by Richard Hein
“Only a little. I don’t disagree with Lockyer’s results. Maybe — and that’s a super-strong maybe wrapped in a lot of industrial-strength maybe — the methods are problematic.”
Kate gave a curt nod, blue eyes sparkling. “That’s progress, Samuel. Someday, you’ll be a real boy.”
I flipped her off without malice. Her grin widened.
“There’s one problem, though,” I said, pulling open the door. “That demon we fought in the alley is the same one that attacked me at Sanctuary. Or similar at least. Simon thought it was there for him.” I grimaced again. “It. God I hate trying to keep that straight in my mind.” Kate opened her mouth and I held up an angry, staying finger and wiggled it at her. “It’s not a him. Or a her. Or anything other than a creature from a nightmare world we can’t even imagine.” I thought back to Simon’s assertions that the act of magic somehow created them with a sour feeling in my gut. “Whatever Simon says to the contrary.”
Kate held up placating hands. We wandered back to Simon, who had returned to straightening the living room.
“The thing we saw in the alley. You’ve run into it before?”
Simon shuddered, a visceral ripple that started from the feet and twisted up to the balding pate. I watched as the creature’s face twisted, from the fearful, worried cast it had carried to one of frantic horror. For a moment, I wondered if Simon would hurl out the window to the pavement below once more.
“When they attacked, Bryce stalled them long enough for me to flee,” Simon said, eyes staring down and seeing nothing. “I ran. For what seemed like an eternity, I fled, ashamed at leaving Bryce. When I paused, finally thought I might be safe, I felt it. Because of the work I’d done, I could sense it. Can you understand what that’s like? A pressure, a writhing, twisting, gnawing pressure biting at my mind. And when I ran, it harried me like a hound to a hare.” Simon’s face fell. “This thing, this monster… chased me for days. Until yesterday. I hid until I was sure it had left, and then tried to return home. And then I found you here.”
Simon met my eyes, his own gaze haunted. The expression looked so human, so real that had I not known Simon’s origin it would have fooled my heart and mind. Kate reached out and placed a hand on Simon’s shoulder, giving it a knowing squeeze.
I shook my thoughts free. We all had bigger concerns.
“Whoever attacked you sent that thing against you,” I mused. “I want to rule out Lockyer. He seemed on the level with how he abhorred magic. Still going to talk with him about it. I don’t like coincidences, and it really seems he’s the one that took Vitae Superno.”
Pulling myself up to full height, I hammered Simon with my unflinching gaze.
“This is what’s going to happen,” I said, voice granite. “You used people for your work. People. That ends. Now and forever, that is over. I don’t care what insane, alien thoughts you twist around to justify it in your mind. I don’t care if you are just taking a little from these people. You. Are. Done.”
I spat the words, and found the smoldering anger in my chest kindling into something more, a sullen coal bursting into the brilliant flare of the sun itself. My steps brought me to Simon with a methodical purpose, as a tiger stalking prey. My hand snapped out, fingers digging hard into an unyielding shoulder. Kate stilled beside us, her face neutral.
“I’ll keep my deal with Stefan and Dieter. I’ll let them know you’re alive, or whatever passes for it.” My fingers tightened, and though I couldn’t harm such a being without magic, Simon flinched. “If I ever see you again… In passing down the street, at a store buying shit to replace your facsimile of a real life, feeding coins into a goddamned parking meter… I will end you. That’s not conditional. If I ever see you again, it’s over, no matter what you have or have not done. You agreeing to end your shitty little experiments here and now means I don’t eat the money from the Twins and send you packing this second.”
I held Simon’s gaze until the creature nodded.
“We’re done here,” I said, voice cold. I spun on my heel and stormed to the door, pausing long enough to snatch up the sheaf of papers I’d handled earlier, covered in Simon’s neat scrawl. I heard Kate murmur something and then I left.
Chapter 16
I sat in Kate’s car, snapping my phone closed and open again in an endless, annoyed staccato. I watched the city pass, hundreds of people going about their lives oblivious to the deeper problems that festered beneath the surface. Sometimes, I almost envied their blissful ignorance. I’d seen too many people die from the life I led. A few had been closer than family.
Now, instead of leaving that life behind, I ran it. It was my responsibility.
“I’m not above threats of violence,” Kate said. “More like promises of violence if you don’t stop doing that.”
My phone closed with a final snap and vanished into my pocket. I leaned my head against the window and let my eyes close as I tried to sort out my thoughts.
“That’s it?” Kate asked. “No quip, no cheeky comeback? Quiet acceptance? Now I’m worried.”
“Trying to puzzle all this out,” I said, not opening my eyes. The glass felt cool and refreshing, releasing a bit of the ache that saturated my body. “I like none of this.”
“You’re Samuel Walker,” Kate said, and I could hear her smile. “You don’t like anything.”
“Not true. I like hating everything.”
The car pulled to a halt. I blinked my eyes open, some fatigue returning with companions for a tag-team match. Past Kate, up a manicured lawn, sat a nice little house with picturesque bushes in neat rows under windows framed with cream-colored curtains. It was quaint, yet well maintained, neither ostentatious nor cheap in appearance.
“I need to pick up a few things,” she said, killing the engine. “Haven’t been home in a few days. Honestly I’m home two out of seven days at best now.” Kate turned a critical eye to my ragged appearance and freshly grated left arm. “I should have rubbing alcohol and bandages as well. That needs a doctor, not a Band-Aid, but maybe I can keep it from falling off.”
I stepped out of the car. “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “I’ll just go out back to the money tree to pay for these doctors. I mean, we’ve been eating on the cheap for months and all, but secretly we planted a magical tree full of cash.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “I get it.”
“But as long as I can pick some of that sweet dollar-fruit that must grow on this magical tree of yours…”
“Seriously, point made.”
“Speaking of money trees,” I said, waving an arm at the expansive house. “Damn. Why the hell am I struggling to pay you if you have a place like this?”
We approached the front door, and she unlocked it, throwing open the door with mock theatricality, down to a little bow.
“Like, seriously, Kate,” I said, stepping in and glancing around. The living room was color-coordinated, shades of earth-tones for the expansive couch and love seat, the walls sporting those little inspirational sayings and pictures I loathed so much.
I saw an abundance of candles, like a Yankee Candle delivery truck had crashed into the place.
“I’ve had this place since the accident,” she said, not meeting my gaze. “With the inheritance. I told you I’ve never had a job because of what happened. Well, it was a good chunk of change.”
I shifted in uncomfortable silence. What was there to say? Sure, she had money, but her whole family had died for her to get it.
“Plus the sale of my brother’s estate went through last month,” she continued, kicking the door closed. She waved me toward the couch. I sat, and it caressed me in the way that only expensive furniture could. I lamented the grime I was likely rubbing off on it, having rolled in an alley, but I was too comfortable to protest.
“That huge mansion we went to?” I asked, wondering if Kate would let me keep the couch and make it my new home away from home in Sanctuary. “Not to be rude, but couldn’t you be the OFC’s Sugar Momma?”
Kate snickered. “I don’t think that term means what you think it means.”
“Still. Could you float a loan to help me pay you?”
“Like I said, this is kind of my first job,” Kate said. She retreated down the hallway and hooked into a room on the right. Her voice echoed with those perfect acoustics you only get while singing off-key in the shower. “It’s important to work and try to be normal.”
“As normal as fighting trans-dimensional thingies can be, sure.”
“It’s not like I’m rich, Samuel.” She returned with a little black canvas bag emblazoned with a red cross. She sat on the coffee table and freed its contents.
“No, no, I get it,” I said. Kate grabbed my arm, looked at it, and got to work. I only swore half a dozen times, I’m proud to say. “I mean, I still think you could spurge and maybe buy us some good coffee now and again. Maybe some food. A television for my office, maybe. A helicopter or two, nothing serious.”
Kate’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Maybe I’ll pay you to drive me around. I’ll get you a little suit and a hat and have you call me Miss Kate.”
“Uh, if it gets me a new car, you bet your ass I would.”
Kate snorted. “Is this going to get weird? I figured you knew I had cash. The fact that I’d told you I’d never had a job should have been a big clue.”
“Nah. Just… if I ever lose the lease on Sanctuary, promise we can move our super secret organization’s headquarters here.”
“Deal.” She hesitated for a second. Her hand returned to my bandaged arm and rested on my wrist. It was warm, like a lazy summer afternoon in the tall grass, just watching the clouds whisper by.
“I appreciate all you’ve done,” she said, looking past me. “You. Samuel. The Ordo, such as it is. It’s… helped.”
I swallowed, aware of her touch. “Helped?”
“I spent most of my days reading books and hanging with my brother. I don’t know if you’d call it a life…” She gave a sudden, remembered smile and tried to tuck her hair behind one ear. “I would. But then I lost everything.”
Kate’s eyes met mine. “This gives me purpose, Samuel. We do good. Whatever happens, just remember that. And, for whatever it’s worth, thank you.”
“Thanking me for putting you in the line of fire,” I said with a grin. “I think your wires are crossed.”
She gave my wrist a squeeze. “It’s not how we do it. It’s what we do. I’ve never felt like I belonged.”
Her hand fell away, curled into a fist, and knocked me in the shoulder. “So, whatever you do, keep your shit together. I need you to not fall apart on me. As much as it pains me to say it, Samuel, I need you.” She flushed. “You, Daniel, all of this. Don’t you go leaving me in the wind.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, voice soft.
Kate’s grin was angelic. “Now, I’m going to go clean up because I smell like you look. Do we have an agenda for the rest of the day?”
I grunted. “Let me make a few calls and see. I want to talk with Lockyer again at the very least. And the Twins.”
I fished out my phone and grunted. One missed text from Daniel. When had I gotten that? I flicked open the old flip phone and read the message.
“Oh, how unexpected,” I said, snapping the phone closed. “Daniel wants to talk about our hiring process.”
Kate’s face remained neutral. “Yeah?”
“He’s just going to keep nagging like my mother until he gets what he wants, isn’t he?”
Kate chuckled. “I can’t even imagine what your mother must be like. I picture less nagging and more… I don’t know. Sipping martinis at eight in the morning while being condescending about everything in your life.”
“Half right.” I flexed my newly-wrapped arm and winced. Yeah, bandaging it did nothing for the pain. “The condescension part. Blah blah, not living up to potential blah blah.”
Kate gathered up the first aid kit and rose. “She doesn’t know what you do.”
“Oh, tell my poor old mother that beyond spacetime there’s an infinite amount of realities trying to punch through and eat our delicious bone marrow? No. God, no. I might not have seen eye to eye with the OFC on all of its stupid rules and regulations, but I get that one. You’d think people could handle the truth, but look at humanity. The vast majority will fuck you over for a parking spot at the supermarket and can’t even be bothered to use a blinker. They’re self-absorbed, egotistical, and only look out for themselves. Knowing the truth?” I sighed and rubbed at my eyes. “It wouldn’t bind everyone together to sing Kumbaya and usher in a world of hand-holding togetherness. People are shit, Kate, and the truth would just create panic and hysteria. You know what I mean?”
Kate’s fingers tapped against the case in her hand. “I think you’re a little too jaded to be making those calls. I think we can do great things with the right inspiration.”
She vanished. I sat in silence. I couldn’t get behind Kate’s point of view. She’d taken to the supernatural with eagerness. She still seemed so damn positive despite all her personal tragedy. It made little sense. A more likely scenario was Kate was just bottling it all up like the rest of us did, and I didn’t want to be around when that popped.
I fished out my phone again and patted around for the card Lockyer had given me. I dialed and waited a moment.
“Norman Lockyer’s personal phone,” a young voice said. “How may I be of service?”
“Alvin?” I said, frowning. “Is that you?”
“Mr. Walker. Samuel. Mr. Lockyer mentioned you might call for him.”
“Can you explain how this is his personal phone, but he’s got you answering it?”
“Mr. Lockyer is currently, ah, indisposed,” Alvin said. He sounded like the chipmunk of his namesake through my tinny speaker. “Having assistants is a thing important people do, you realize, right? I’ll let him know you called, though.”
“And when can I expect to hear from Rich Uncle Pennybags?”
“Rich Uncle…”
I sighed. “The guy from Monopoly? Monocle, absurd mustache, stupid hat? It was that or Daddy Warbucks but I’m not sure you’re old enough to—”
“He’s handling an incursion, Samuel.”
My ears perked up. “I don’t know whether to be thankful or cheesed he’s doing my job. I’m leaning toward the latter at the moment because I’m a petty, petty man. He doesn’t bring his phone when kicking ass and chewing bubble-gum?”
“Duke Nukem 3D,” Alvin said. “And, no, he doesn’t.”
Anger flared. “Are you shitting me?” I snapped into the phone. “What the hell?”
“Mr. Lockyer prefers to be free of distractions as…”
“They Live, you… God damn it how can you not have seen They Live? What sort of stupid fucked up cult are you a part of that kicks extra-dimensional aliens in the dick and they don’t make They Live, like, mandatory training?”
There was a long, confused pause on the other end of the phone. God damn kids these days. I sighed.
“Look, maybe you can give me a little information, then,” I said, rubbing at my eyes. “Does this incursion have to do with any scaly, no-mouthed, clay-faced monster thingies?”
The confused pause turned into a hesitant one. “I’m not at liberty to talk about anything Mr. Lockyer does.”
“You don’t know.”
“I don’t know,” Alvin agreed. “But I’m supposed to be all tactful and shit.”
I grinned into my phone. “Look, if you ever tire of answering phones for Richie Rich, call me. We’re hiring.”
“I… I’ll keep that in mind, Samuel.”
“We don’t have health insurance, but we eat enough ramen to preserve your body through salt content alone. Works out in the end. Do me a favor though? Is there any way I could get information on the battles your team has been up to? A week ago I didn’t even know you guys were doing anything, and it’d help me get a better understanding of how bad things are getting if I kn
ow how much of the load you are handling. You know. For the merger or whatever.”
I held my breath for a moment. It was asking a lot, I knew, but I’d hoped Alvin wasn’t so indoctrinated into their particular flavor of evil stomping and more on Team Good Guy than anything else.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Alvin agreed, albeit with hesitation. “Is there anything else?”
“Nah. Tell your boss I called to talk shop. Thanks, Alvin.”
“Thank you, Samuel.” The line clicked dead.
The phone vanished into my pocket as I yawned. Lockyer was out personally handling Entity badness. I could appreciate that, and it gave him a bump up the ladder in my estimation. Christina had locked herself away in Sanctuary; Lockyer was out there putting action to word. I liked that.
Of course, I still had a nagging worry he had sent those creatures after me.
Exactly, Lauren said. My spine snapped straight as the words caressed against my inner senses. You shouldn’t trust Lockyer.
“Oh yeah,” I said, leaning back and kicking my arms over the back of the couch. “Because the word of a… whatever you are… is so trustworthy.”
What he’s doing is unnatural. Come on, Samuel. I know you’ve always had problems seeing the forest for the trees, but consuming Entities? That’s got to strike you as odd. At least look at this critically if you won’t take my word for it.
“You know there’s a saying about fighting fire with fire, right? You still remember things like that?”
Lauren twisted. I could feel it, as if someone had filled my brain with eels, sliding all slimy across the confines of my thoughts. I shuddered, but Lauren remained silent.
“So, I’m guessing you’ve been listening in, given you knew what that phone call was about,” I said. I finished the rest of my coffee, yawned, and wondered if I should start another batch brewing. Instead I rose and rinsed out my mug. “Which means you know what the Twins said about our little predicament.”
A pregnant pause. I grinned.
I know what you know, see what you see, hear what you hear, Lauren said at last. Mostly.
