Conjured Defense (Terra Chronicles Book 4)

by J. C. Jackson

  I grimaced at the reports I still needed to file. Resting tonight would be out of the question. I would still be able to function missing a day. It was the only way I would get caught up if I was lucky.

  “We still need to get something in place.” Silver’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.

  “What?”

  “A keyword or something that’ll work in case you come in contact with the system again. I don’t like the fact the amplifier has that kind of affect over you.”

  “Oh. Um…” Why was this so difficult to come up with?

  My mind reminded me he previously gave me a couple of options which would likely work. One I refused, but what would be the harm in telling him?

  No, I refused to be teased endlessly and too often he found ways to do it. I really did not need to hand him another.

  As well as I had no idea how I would feel hearing that name again. In my head that name was attached to people who died despite the fact so few used it.

  I glanced over at my partner. As much as he loved to tease me, he also treated things I talked about with respect. He always wanted to listen to me. I never understood it.

  “Don’t think too hard on it. We’ve got other stuff to work on still,” Silver said.

  I rolled my eyes - as if I needed the reminder. “We should probably pick up something and head back to the hotel. There’s a lot to go into the case file.”

  “You have a point. Why don’t I drop you off and then go get something?”

  “Okay.” It would give me a chance to get started in peace.

  Silver brought his bag up to the room before heading back out. I hugged myself for a moment looking around the hotel room. I used to love being by myself. Probably just a temporary thing because of the system.

  Shaking my head, I sat down and pulled everything out. I set up both tablets to upload images from the cameras. Then I set to work on scanning in the few fingerprints we found.

  Almost an hour later, my phone rang. Kitteren’s name came up requesting a video call.

  I sighed and answered.

  “Have you done it yet?” A broad grin graced her face.

  “Done what?” I had done a lot of things today. Some of which I would rather forget.

  Kitteren rolled her eyes dramatically and gave a loud exasperated sigh. “Kissed him.”

  “What? No!” My face warmed at her reminder of what happened.

  She laughed. “You’ve thought about it though.”

  “No. I’ve been busy working.”

  “Come on, Ket. You’re in a beautiful vacation destination. You should take advantage of it.”

  “What does being in Sandpoint have to do with that?” Things like this I never understood.

  “It’s a great place to try new things.”

  “I’m good. It was a one time thing.”

  My sister smirked. “I doubt that. And it happening because you needed to be pulled back to your body doesn’t count. I know you’re going to enjoy it.”

  It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Why is this so important? I’ve got a case to solve that keeps growing.”

  “What if he wants to kiss you again?”

  “I’ll probably end up slapping him again.”

  Kitteren gave a short laugh. “Not the reaction I was expecting, but it’d be hilarious to watch.”

  “How are things going in Ghost Forest?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “Great. I really don’t do much outside of the mounds of paperwork to be honest. You taught them too well. Let’s get back to you. Where is he anyway?”

  “Getting food.” I glanced at my watch. He had been gone a while. “Not sure what’s taking so long. I hope he hasn’t run into trouble.”

  “We are talking about Silver, right?”

  “Yes, but there have been enough incidents we’re certain someone is trying to drive us off the case.”

  Kitteren’s face quickly became serious. “Okay, what happened?”

  “Hit my head a few too many times,” I joked, but my eyes slid to the door. If I could get Kitteren off of the phone, I could message him.

  “Hasn’t knocked any sense into you though otherwise you’d have tried it already.”

  Was she coming back around to that already? “Too many near misses and this last one was more direct.”

  “Hey,” Kitteren said. “You’ll figure it out. But when this is over, you need to do something for yourself. I may not have details, but if you’re this worked up over it, it’s got to be Hells of a case.”

  How was I worked up? I was concerned, yes, but I thought I kept it to myself.

  I turned toward the door when I heard it unlock. “He’s back.”

  “Not yet, Ket,” she said as I reached for the button to end the call. “Always get full confirmation first.”

  I shifted nervously as the door opened slowly. Silver hefted a couple of bags while putting his wallet away and getting through the door.

  He put the bags on the table next to me and then looked at my phone with the video call still connected. “Sorry I interrupted.”

  Kitteren shrugged. “We were just wrapping up anyway. Can you do something about her being so high-strung? Pretty soon you’ll have to peel her off of the ceiling.”

  Silver crossed his arms and tilted his head at the screen. Even I did not know what to make of her words.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Silver said.

  Kitteren turned her attention back to me. “You need to do it.”

  “Shut up,” I shot at her.

  My sister laughed and ended the call. I put my phone face down. Why did she constantly tease me about things like this?

  Silver knelt down next to me. “Should I ask what that was about?”

  “No.”

  “Well, considering you’re blushing, I’m going to take an educated guess.” Then he stood up and got the food containers out of the bags.

  I glared up at him. He smiled down at me and held out a container.

  Opening the small box, I found breaded cheese sticks. I picked up one and pointed it at him. “Don’t start.”

  “Getting you one of your favorites won’t get me a free pass?”

  “No. And how come you were gone for so long? I started to worry something happened.”

  He sat down on another chair with his own food. “I went to Watered Down. I wanted to try something else.”

  “Don’t suppose you happened to have picked up more than food.”

  He shook his head. “They already knew what happened to Jake though. Right now it’s all speculation.”

  I dipped the piece I held in the sauce and twirled it around for a moment, frowning. “If it wasn’t suicide, then whoever did it has likely gone into hiding. It’s not like they’re going to go boasting about it - not with the amount of work they went to make us question if it was suicide or not.”

  “You’re also assuming Jake didn’t decide to take his life.”

  “Guess even I’m finding it hard to believe. I don’t want to write it off either in case there’s a critical piece of evidence we might miss.”

  Silver sighed, pointing at my food. “Take a break and eat. We can work on this more after. Looks like you have a lot in progress.”

  I looked at the tablets uploading images still and the portable fingerprint scanner waiting for more input from me. “Between organizing all of this and the reports that still need to be written, I think it’s going to be an all-nighter.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Does this mean you’re willing to go in later tomorrow?”

  I tilted my head at him. “No, there’s too much to do.”

  “Ketayl,” Silver said and sighed. “Both of us will need rest if we want to be operating at full. I will make sure you rest.”

  I knew it was not an idle threat. He knew exactly how to get me to rest whether I wanted to or not. “At least can we knock out getting this stuff uploaded and organized? I’ve also got more from my watch to transfer.”
/>
  “You do that, I’ll draft reports. I’ll probably complain about it the whole time, but they’ll get done.”

  “Fine.”

  Silence fell between us and I moved onto my main meal by the time Silver spoke again. “I do want to talk about what has happened between us.”

  Not him too. “I don’t think now is a good time.”

  “You told Kitteren.”

  I stopped and stared at him. Did he actually know?

  “She’s a little easier to understand than you when you speak in your dialect. And she’s loud.”

  I glared at him. “You were eavesdropping?”

  “I just told you she’s loud. I could hear her in the bathroom with the water running.”

  I turned away from him. There went any future private conversations between me and Kitteren. “How long?”

  “Rathal told me how he learned to understand Kitteren shortly after they arrived to relieve us in Ghost Forest. I don’t have enough practice to translate when you speak it yet.”

  Which meant maybe two or three weeks at best he had been translating.

  “To be honest, I can only pick up words here and there from Kitteren. Rathal was right - your accent is much thicker.”

  I set my jaw and stared at my box of food. Suddenly my appetite disappeared.

  “Ketayl, eat. I need to learn it anyway. Sometimes you’ll drop into it without realizing it and it’ll be easier than asking you to repeat yourself.”

  His words did not help any.

  “Besides, it could be useful as a means of private communication between us. Especially on cases like this. We’d be able to talk more freely.”

  “You don’t seem to have trouble figuring it out,” I spat at him.

  “Words, Ketayl. I have to put what little I can make out into context and hope I’m right. I’m also more actively attempting to parse it out.”

  I bit my lower lip. I knew I would not stay mad at him for this. His points were valid. “How?”

  “At least with Kitteren, if you slow it down, you can make most of it out. I still have a hard time keeping up with how fast the two of you talk.”

  Mouthing a few words, I slowed it down and realized it more or less did work, but there were still a lot of specific words to the dialect. Someone broke the code.

  “Why did you tell Kitteren?” Silver asked.

  His question made me sit up and look at him. “I’m not sure. I guess I was still confused about what happened and I’ve been trying to be better about communicating with her.”

  “It was certainly a confusing set of circumstances,” Silver agreed.

  I dug at my food a little more forcefully than I normally would. “We need to finish and get back to work if you want to get rest tonight.”

  Chapter 14

  Today I wondered if the weather would be against us. I eyed the strange clouds as we arrived on base. Hopefully we would spend most of our time indoors.

  “Where do you want to start?” I asked Silver.

  “Let’s get back to the ship and track down the problem with the defense station. I know it’s been bothering you that we haven’t found the source yet.”

  “I’m leaning toward sabotage given what we’ve found so far.” I pulled out my tablet and checked the tracking on what we sent yesterday. It should be arriving at the main office soon if it had not already.

  A few more hours and it would be in Sparky’s hands. I found out he had a knack for finding explosive devices I might overlook during the months we worked together. I never asked where he got the experience for it as I was unsure I would want to know the answer.

  Once we picked up our escorts for the day, we headed for the ship. People rushed around the base as if preparing for something.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked.

  “Just getting ready for the wizard to arrive, ma’am.”

  I raised an eyebrow and looked at Silver who shrugged. “Wizard?”

  The other escort explained. “It’s called a wizard storm. Be Hells of a light show. You won’t be able to stay on-board the ship once it rolls in. We’ll give you as much time as we can.”

  “If a ship gets caught at sea during one, it’s fine, but it’s a precaution we have in place on base.”

  “Oh, thank you,” I said.

  A few silent minutes later, I was hugging myself against the wind as we ran up to the ship. Even the guards normally stationed here retreated inside. Our escorts remained with the guards and Silver and I headed down into the ship.

  “How far do you think?” Silver asked.

  “To be honest, I’m not even sure the plans are accurate for where the system goes. There were so many wires around the amplifier.”

  “So, keep following it one room at a time?”

  I nodded. It would be slow going, but not as slow as chasing all over for the source.

  While Silver pulled a panel off, he asked, “What was so special about the book you found in Jake’s office?”

  He reminded me it was still in my bag. “I think it's where his inspiration for the system came from, but I'm fairly certain his translation is inaccurate.”

  “You can read it?” My partner finally pulled the panel free.

  I stepped forward and shined my handlight in, seeing only burnt out wiring still. “No. I know this is going to sound strange, but I feel like I should be able to and I know some of the translations are inaccurate, but I don't know why or how to correct it.” I took pictures of the inside of the panel. Sparky might get something off of this - we were likely getting too frustrated.

  “I'm thinking you've hit your head a few too many times in recent days.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Could also have something to do with coming in contact with the amplifier.”

  “Really don't want to consider that one. You’re implying the orb can impart information.”

  “As a tactical system, it would be greatly valued if it could provide real time analysis of a battle, but I didn't see anything about it in Jake’s notes.”

  “He also said you managed to make it do things he never even imagined.”

  I frowned. “I'm only seeing burnt out wiring here. It looks like it leads that way.” I pointed in the direction they went. “I don't see how this type of damage could have traveled so far.”

  “I've given up on assuming this thing made sense.”

  “Probably a better idea.” I followed Silver out the door. We planned to clean up later. With the time restraint, we wanted to move quickly.

  We managed a couple more rooms before we were told it was time to leave. I had heard thunder a few minutes earlier even as far into the ship as we were and it continued to get louder.

  When we got outside, the wind and the rain picked up to the point Silver held onto me. Even I was unsure if I would be able to keep from being blown off of the dock.

  We hurried into Spelltech’s warehouse with our escorts. All of us were soaked by the time we got there. Even the guards abandoned their post, taking up shelter in a small building just off of the dock.

  I looked back out the rain-soaked windows at the strange cloud pattern passing over us. It appeared as if a tidal wave of storm clouds reached for the ground. Large ball-like clouds rolled over the landscape behind them.

  “It’s just a big thunderstorm, ma’am. Nothing to be concerned about. Doesn’t happen too often, but it’s better to be inside and make sure everything is secured,” one of our escorts said.

  Others in the warehouse gathered by the windows to watch the storm.

  “Thank you. Just wish we could’ve gotten done what we wanted to,” I said.

  I turned my attention away from the windows and toward the back of the warehouse where the offices were located. Going through the computer would keep me occupied while we waited. I wished we kept the computer from his hidden office, but the one with access to the plans would have to suffice.

  Besides, I wanted to dry off. I could use my power to do it, but the casters w
ere already eying me cautiously.

  “Since we’re stuck here for a bit, I’m going to head to the office and see if I can’t find something useful,” I said quietly to Silver.

  He nodded and signaled for me to lead the way. I was unsure if it was Jake’s death or because of the storm, but all the other projects sat untouched.

  I pushed my way into the over-packed office and dried both of us off. The room was as private as we were going to get. Then I sat down in front of the sole computer in the room.

  “Did he give you access to it?” Silver asked.

  I tapped my finger on the desk while it booted up. “No, but I can get in.”

  “What? How?” Silver leaned over my shoulder. Why did he have to be so close?

  “I… uh…” I needed to be better about thinking through things like this. “I could never remember the passcode for my phone so I created an arcane solution to get in. It’s the same concept.”

  “Have you done this before on anything other than your phone?” Silver turned so he leaned against to the desk next to the screen.

  I mentally cringed at the question. “Yes…”

  My partner raised an eyebrow at me. “Was it something you shouldn’t have gotten into?”

  I hesitated before answering. “Yes…”

  “Okay, what?” Silver crossed his arms. “Your tales of mischief are always entertaining.”

  “Your phone and Kitteren’s.” I kept my eyes forward on the screen.

  “When was this? I don’t recall you ever getting a hold of my phone.”

  I sighed. It was bound to come out eventually. “In Mystic Port. I’m sorry I stole it from you, but I needed to figure out what was going on. It felt like everyone was covering something up.” Which most of them were, but Silver had been as much in the dark as I had.

  A hand touched my hair. “I think I understand. I might have done the same thing in your place.”

  I reached forward and touched the computer, working my way through the login screen to gain full access to what was on it. Part of me wondered if Jake continued to hold back information despite our assurances. He seemed extremely protective of his project. Maybe it was something else.