of the coven’s leader, Mara. Mara used Chloe to help her carry out her plan, passing the young teenager over to a monster so that her coven could distract everyone enough to get Cronus free. The monster was dead, I’d killed it myself. But Mara was a whole different kind of monster, one I really hoped slipped up so that her poisonous self could be removed from her daughter’s life. So far, Mara had been the picture of a well-behaved witch.
“Chloe is okay, I think. Kasey told me that she spends a lot of time at friends’ houses so she doesn’t have to go home. Can’t say I blame her.”
The car stopped and a blue light flashed across the roof before an audible click could be heard.
“Doors are unlocked,” Lucie told us, before she pushed open the door beside us and stepped out into the steadily increasing rain.
“I’ll see you later at the address,” Ellie told me, before saying goodbye to Lucie and making her way toward the nearby tube station.
The hospital consisted of dozens of large buildings put together to form one gargantuan structure that loomed over everything around it. The different colors of brick and paint, and the different sizes of the various buildings, gave it a Frankenstein’s monster-like appearance.
A large garden sat at one side of the building, with several people in gowns ignoring the weather to walk around there. At the opposite side of the hospital sat a large sign declaring it to be the entrance to the emergency wing of the building. We entered at the front of the main building and I waited while Lucie walked off to talk to the receptionist, who, after a brief conversation and a glance at Lucie’s identification, waved us through.
It took a walk to the rear of the hospital, a lift ride up several floors, and then a walk through three separate—and heavily armed—guard posts, to get to the high-security section of the hospital.
For as long as I could remember the top floor of the main hospital building had been reserved purely for high-security cases. For instances when an agent of Avalon—or even one of the high-ranking lords or ladies—needed medical care they were always taken to this secure part of the hospital. It was better safe than sorry.
