Out of the Woods (The Coalescence Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  “That’s true. It’s why I suggested going in the first place. Consider it?”

  That got a small smile and a nod at least.

  No answer, but that was probably due to the fact that Cindy ran into the room just then, her face seeming hard. She was in tan, with the same pattern of camouflage on it that everyone else was wearing in the place. Except Troy, who had on a dark blue silk shirt and black trousers. Cin stopped suddenly, moving faster than a human being would have been able to, which meant that everyone in the place turned to stare at her.

  When she spoke she was just barely out of breath.

  “We have an incoming attack in London. Terror related. Against humans, but Interpol actually asked for help, so the IPB is sending a team in.” Then she spoke, before anyone could volunteer to handle the difficulty, or accept their assignments. “But wait, there’s more!”

  That got everyone to go quiet again, doing as she commanded, it seemed.

  “We also have a protest setting up in Houston in two days. So the riot squad is on that. Mark, you’re the backup on that. Kerry, Gravity is required for the London mission, so you’re up as the people mover. Den is in charge.” She looked around, then waved at Will. “You’re up for that mission as well, taking Marcia’s place. You’re also doing transport for that, so work that out ahead of time. You’re off world for about twelve hours after this?”

  It was her power to know that kind of thing, so instead of acting like it was a secret, he just nodded.

  “I am. I need a watch.”

  That just got a nod, with Brian reaching into his own pocket, removing something from it. Then buttons were touched several times. When it was passed over it said twelve on it. The man waved at the blue plastic thing. It had a nice woven cord on it as well.

  “Hit the left hand button to make it start. It will beep at you when twelve hours is up, hit the left side to stop that and reset it.” The man didn't even remind him to return the magical seeming device in the morning.

  Cindy just winked at him.

  “That will work, I bet. Good. Brian, you’re on for London, since we aren’t taking planes in for this. Our budget won’t allow for that. We need fliers however. Prime, Impulse, Raptor, you’re all up for that.”

  The last one was a tiny woman who was sitting across the room. So small in fact that she’d nearly gotten past Will without being noticed. His honest thought had been that she was a shield, since, while perfectly formed, she was no larger than four feet tall. In fact, she was a bit smaller than that. When she walked over then, it was clear that she was a miniature version of his Aunt Taman. It was equally apparent that the woman simply wasn’t her at all.

  Interestingly, she had a full Timon shield inside of her. That was identical to his own, but seemed to be her super power. If no one else there had one of them, it was going to be kind of special, he understood. So he nodded at her, trying to school his face to a serious expression, instead of gaping at her in shock. Or lust. A few of the others were doing that, pretty openly. Mainly Georgia, but about a quarter of the room was tracking her as she moved for more than business or professional reasons.

  Before anyone could get out of it, there was a whole crew being assigned to things. Sara, who was sitting in the restaurant with Rachel Chambers, walked over. She was still in her young adult form, so looked a bit like she was ready to go out on a mission with the rest of them. She even wore the correct uniform, since it was her required daily wear there.

  The older Chambers woman was behind her, along with a metallic gold colored fellow who had large muscles, and lavender colored eyes that nearly matched the purple that Will had going on at the moment. It was kind of clear that everyone was getting ready to school the little girl about not going into such situations, but given her power set, Will didn’t see leaving her out totally, himself. She had powers, copies of what others there had, stacked up inside of her, in the form she was in, but changed shape, meaning that she could probably be almost anything she needed. Holding any look, ability or power at her own command.

  In her current form, she was supposed to be normal however, so when she got over to Cindy, the cute girl froze, not saying anything about being included. More to the point, about not being left behind, while everyone else went to do things without her. Again. It was an issue from her, which came off of the lady strongly.

  So he nodded at her, firmly.

  “Sara, if I can get you a special communications device, you can keep in touch with the different teams without being tracked. I know you’re a regular person, but I think you can handle that part of things. It’s better than almost anything you have right now, here, as far as keeping in touch.” It would take a full set up, however, which meant leaving quickly and finding someone to make the whole thing for him. He didn’t have the skills yet, or the time to learn them.

  Rather than throw the tantrum that everyone else feared would be happening, complete with Earth shattering destruction, the cute girl smiled at him.

  “Really? I can do that, if it’s all right?”

  He nodded then, smiling.

  “Good. I’ll see about setting that up. I should probably get going. I have other work to get done as well. Does anyone have a message that needs to go anyplace? I can take it along with me.” He didn't mention payment, since that seemed a bit crass, in an emergency situation.

  Interestingly, Cindy waved a pale hand at him.

  “I have a few things? Gifts for Timon and Taman Baker, actually. Candy.” She winked then, her shoulders coming up. “I couldn’t think of anything else to get either of them. Still, they’ve done so much for us that we need to do something.”

  The new redhead, Karen, nodded then.

  “I agree. Just having my mode turned down is… Well, amazing, to say the least. I should send some things as well. What do they need?”

  That, it turned out, wasn’t a lot. Not really. They were both wealthy in a strange way. They didn’t need servants or slaves either. As far as he could tell, fine goods from different worlds were actually about the best thing that could have been offered at all. Especially things like foods, that would be different and unique to them.

  Cin covered that however, moving closer to Karen, who was with Brian, being his betrothed or, as people had mentioned here, his girlfriend. The difference was one that he’d heard mentioned in Noram, but not in Pine Creek at all. Bridget had painted the state as being sexually involved with a person, as well as courting, but having less relation to one day getting married. The concept was clear when it came from the others around him, but even getting that and mainly understanding what was meant by it, the idea didn’t really fit inside his head all the time.

  After all, it was clear that they meant it as being more than simply having sex. Will had to guess that he was missing parts of the pattern however, just not having enough social experience outside of his home yet. After all, while he’d been in some strange places in the last weeks, for seventeen years his entire life had mainly been lived in a ten-mile square area.

  For his part, Willum moved to leave then, just heading toward the glass doors of the dining area. After all, there was a current world time limit going on, since he was needed to find out how to locate and transport people to Houston. Wherever that was. In the world he was at the moment, obviously. Other than that, he didn't understand what he should be looking for at all. The idea of riots seemed strange as well. The word wasn’t one he knew, but the concept behind it, of an insane mob attacking, had been clear from the thoughts of everyone around him.

  The red hut, comfortingly enough, was still right next to the main command building. The tan brick reminded him that he was supposed to check in, and out, with Ms. Turner, before he left the base. Even if this wasn’t his world, at present he was under her command, so that made sense. It could be that she might have other plans for him at the moment, in which case that would change what he did. Waiting a week to leave on his message carrying rounds wasn’t going to harm tha
t much. Not on his side of things.

  Walking in, he moved directly to the correct door, waving a bit at Lydia as he did it. She didn’t try to stop him or anything. The portal was opened, so he could see the curly dark haired woman sitting behind her large desk. That was made of metal and something that was harder than plastic, but which wasn’t all that attractive. She probably should have had polished wood for it. A thing which he could make for her, if he got a chance to use some tools. That might mean making some new cutters, in different shapes, but he could do that, having copied one before.

  It would make a good Noram Day gift. Not that there was any reason in the world for these people to have that particular holiday at all. It wasn’t Noram, for one thing. There would be something, however. Or not.

  Will pounded gently on the door frame. Ms. Turner was on the phone, which was kind of like a communication device, if it didn’t have a picture to go along with it. This one was larger than his own handheld, by about half again as much mass. It was a nice dark gray color, which was similar enough to black that a lot of people would have probably just called it that. When she looked up a flash of annoyance came off of her, since the call she was taking was important.

  He got that after a few moments, since he actually knew all the words she was using.

  “Yes, Ms. Prime Minister… We’re getting a team ready to deploy right now, we should have them on the ground at your location in…” She looked up at him, as if he’d know that answer to that at all.

  The strange part was that he had a real guess. Proxy could teleport, which was like line walking, without most of the restrictions. So opening and leaving from any location on that world was a thing he could fairly easily do. Will could kind of manage it, but the same thing would take him a lot more work and effort. Still, Brian had mentioned taking five people at a time, which for a team of twenty would probably require about ten minutes. That last part was a guess, of course. Zack could do things much faster than that, but Willum wasn’t able to really. In that same time frame he’d probably be able to shift around four to six individuals.

  They had to outfit first, which would take a while. He thought. That had been what the sense in the room had been however. In all, Brian had figured that it would take him about an hour. If he didn’t go instantly himself, which was a danger. Bridget and Hobbs had both mentioned that before, during his combat lessons. The man was called Proxy for a reason. The word meant to stand in for another. In his case, when people were about to die, he’d instantly be transported to their location, having to fight whatever was going to end the lives of those he replaced.

  Hobbs hadn’t been saying it just to brag about his friend or anything, either. The fact was that Brian Yi had learned to face almost anything on a mere moment’s notice, often adapting in a way that Will might need to master himself. Including fighting things that might be totally immune to physical or mental force. In those cases, it was agreed that his own best chance of survival was probably running away. Which might not work, depending on the situation.

  That one didn’t seem likely however. Brian wasn’t shifting away already to stop the terrorists. That they’d gotten as much warning as they had was interesting however.

  Padding things upward as far as time went a bit, Will held up two fingers, to indicate the supposed readiness frame. It was a thing that he’d seen people do in three different worlds now.

  “Two hours. Operative Yi is on transportation for that, so it’s mainly down to getting ready first. It could be less than that.” He didn’t speak loudly, in case his opinion hadn’t been desired, but the woman nodded, her face smiling gently. It wasn’t a kind expression at all, but she was trying to remind herself to be nice to the world leader on the phone.

  “Two hours is our current ETA. We have the coordinates for that. We’ll keep your people apprised of our movements, of course.” There was more speaking for a while, but not that long, since, apparently, the current situation meant the Prime Minister of London was actually busy that day. When the women were off the device, Ms. Turner looked at him directly. Her brown eyes were less upset seeming with him when she did it.

  “So, Will. What can I do for you?” She was trying to seem relaxed, but inside she was nearly seething with the desire to double check everything that Cindy had put into play. She didn’t totally trust the woman after all.

  More than she did Willum, the literal spy from another world, but that went without saying. Even as she kind of understood that he was going to be picking all of that up. She was used to working with various kinds of telepaths however, so it didn’t bother her that much. After all, other than what she did in bed, which wasn’t much other than sleeping, all her dark secrets would be protected by all her people. Including Will.

  It was a strange thing to be considering, given the rest of her nearly paranoid thoughts, but it was true in his case. For one thing, he didn't really care about most of it. The other part was that he was, for the time being, on her side. Working for her, in fact. As far as things in that world went, he was with her totally.

  “I was told to check in if I needed to leave the base? Troy Lopez mentioned that my wife, May, has messages for me to take to different locations. I was thinking that I could make the rounds of several of the main worlds and see if anyone has anything for that. It should take about twelve hours. Mr. Yi lent me a special clock, so that I can keep track of that. It won’t account for the different time rates and flows in all the worlds, but so far most of them seem pretty standard to this one. The one that doesn’t is mine, which runs much faster, so I have more time there than here. That makes sense?” He got the timing device out of his right hand pocket to show the woman what he was talking about.

  She took a deep breath.

  “Bad timing. Cindy said she wanted you on the Houston team. That won’t be until morning, so, if you hurry and actually get back in time it could work. Otherwise we don’t have transport for everyone. Can you do that?”

  He nodded, thinking about it. He had a shield and disguise amulet around his neck, as well as the clothing he might need.

  “I should be able to set that up in time. I promised to get some handhelds for your people, so that you can communicate better. They won’t be something anyone here can trace or track either, so if I can get them and set that up here it should work. I may, or may not, be able to do that. If so, I don’t know what kind of time frame that will need. I sort of told Sara that she could run that part of things, since she’s on base for these missions.” He was about to go over the reasons for that, but the woman just smiled at him.

  “Twelve hours, our time, if possible. If you can set that up, do it. If not… Well, we might have to send Sara in with you to placate her. That will be on Houston, not the terror event. I want to hold her back for the time being however, if possible, so your option sounds better. It won’t stop our normal procedures, so we can run it as a test. Good thinking. Check in when you get back, please. We’ll probably have work for you by then. Make it less than twelve hours if at all possible?”

  Willum stood then, nodding at his commander.

  “It will be done. I should go now. Cindy mentioned gifts she wanted transported? To my uncle and aunt.”

  The woman smiled then, nodding.

  “Right. I heard about that. In her office. We can raid that. I have a note for each of them as well. Here.”

  She moved fast enough that super powers were required to keep up with her. The gifts were in two nicely shaped wicker baskets that had handles on them. Each was large enough to promise a good amount of treats being inside. The covering was in a see through pink material on both of them, looking very nice. They were simply waiting in the corner of the office space that had been marked on the door with Cindy’s name. Cindy Mableton. He memorized that last bit, in case it came up later.

  The notes for the two wizards were hastily written, being handed over without much care for creasing them.

  “These are just requests for
work. Things that have been talked about in previous visits. It’s been a bit difficult to coordinate between locations so far.” She grinned at him then and nodded. “Hence you being around. Thanks. Do we need to pay you anything for this?” She waved at the basket, her eyes going a bit shrewd. “I have to imagine that you won’t really need much, like Tim and Taman. At least in theory it should work the same. You’re here however, so there’s that going on.”

  He shrugged. These people were oddly wealthy, rich in trappings and technologies, but were kind of poor at the same time. That was mainly due to their world being run as it was. The richest beings simply weren’t the most powerful. The IPB held a lot of that last commodity, raw power, but their access to gold and things like that seemed very limited.

  “We can trade for it? I’ll do this for you, you can do things for me, later?” It was kind of a common bartering trick from the woods. Most people there didn't have coin, but did have time and the ability to do some work. Not that he needed help with the crops or a barn raising, just then. There was always something.

  The woman took a deep breath, a strange concern coming over her. She wasn’t upset at all, but she did make her face look a bit like that.

  “I don’t know if your wife would like that. I didn’t know you have one of those even…”

  That got him to make a face of his own, then nod, after working a few things out.

  “Oh. May is really my manager in the world she lives in. She’s just claiming to be my wife so that her people will know she isn’t a slave. She was sold to me for delivering a few messages to her father. By her boss at the time. She’s a princess of her people, but that doesn’t mean as much as it does where I come from. My people don’t take slaves, so I had to play around with things to make that work.” Then he shrugged. “As for the other, I hadn’t been thinking, you know, that we do anything untoward. Not that we can’t, but I was just assuming an exchange of work. In your case, probably having an underling do that for you.”