by P. S. Power
“Easy there, Carlisle. This is the new kid that was picked up. You got the memo on that, right?”
There was a slow, rather begrudging, nod.
“I did. He gives off some kind of pheromone that pisses some people off? I can see it. I kind of want to shoot him, just for standing here.” The man certainly looked like he was feeling something.
The other man stood up, and waved for Liam to head in his general direction.
“This way. I’ll get you a chair. Sanchez and Brenner are probably going to be busy having their butts chewed for a while. The Hodler situation. You were there for that, right? It was called in by the locals and they’re a bit pissed that we sort of let a kidnapper go like we did. I mean, I get it. Plus, Tiffany is really well connected in that group. With the wolves and vampires, in particular. A lot of people that won’t talk to any of the rest of us will open right up to her. The local PD doesn’t know about any of that, in the main. The occasional officer learns a bit of it. Most don’t.”
That fit what he’d been told earlier, so he nodded.
“What’s a pheromone?”
The question got the man to grimace a little bit.
“Um… A chemical that gets a response from other people or animals. Some people like you have pheromones, or something similar, that make a lot of people really uneasy around them. Not everyone responds to it, so there’s that. Carlisle isn’t normally an asshole though, so I figured that he might be affected by that sort of thing. I think you’re fine, so… So far so good?”
That wasn’t good news, while also explaining some things. Like the old man at the gas station, and why the pink haired round woman had been kind toward him until he got too close to her. Then she responded in a way that seemed overdone, even to him. The others had acted like it was strange for anyone to do either of those things.
“Oh. That’s new. To me, I mean. It wasn’t a thing I was taught. How do I fix that? Bathe?” He didn't have anything else that might work for a scent problem. In the main he didn't think he smelled bad, so it had never really come up for him before.
The dark-skinned Agent shook his head.
“I have no clue. That could work. It’s worth a shot, anyway. There might be ways to suppress it as well. I’m Agent Douglas, by the way. Nice to meet you.” A hand came out, which he understood what to do with, thanks to having met Mitchel Warner and Sanchez having told him how to manage things like that.
His large hand wrapped totally over the other man’s making it seem very small by comparison. Carefully, after firming his hand slightly, he let go and stood there, looking around. Douglas moved to the side, grabbed a chair with a metal frame and soft seat, done in blue material that seemed slick and plastic like and brought it over to him, near Sanchez’s name plaque.
Then the other man left him alone there. Sitting there without anything to do or study, other than the people in the room. That was instructive, of course. For instance, as he looked around, Agent Carlisle found him looking and frowned, seeming upset by it. One of the women, who was older seeming than Brenner was, smiled at him when she noticed him.
The other men gave him a simple nod of the head, while the last lady there seemed to grow very uneasy as he sat there, well away from her.
After a while there was shouting from the side room that Brenner and Sanchez had entered. It wasn’t either of their voices. Oddly from the names being yelled about, it wasn’t directed at him or either of them, which left Liam baffled as to the situation.
“For cripes sake, Dalling! You know the rules as well as we do. You helped to make them up in the first freaking place! Work with us here. God.”
The rest of the words were softer, though the loud conversation went on for a while. That ended with a loud clack, that seemed to be something being slammed on a desk. Then Brenner came to the door, looked around and waved at Liam when she found where he was.
“Over here. The boss wants to meet you. Don’t worry, she’s nice. Sweet and wonderful. Salt of the Earth. A saint among woman kind…” The words had an odd tone to them. Sarcasm. A thing that was clearly meant to be overheard by the woman inside the other room, unless she was deaf.
She could speak on a phone, though had gotten very loud earlier. That could indicate hearing problems. Not that it would be that. The lady was inside the room, behind her desk. Brenner walked in with him, making room by moving to the left and sitting on the edge of a soft looking chair. On the arm. A thing you weren’t supposed to do, because it would break the furnishings faster than using them as intended. That had come from one of the instructional videos that he’d watched. It also spoke of not jumping on the bed.
A thing that he hadn’t known to be an option, not having ever had one of those. There was a glass tank, in the basement, but he didn't rest in it. That was just for making people like him. He’d never been tempted to jump on that, however.
The woman behind the desk leaned back a bit, looking at him closely. Taking him in as if she wanted to know everything about him in a single appraisal. He did similar things, so knew to hold still and wait for her to be done. Her gaze lingered first on his eyes, then his face for a while. After that she looked at his big hands which dangled artlessly to his sides. If there was a rule for where to keep your hands, he didn't know it. Other than that they had to remain visible for some people, or they would fucking kill you.
Liam let her speak first, since it was her place and frankly, he had no clue how to do that kind of thing. It was easy with Mary, since you could simply start asking questions. With others it seemed that saying a greeting of some sort was the first thing to do. Hello came to mind for that.
The woman in the red dress, her face lightly tanned and her eyes different than the other men and women he’d met, smiled at him. It lacked the warmth he was used to seeing in such things. Then, a lot of people had that going on it seemed, out in the real world.
“I’m AIC Ridley. FBI, obviously. Agent Brenner was just telling me that you’re going to be staying with her for a while. Is that all right with you? We don’t really have anyplace else for you to go, if it isn’t. I suppose you could go home. The issue there is that there’s no registration of your birth anywhere. I hear that you’re five months old now, is that correct?”
He nodded.
“Yes, AIC. I don’t know where to go either. I’m… still not certain why my mother was stolen. It’s… because you don’t like me?” That wasn’t exactly what he wanted to say. It came out sounding sad, however. Stressed and probably as if he needed help.
AIC Ridley shook her head.
“No. I can see thinking that but this is actually about protecting you while making certain that people don’t feel entitled to create monsters without caring what the world thinks. Not that you’re bad, from what I’ve heard. Far from it. You’ve handled yourself perfectly so far, in fact.” She looked at him, sitting behind her desk, as he was pushed into the chair. It was still warm, from where one of the others, probably Brenner, had been in it before. “Still, there are rules, even if the general public doesn’t know about them. So we have to hassle Mary Frankenstein until she agrees not to be a problem for us. I’ll warn you, it could take a while. You’re good with Brenner then? I need to know, for the paperwork. It’s unusual, sending someone home with an agent. At least she’s cute, right?”
That was probably the truth. Liam didn’t know, having never thought about that kind of thing before. The important part was that it seemed he had a place to stay for a while, as he figured things out. It wasn’t even being off in the woods or outside of some poor person’s home in their dilapidated shed, like the original creature from Mary Shelley’s book had to survive.
That could only help.
Chapter five
The early morning had been, Liam had to admit, exciting in its own way. Scary, because he was in a new place. One so very different than the medium sized home that he’d shared with his creator for all those months. His entire lifetime.
&nbs
p; At the same time, it was simply so different that even things the others with him took for granted were new and amazing to him. For instance, though he had little desire to attempt drinking coffee, which was a brown water-based liquid with some kind of energy promoting chemical in it, the scent of it was incredible. There had been something like it at the donut shop, now that he thought about it. Not knowing what it was, his mind hadn’t categorized it before. Once Agent Sanchez had shown him the machine that made it and gone over, if lightly, how it worked, the pieces slipped into place for him.
The angry pink haired woman who had pretended to be insulted by him had been drinking such a thing. With other liquids in her cup. Thinking about it now, he could taste the air again, and find what they were. Sugar, something that was like milk only had more fat and some kind of highly scented thing that he’d never encountered before. That had stung his nose a bit at the time. All of this had been hidden under the bolder scents in the room.
The donuts and related, no doubt incredible, flavors they carried.
There were computers in the office, which was the name of the space they were in. In fact, most places where people sat down to do real work were called that. At least Brenner suggested that to him, having him pull his single, blue cushioned chair over by her desk.
Both of the Agents set to work, which involved writing. That didn't stop for about two hours, in which time Liam sat, quietly. Observing the room. Nothing really happened, he supposed. Not in a way that people who had lived in the situation would have been aware of in particular. Phones rang, other Agents answered them and there was a lot of clacking on keyboards. That part was familiar to him. He could make one of those sing himself, since it was needed in order to get online and find information. The only difference he noticed was how very slowly they all worked, compared to what he was used to doing. The typing was labored sounding and done over the course of minutes or in a few cases, hours. These, from the sounds given off, should have been finished in no more than moments, for most of the activities. He didn’t mention it to anyone, since it was probably just that he was different, rather than anything else going on there.
It was difficult to sit still, the entire time, of course. He wanted to explore and see what was outside the office doors. There was a whole building past that, with an entire world beyond that. A thing so vast that it occurred to him as he sat there, waiting, that his mind hadn’t been able to understand the scope of it from what he’d learned so far.
It hadn’t been hidden from him, not truly.
Mary had told him about it, even. That when she left, she drove to the store, miles away from their home, which was a large building many, many times the size of the house they lived in, filled with foods and other things that could be bought, for money. He’d seen that kind of thing and even been taught how to count it and roughly what some things would cost, in case he were ever going to pay for them, himself.
Still, even having been told that the world was huge compared to what he’d known his whole life, that hadn’t really prepared him for what existed. The sky had been visible from the windows, so there had been no great shock when he’d gone outside and the ceiling was gone. Except that it was also wide, and covered the entire world around him. Everything that was on the planet was, he understood now, underneath the giant and perfect dome above.
At the same time he sat, contemplating the things that he’d noticed that evening, Agent Carlisle looked up and glared at him, breathing hard, about once every five minutes or so. Finally, slamming things around more than anyone else there had done, the man stormed out of the place. Looking back at Liam, as if to indicate why he was leaving like he was. A few minutes later the female Agent that had kept looking at him nervously, as if he might attack her or yell uncomfortable things about death like a bad man, did the same. Only she was more secretive about it and went into the AIC Ridley’s office space before taking her own outer garment and going through the door that he’d come in from.
Watching the scene, he nodded. It was clearly about him as well.
“What is the name of the clothing that goes over the other clothing?” Liam pointed at what Agent Sanchez had draped over the back of his chair. It was a smaller and lighter version of what the woman who had just left and Agent Carlisle had been wearing.
His whisper got a response from the man, who looked up from what he was doing.
“A jacket? There are other things kind of like it. Coats, mainly. At least around here. People wear them to keep their body heat in when they go outside. The weather isn’t that bad yet but in a few weeks, we’ll probably have snow. Do you know what that is?”
Liam was able to nod in the affirmative on that one, so he also smiled as he spoke, his low tones forcing the male Agent to lean toward him.
“Frozen water from the sky. It presents as being white and pure. It comes in the winter season. I’ve read about it. I was born in late summer, so haven’t seen any, myself.” Part of him wanted to go into what snow and cold were to these people, since it had barely been touched on for him in his earlier education.
They both continued to work though, until Brenner stood up, stretching her arms over her head and leaning back.
“Alright, let’s get our tushes out of here, Liam. I need to get home and sleep for about twelve hours. On the good side I just worked a twenty-six, so half my official work week is done. More than that. We aren’t supposed to do that but it comes up. See you tomorrow, Sanchez?”
The man, who was still typing, either having more to do that way or having been slowed down by Liam’s questioning, snorted.
“Of course. If not sooner than that. We’re going to have to handle the fallout from the Hodler situation. Every freaking time we do anything, even helping those people out, we end up wiping the bottom of three other groups in the area, trying to reassure them that we didn’t mean anything by what we did. You’d think they’d learn by now… Only, no… They never do.” The man sounded upset about it, in a way. A little playful, possibly, as well. It was hard to tell, until Brenner smiled at him.
“They really are getting better. I mean, just four years ago what happened last night probably would have ended with a half dozen deaths. Now? I bet we only have four. Maybe even three. Sure, there will be some beatings and bloodshed but what’s a bit of random carnage between friends?”
Agent Sanchez, smiling then, even if it was of a different, lesser quality than some of the other expressions he’d used the night before, closed one eye at Liam.
“Anyway, make sure you get your things from the back of the car. I need to get back to the wife and kids before they forget that I exist. As it is, I keep expecting Linda to be gone every time one of these long events takes place.”
There was a knowing expression from Brenner, who ran her fingers through her curly hair. The red wisps moved, then fell instantly back into the same place they’d just been.
“On the good side it gives her more quality time with her boyfriend. Or is it boyfriends, with an s on the end? So at least she won’t be lonely all day long while you’re gone.”
Her voice was lilting and almost goofy, which indicated she was doing something other than being serious on the topic. Why it would be said at all, Liam didn't know.
Sanchez simply made a face.
“Screw you, Brenner. Just because you have six guys in your life doesn’t mean that every woman does. Really, it kind of has to mean the opposite. You’re hogging them all. That’s kind of rude of you, really.”
Those words, equally strange, simply seemed to be correct. At least Brenner moved then, leading Liam toward the door with a wave. Then she called back.
“True enough. I’ll see if I can handle things here in the morning. Get some sleep and I’ll call if I need you.” Then she walked out, not looking to see if Liam was following her.
They went into the parking lot where the car they’d came in still sat. Popping the trunk, she started to hand him things. His things, as it turned out. Th
at and the pillow case from Mary’s bed. The soft blue thing was lighter than his own clothing, and filled with other versions of what he had on. There was another pair of the same outfit in blue and two in a green color.
He liked the blue better, because it reminded him of the sky through the window.
There was also his computer. A laptop, even if he never used it on top of his lap in any way. That wasn’t comfortable for him. Putting it on a table was better. It had the adaptor cord to it, so he could plug it into the wall and feed it electricity, so it wouldn’t get too hungry to work. It had just sat in the trunk of the vehicle that night, so probably hadn’t used too much of its energy.
After slamming the trunk, the woman, who was clearly tired, marched to the left. There was a street to the right as they did it, his large feet cool on the pavement. Their breath showed in the air, though it was much more obvious from Brenner than it was himself. He also took many fewer breaths, from the look of it. That was a thing he’d never noticed before. The lady with him was breathing normally, not speaking and didn’t seem distressed from the effort of getting themselves across the flat expanse of gray stone.
He was simply doing that at a much slower rate. When he counted, she was taking eleven breaths to every one he needed. After minutes of walking, wrapping around the side of the federal building, they came to another area that was filled with cars. Most of these were fairly small. One of them was bright yellow, in a lighter shade than he was and seemed to be big enough for many large people to ride in.
Which was the one the Brenner took him to.
“This is my SUV. I like the extra room. It comes up surprisingly often that I need more space than my sports car provides. Usually to cart either bodies or injured people around. Most of the supernatural community won’t go to a hospital. Even the ones who can pass as human that way won’t do it. You should learn to do that. Medicine? It’s both a good career and useful.” She looked at him then and closed both of her eyes, if only briefly. Then she reached into the bag she was carrying and pulled a set of keys. There were many on the keeper that held the bundle together, which he stared at, trying to see how it worked. Seeing where his eyes went, she held it up.
