by Jes Battis
“Latyrix has no interest in harming you,” Selena said, glancing at a folder in front of her. “We need to proceed. Falih, I’ve got all of your information here. Medical records, transcripts, DNA samples, relationship history—it’s all in this file.”
His eyes widened. “How did you get all of that so fast?”
“It actually took longer than usual, since you’ve lived in so many places. But we have very good connections, and very fast computers.”
“If you already know everything, then why are you asking me questions? Just read my life on paper.”
“There are things that the file can’t answer. Tests that we need to perform whose results aren’t instantaneous. We’ll need more time.”
“Time for what? I don’t understand what you’re looking for.”
“What Detective Ward means,” I told him, “is that we’re testing your blood to see if anything is out of the ordinary. You may have a preexisting condition. Something that would predispose you to—well—us. To who we are and what we are.”
“You mean like a mutation?”
“You could call it that.”
“You think I’m infected with something.”
“We don’t know anything yet,” Selena said. “We just want to make sure that you’re healthy and that your immune system is uncompromised.”
“Do you think I was exposed to something? Back there, at the apartment?”
“It’s possible.”
“Great.” He closed his eyes. “I’ve already lost my job, and now I might be sick. I can’t imagine how this night is going to get better.”
“Well, you are talking to a snow leopard,” I reminded him. “And if that was the sort of thing you were able to tell your friends about, they’d probably think it was pretty awesome. But you can’t tell them. You understand that, right?”
“I understand that you’ve basically kidnapped me and possibly drugged me. I don’t feel ready to agree to anything just yet.”
“You don’t have to convince him,” Latyrix said. “He’s not going to tell anyone. They never tell anyone. Dr. Rashid would only be declaring himself insane if he shared the events of tonight with anyone else.”
“I could say I was really drunk.”
“But you don’t drink.”
“How do you know that?”
“Alcohol has a distinct odor. You don’t drink, but you have smoked a cigarette recently. I don’t believe you’re anything but a casual smoker, though.”
He swallowed. “That was close to a week ago.”
“As I said. Recently.” Latyrix looked at him. “Falih Rashid, let us be honest with each other. You don’t understand any of this. Yesterday, you believed that you were a successful pathologist. Now you’re talking to an animal, and you don’t believe in talking animals. Nevertheless, here we are.”
Rashid rubbed the back of his neck. He seemed to have lost some of his fear, but his body was still very stiff, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the leopard.
“It’s true,” he said. “I’m not sure this is really happening. But I do know what I saw in that office. I can’t forget that. I know what I felt, too. It was all over that body, everywhere, like an oil slick. Evil. I felt it. I know that I did.”
“You’re probably right,” Latyrix replied. “Even someone like yourself, with no perceptible genetic anomalies or innate powers, can sense the presence of certain things from other worlds. Your body registers it as an electromagnetic disturbance. You feel it in your hair and your teeth, you smell it, just as I can smell it.”
“Is that what it was? Evil?”
“It was certainly destructive. As your philosopher Blaise Pascal says, ‘Evil is easy, and has infinite forms.’ Maybe you sensed one of those forms. Whatever happened, you’ve been touched by it. Infected. And now whatever was after Corvid will also be after you.”
“But I didn’t do anything.”
“No. You were at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Latyrix looked at me suddenly. “And twice, if I’m not mistaken. Agent Corday, did you not encounter Dr. Rashid at the morgue originally, while you were retrieving the Ptah’li child?”
“That’s right, madam.”
The leopard almost seemed to wink at me. “I’m not that old. You can simply call me by my name.”
“Sorry. You’re right. We did meet that way.”
“What’s a Ptah’li?” Rashid asked. “Are you talking about the little boy?”
“Yes. His name is Ru.”
“Is he here?”
“He’s safe.”
“Let me see him.”
Selena shook her head. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Look.” Rashid exhaled. “That child was open on my table. I was cutting into his body, and he woke up. Screaming. Do you think that’s ever happened to me before, in the history of my medical career? I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Ru’s fine,” Selena said. “I promise you.”
“I just need to see him for myself. Please. If he’s here, it’ll only take a second, right? Then you can get back to interrogating me.”
Selena at Latyrix. “What do you think?”
“It couldn’t hurt. We want them both to be comfortable, and they’ve cooperated so far. As long as we’re all here, I don’t see a problem in it.”
Selena dialed a number on her cell. “Yes. Bring him to Conference Room C. I want a full guard detail accompanying him.” She hung up. “Fine. He’ll be here in five minutes. Then you can see that you haven’t just been hallucinating all of this.”
“Can—” Rashid looked at Latyrix again. “I mean, may I ask you a question?”
Her blue eyes held him. “If it is within reason.”
“Please don’t take this the wrong way. I mean no offense. But wouldn’t you be more comfortable living in the wild?”
She flicked one of her ears. I interpreted it as a minor signal of annoyance. “Would you be more comfortable living in the wild?”
“I don’t know. But we have very different instincts, you and I.”
“It’s true. I’ve undergone a good deal of conditioning to allow me to live among hominids. If I lived on a Siberian plain, I might be happier, more carefree. But I inherited the sacred duty of litigation. I chose this path, and I do not regret my choice. No matter how alienating it can be sometimes.”
“I can relate to that. I think.”
“A lot of us can,” Selena said. “We’ve all inherited complex genetic legacies. You might even say some of us got shafted by our ancestral responsibilities. But we’ve all managed to build a life for ourselves.”
“In this guarded complex,” Rashid said. “No. Pardon me. In this secret guarded complex, which isn’t supposed to exist.”
“I didn’t say it was perfect.” Selena’s cell rang. She put it to her ear. “I’m here. What?” Her eyes widened. “Oh, bloody—”
The lights flickered. Then an alarm sounded.
Rashid looked around him. “What is that? What’s going on?”
Selena put down the phone.
“Ru’s gone,” she said. “And so is Basuram. Both cells are empty.”
18
The lights went out.
The alarm was still going, and a few seconds later, the emergency lighting kicked in. It was basically the same as the floor lighting they always talk about in the safety demonstration on an airplane, just before takeoff. Latyrix was the first to move. She stood up on her haunches, not growling, but making a very low sound in her throat, like the prelude to a growl. Selena walked over to the door and placed her hand on it.
“They’re still here. Both demons. I’d say they’re three floors beneath us and moving rapidly.”
“Ru’s fast,” I said. “But I’m more worried about the path of destruction that Basuram’s going to leave behind.”
Selena crossed the room and hit the emergency PA button.
“Code Black,” she said. “Evacuate all nonspecialized personnel. C
ombat-trained personnel are to cover floors one through fourteen. Use armor-piercing rounds for the Kentauros demon, and if you encounter the—”
The speaker went dead. Selena swore.
“They’re in the subbasement.” I looked at Selena. “Could they have gotten to Esther? The elevator won’t even go there without a key card.”
“The elevators aren’t entirely demon-proof, unfortunately.” Selena started dialing her cell. “Latyrix, if you’d be so kind, please escort Dr. Rashid and Agent Corday to a safe area. I have to organize a security pattern.”
“Follow me,” Latyrix said. “Agent Corday, are you armed?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Rashid approached me. “What are we doing? Are we supposed to blunder around this building in the dark, looking for two monsters?”
“Really, only one monster. But yes. That’s the plan.”
“I don’t even have a weapon.”
“You shouldn’t need one.”
“You think I’ve never heard that before?”
“Be quiet,” Latyrix said. “And follow me.” Then she walked through the open door and into the hallway. Nobody questioned her authority as leader of the hunt.
“Where are we going?” Rashid whispered.
“We need to cover each floor,” I replied softly. “Ru is probably tracking us, and Basuram is tracking him.”
“Basuram. Is that the creature from the morgue?”
“Yes.”
“It looked like a centaur.”
“It’s a centaur with a whip, and it’s angry.”
“Where’s security on this floor?” I asked Selena.
“They’ve been diverted elsewhere. We had a minimal presence on this floor already, due to Latyrix being here.”
“Animal litigators can get stressed out by the presence of a lot of armed guards,” I whispered to Rashid. “It puts them in a very defensive mood, and that’s not good for depositions. So this floor was cleared of security prior to your lawyer’s arrival.”
“So we’re alone?”
“Not entirely. There’s an elaborate video system that runs throughout the building, and it’s being monitored twenty-four/seven by a very dedicated technician. She can track our movements, and I think she’s going to—”
I heard the chime of the elevator at the end of the hallway.
I looked at Selena. She drew her athame, holding it crosswise with her Sig Sauer in the way that a police officer would hold his gun and flashlight.
Latyrix stood in front of us, head lowered slightly. The leopard’s mouth was partially open, and I could see her beautiful nest of teeth.
The elevator doors opened.
It was Ru. He saw us and immediately started screaming.
“Away from the wall! Get away! He’s between the—”
I felt Basuram’s presence glance off me, like a sting to my shoulder. I grabbed Rashid and dragged him to the floor. He made an unintelligent sound as he fell, and I saw Latyrix weave to the left.
Basuram exploded through the wall. The demon emerged in a torrent of plaster and drywall, and it was as if a small hurricane had touched down in the hallway, right in front of us. There was a cloud of pulverized material, heavy with metal fragments. Basuram shook itself once, then looked at me.
“You were the last face I remember seeing before I lost consciousness,” it said. “So I’m going to kill you first.”
Latyrix growled. Basuram looked at her in surprise.
“What are you doing on their side? Has your famous court become so biased that you now associate exclusively with humans?”
“Who I socialize with is not your concern. The humans are under my care.”
“That makes you my enemy.”
“Yes. It does.”
Latyrix leapt onto Basuram’s back.
He started to yell something, but then she tore into his throat. Blood-spray blossomed as she hit the left carotid artery. Basuram screamed, trying to throw the leopard off. She only bit deeper. Finally, he smashed her into the facing wall. She untangled herself and leapt away, still growling. Basuram slammed into the leopard and both of them went through the glass of the interrogation room. I ducked, covering my face against the flying debris.
I looked behind me to make sure Rashid was okay. He was dusting glass from his shoulders, quite efficiently, in fact. He looked thoroughly shell-shocked.
Latyrix was crawling through the shattered window of the room, her long body displacing the blinds. She growled and then leapt onto Basuram’s back again. Before the demon could shake her off, she bit deep into the base of its neck. She ravaged the flesh, using her claws to drive the wound open farther. I thought she was going to keep digging until she latched onto the spine with her jaws.
Basuram howled. It tried to shake Latyrix once more, but she was single-minded and kept gnawing. Black blood was flowing, into her eyes and across her snout. The sound was disgusting.
Her beautiful coat’s going to get all matted, I thought for a moment, stupidly.
Where was Ru? I looked around but couldn’t see him anywhere. Then again, he might have been on the ceiling.
I wanted to call Derrick.
It was a ridiculous feeling, but I couldn’t deny it. You need certain people present during FUBAR situations, and he was one of those people. I wanted him here even more than Lucian, because at least Derrick wasn’t going to fuck me over at the end of the day. I loved Lucian, but I trusted Derrick.
Selena finally came running down the hall. She was yelling something into a headset, and all I caught was the word “incursion.” Then she drew her athame and pointed it at Basuram. A cone of blue-white fire burst from the tip of the blade. The fire touched Basuram’s body, and the demon put a hand to its face, snarling.
“What do you think you are?” Basuram screamed at Latyrix. “A higher being? One of the Bestia? You might as well be a corpse fly. You’re just a clever bitch who’s managed to outlive most of her kind.”
Latyrix shrugged her sleek white shoulders as she rose. “I’ve been called worse by my ex-husband.”
“The poor, cuckolded creature. I’ll bet—”
“I’m giving you the chance to leave,” she interrupted.
“As if anyone wants me to do that right now.” Basuram smiled. “The thing you call Ru is pissing itself. You’ve got a wild animal and an old mage from a trashy family. This is getting operatic.”
“Why are you even here?” Latyrix demanded. “Are you really so intent on delivering a child prisoner to your masters? I don’t see the recompense.”
“The child, as you call the Ptah’li, is a terrorist.”
“He’s done nothing, as far as I can tell from his file. You executed his family in front of him. He’s merely trying to escape you.”
“How impartial of you to say so. Is this how you perform in court?”
“No. I’m not ruled by emotion.” Latyrix stared down Basuram. “I simply know you and demons like you. I know what your intensions usually are, and I know what you’re willing to do to ensure the survival of your middle-class bloodline.”
Basuram chuckled. “Is that supposed to hurt coming from a chained animal?”
“I wear a collar. That doesn’t make me chained.”
“It may as well be a slave collar. Do you think these humans care about anything but your performance as a commodity? They’ll turn you into glue and bonemeal as soon as you outlive your function.”
Latyrix advanced on him. “Then at least I’ll see my death coming. I’ll hear it in the cries of the slaughterhouse.”
“You’ll hear it sooner than that—”
“Get back!”
It was Ru’s voice. I turned to see him standing a few feet away. He was holding a familiar weapon. It was, in fact, the psychic sidearm that Derrick had used when we infiltrated the lair of the Iblis, two years ago. It had a sensor that interfaced telepathically with the user, making every shot perfect.
“I found
this in a locked cabinet,” Ru said. “The technology is primitive, but I’m not sure if even a Kentauros skull-plate can withstand twelve direct shots.”
Basuram laughed. “You really think that’s going to do something?”
Ru leveled the gun at Basuram’s head. “I’m optimistic.”
Basuram stepped forward. “You’re pathetic. The Ferid are on their way. They’ll do the same thing to you that they did to your—”
I felt a sudden coldness. The lights flickered.
Selena stared at something behind me. “What’s—”
A dark cloud passed through the room. Something sparkled within its depths, and it moved almost voluptuously, trailing peals of black smoke. It swirled around Basuram’s head, and the demon screamed. Blood poured from its eyes, nose, and mouth. It made a strangled noise and then collapsed.
The cloud was still for only a moment. Somewhere within, I thought I could see two gleaming points, like eyes. They were fixed not on Basuram’s still form, but on me. I stared into the bright points. My own eyes widened.
“Arcadia?” I whispered.
The cloud trembled for a moment. Then it flew past us, vanishing through one of the air ducts in the ceiling.
“What the hell just happened?” Rashid asked.
Blood continued to pump slowly from Basuram’s open mouth, as well as through what I presumed were its tear ducts. The demon appeared to be weeping in death, and as I watched, a black pool spread slowly around its head.
Ru set the gun gently down on the floor. “I suppose that’s done,” he said.
“It’s you.” Rashid stared at him.
Ru met his gaze. “Doctor. I’m sorry if I scared you.”
He actually laughed. “You did.”
“My body was hibernating. I came out of it just as you were—”
Rashid winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I was not hurt,” Ru said.
“I don’t understand how this is all possible.” Rashid stared at us. “How all of you are even remotely possible.”
“Not understanding is the least of your problems right now,” I told him. “Let’s just concentrate on getting you out of immediate danger.”
“Can you really protect me?” he asked.
