Strangers and Shadows

by John Kowalsky

  “He came to save your sister.”

  “What did she need to be saved from?” Kid asked.

  “You haven’t told him?” Desmond asked Julia.

  “I’ve told him everything—from who his family is, to the plans for our blessed future.”

  “Mother says if I help out, then we can all be happy together forever,” Kid said flatly in monotone.

  “What have you done to him?” Desmond was worried. Kid was acting more like a robot than a human being. In fact, there didn’t seem to be anybody at home behind the boy’s eyes. His face was like a blank slate.

  “Kid, you may return to your play…” Julia said.

  The boy turned and left the room without uttering another word. “To answer your question, I’ve merely set him free, Desmond. No longer will he be subject to the programming of his genetics, he will have what every child in the future will have—a long life, connected to the rest of humanity, and when that life is over, he will be able to choose to live another if he wishes, or spend his time in the Mother if that pleases him more.”

  “You injected him?” Desmond was growing angrier by the moment. “How dare you? Who decided you were fit to make that decision for him?”

  “The same god, or whatever, that made me fit to do this—” She walked up to Desmond, pressed the pneumatic syringe to his neck and injected his body with the EMF-nanites.

  Desmond’s eyes rolled back, and his body went limp as it immediately tried to fight off the infection. As he lost consciousness, he could hear Julia saying something. “Don’t worry, Desmo—” And then all was dark.

  The Prime Minister turned to the young woman behind her. “Ava, I want you to take my husband down to the medical bay in the detention center.” The young girl nodded, and Julia continued. “No one is to see him without my say-so, is that clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Ava said. She turned and ordered several of the guards to pick up Desmond’s body and carry it down to the infirmary.

  Ava walked at a leisurely pace. She had time to look out the windows in the hallways. Outside it was a beautiful, sunny day. The sky was blue with just a few clouds in it. It reminded her of New Britain in the summertime, with the exception of the hovers that flew every which way.

  Thoughts of home made her wonder how her mother was. No doubt she was busy getting things back to normal. Lady White said she had taken care of the darkness. Mother would have her hands full, it was good that Asher had gone back, the queen would have need of his help.

  She tried to push the thought of Asher out of her mind as quickly as it came in, but she found it difficult this time. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him, she still did, she supposed. She just couldn’t be with him though, he was part of the past now. There was no room for him in this life. Besides, she had moved on… several times. She blushed at the memories. Asher would move on too. It was best this way, she told herself.

  By the time they got to the medical bay, Ava’s thoughts were back in the present and wondering what part Desmond played in all of this. She knew he was Lady White’s husband and Kid and Celia’s father. What she couldn’t figure out was why the two hadn’t gotten divorced yet. If it was her, she’d have made that a priority. Maybe they did divorces differently in their verses.

  The guards laid Desmond down on the bed, and went to their posts outside the door. Ava took a seat next to the bed and propped her feet up, flipping through the net mags on her nano-link. There was so much she still had to learn about her new home.

  Surprise...

  Dorian Wallace couldn’t have been more pissed off. Not only had his harebrained father defected to the Sixth, but now, Dorian had to find him and find out how much he knew about their plans.

  His father was a smart man, maybe the smartest Dorian had ever known, aside from himself, of course. The thought brought a smile to his face. No, there was only one place in the MultiVerse where Dorian could be sure his father would be found—his house. He would never be able to leave all his precious treasure behind.

  For years, ever since Dorian was little, his father had been taking trips to the Third. Each time, he would return with some worthless trinket or piece of ancient technology. Once, he had brought back something called a Nintendo. His father had played with it for three days straight before taking it apart and putting it back together again. It never worked the same way twice.

  Other trips he brought back old hand guns. He said they were from something called World War Two. Another glance around his father’s house revealed a host of other trinkets and treasures from days gone by—paintings, electronics, magazines, and books on a variety of subjects. His favorite subject was history, Dorian remembered. His father would sit for hours and read the histories of all the seven known verses.

  As the days turned into weeks, Dorian grew more upset with every reminder of why he was where he was.

  Finally, his patience was rewarded. The noise came from his father’s storage shed out behind the house. Not that it was a shed at all. It was as nice as any of the buildings in the Seventh, but for some reason his father insisted on calling it a shed. Dorian guessed it gave him some sort of connection with the people that he collected from in the less well off verses.

  Dorian quietly exited his father’s house and weaved his way through the landscaping of his father’s yard. He could see Wizard rummaging around through the shed’s windows. His father had laid out a large blanket on top of the workbench and was busy gathering an assortment of gadgets which he piled on top of the blanket.

  Dorian watched in amusement for a several minutes as his father flitted about like a bee gathering nectar from a flower bed.

  Dorian knew his father could be extremely stubborn, and more might be learned by observing what he was after, rather than trying to interrogate him. Still, he needed to be sure that his father didn’t jump back out of the Seventh before Dorian could question him.

  As Dorian deliberated on how long to let his father continue, Wizard forced his hand, pulling his jump-key out of his pocket. Dorian pulled his pistol from its holster and threw the door open.

  “That’s far enough, Dad.”

  Wizard stiffened and raised his hands in the air as if it were a natural reflex. “Son, how good to see you. How is everything?”

  Dorian walked up and took the jump-key from him. “Not a social call, Dad, and I think you know that.” He looked at the assortment of equipment his father had gathered, various magnets, copper coils, power cells, and a host of other oddities. “What is all this?”

  “Just a little project I’m working on for the science fair.”

  “Cute, Dad, real cute,” Dorian said. “Why don’t we skip the dance and get right down to it. We know you’ve been helping them… feeding them information… What you don’t know—is you’ve done so at our bidding. Well, mostly our bidding. No doubt you’ve accumulated quite a few secrets of your own over the years. What I need to know, dearest Dad, is what, exactly, have you told them? What do they know about our plan?”

  Wizard cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. “Well, why didn’t you say so?” He pulled down his shirt, smoothing the wrinkles and went on, “Now, if you’ll just tell me what information you wanted me to give them, I’ll know what it is that you’re looking for.”

  “No, I don’t think so, Father. You tell me everything you told them, and you tell me now.” He thumbed the pistol’s stun setting on, the gun hummed as it cycled through its power settings.

  Wizard looked around, searching for any escape, but he saw none. His shoulders sagged slightly as he prepared to tell his son about the ambush at the Overlap, the loss of Celia and then her reappearance, Desmond going off to save her, and then the discovery of the anti-EMF device, one of which he was attempting to build a portable version of as they spoke. He really did need to come up with a better name than the anti-EMF device—it was too wordy. Jack had voted for the jammer. It was a bit crude, but at the moment Wizard could not think of anything better
to call it.

  Dorian coughed abrasively, and Wizard snapped out of the rabbit hole he’d been traveling down.

  “Ah, yes, where was I, Son?”

  “You were about to tell me what you’ve been up to, Father.”

  No sooner were the words out of Dorian’s mouth then there was a flash of light. The brightness temporarily blinded both Wizard and Dorian.

  Dorian raised his free hand to shield his eyes, trying to see what was going on. The nanites only tinted his eyes on command, or if he knew there would be a sudden change in brightness. This surprise was not a welcome one.

  Jack Spade jumped out of the nothingness between verses and into Wizard’s shed. He immediately sized up the situation and pulled his own weapon.

  One shot was all it took. The gunman’s hand came off at the wrist, his gun falling away with it.

  The man howled in pain clutching at the end of his arm where his hand used to be.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Jack said to Wizard. “I got caught up with a last minute—thing.” His cheeks blushed as he thought about the goodbye kiss he’d given Celia. “Looks like I was right on time though.”

  “Jack, meet my son, Dorian.” Wizard gestured with his hand toward the gunman, who was now missing a hand. “I do wish you didn’t have to deform him though.” He walked over to Dorian and took back his jump-key.

  “I wasn’t aware he was your son—I would have aimed a little more carefully if I’d known. Maybe he could wear a name tag next time.”

  “I suppose that would have been helpful… Let’s just get this and get out of here.” Wizard indicated the bundle full of parts for the jammer.

  Dorian was on his knees holding the stump of his right arm with his remaining hand. The bleeding had stopped, and with it so did Dorian’s groans of pain. “Not… so… fast, Father,” Dorian said as he stood to his feet. “I can’t just let you leave.”

  “And just what are you gonna do about it, pal?” Jack asked, still holding the gun on him.

  Dorian looked Jack straight in the eye and smiled.

  A shiver ran down Jack’s spine as he watched the end of Dorian’s arm begin to morph.

  Both Jack and Wizard looked on with mouths wide open as Dorian’s arm began to grow before their eyes. First, the wrist grew out of the forearm, and then the palm. Jack couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Thankfully, Wizard had the presence of mind to break free from the spectacle.

  “Jack, I think it would be best if we leave now.”

  Jack, still shocked, nodded his head and stepped closer to Wizard, keeping his gun pointed at the regenerating man. With his free hand, he felt for the other side of the bundle and helped Wizard lift it. Together, they jumped.

  Celia was waiting for them in her father’s office when they arrived.

  “What the fuck was that about?!” Jack exclaimed. He shivered once more as he set the bundle down at his feet and holstered his blaster.

  “What was what about?” Celia asked. Jack’s face was white, like he had seen a ghost, and Wizard looked a bit paler than usual too, although it was hard to tell if he could be any whiter than he already was.

  “I jumped in, and Wizard’s son had a gun on him, so I shot his hand off, except I didn’t know it was Wizard’s son. But then, the guy’s hand just starts growing back, like some kinda freaky monster movie.”

  “Calm down, Jack,” Wizard said. Apparently, he had regained whatever composure Jack had lost. “It looks like their nano technology has advanced much farther than I knew. I should have guessed that they would have developed something like this.” Wizard paced as he thought.

  “Is this something that’s going to affect our mission?” Celia asked.

  “I don’t know,” Wizard said. “There’s no way to be sure, but we’ll have to be very careful in how we proceed.”

  “I’m not convinced we’ll have the time to be careful,” Celia said. “If they’re holding my father, then we need to move as soon as possible. Whatever they’re up to, I have a feeling that it’s going to go down sooner rather than later.”

  Spots of light flashed in Dorian’s irises from the out-jump of his father and the man, Jack Spade. A call came through on his link.

  “Well?”

  “Well, they got away, Julia.”

  “Did you learn anything?” she asked.

  “No. And I was interrupted before I could plant the disinformation.”

  “I see. Return at once. We need to reconsider our approach.”

  “Was that an order?”

  “Of course not, darling. Forgive me, I’ve just been a bit on edge lately. I’ll see you soon.”

  The call ended and Dorian let out a long sigh as he looked over his new hand. The nanites had done quite a nice job.

  Mad Science

  The jammer was bulkier than Wizard would have liked, but for the limited time, and it being more or less a prototype, he was pleased with the results. He just hoped it worked when they got into the thick of things. The jammer fit into a pack which Celia could then strap on her back. It was best that she should carry it. Not only was she stronger than any one of them, but it was her abilities that would be affected by the EM fields.

  The plan was simple. They would jump in, split up, find Desmond and Kid, and jump back out. How they would accomplish their tasks was more of a gray area, however.

  Wizard had the best working knowledge of the Embassy and had familiarized them with the layout of the complex building as best as he could. “The holding cells are here,” he indicated an area on the map on his data pad, “and here is where the political offices and the Prime Minister’s chambers are. Desmond could be anywhere, but he’ll most likely be in one of those locations.” He looked up at Jack. “Unfortunately, we have no idea where Kid might be. He could be in the Embassy or they might have him somewhere else entirely. Hopefully, Desmond will have better intel. If we can find him, we will have a much better chance of finding Kid.”

  “Alright, let’s go,” Jack said. He was getting antsy.

  They gathered around in a circle, facing outward. Their jump spot shouldn’t be guarded or shielded, but there was no telling what they might find and they were going to be prepared, just in case. The layout could have changed, or some tightly wound, hot shot guard, straight out of basic training, could be looking to make a name for himself.

  The jump went exactly as they’d hoped. Jack, Wizard, Asher, and Celia flashed into a storage closet in the basement of the Embassy in the Seventh. It was dark except for the glow of Wizard’s data pad. Celia could see almost as well as if it were daylight, thanks to her superior genetics, but the rest of them had to make due with what little light they had.

  The closet was just large enough to give them a little room to move around. Outside they could see the glow of the hallway lights and hear the occasional footsteps of someone passing by. As long as the Embassy bathrooms didn’t run out of sanitizer, they should be able to remain in the closet undetected until Wizard had time to hack into the building’s central computer.

  “How’s it coming, old man?” Jack asked.

  “Zip it, sonny, the adults are working here,” Wizard shot back playfully. He entered the final keystroke. “There…” He inspected his handiwork.

  They gathered around the display. “We are here,” Wizard indicated the red dot on the screen, “and the detention cells and Lady White’s Chambers are here and here.”

  “Were you able to find out where my father and Kid are being held?” Celia asked.

  “Unfortunately, no. There was nothing about them in the mainframe, but not to worry. I didn’t expect there would be.”

  “Alright, how do we wanna play this?” Jack asked.

  “I think it best if I remain here and monitor the network. Besides, I would only slow you down,” Wizard said.

  “Sounds good. Jack, you and Asher take the prime minister’s chambers and I’ll take the detention cells.”

  Jack opened his mouth to protest but Celia cont
inued, “I don’t want to hear it, Jack. There’s no negotiating this. I’m more trained and capable than anyone here.” Jack closed his mouth and nodded his consent. “Good. Wait here for ten minutes or so and then move out. I’m sure by then I’ll have pulled most of the guards in my direction. You should have an easier time with most of them out of the way.”

  “What do you plan on doing?” Asher was concerned.

  “Don’t worry about her, Ash, she knows what she’s doing,” Jack said. “You just be ready to move.”

  “Aww... Thanks, babe,” Celia teased. “Be ready to move. Wizard will tell you when.” She tightened down the straps of the jammer, gave Jack a wink and a smile, and stepped out into the hall.

  In The Dungeons

  I should have checked to make sure this thing works before I left, Celia thought. She took out the letter from her father that was in her pocket and placed it on the ground. She made sure no one was coming and reached out with her mind. She instantly found the piece of paper and lifted it off the ground and into her outstretched hand.

  “Powers: check,” she said to herself. She could breathe a little easier now that she knew the jammer was working, but not too easy. She had already been taken by surprise once, and she didn’t plan to let it happen again.

  Celia had memorized her route to the holding cells. She could have just pulled the directions out of the mind of every simpleton that came within range of the jammer, but sometimes the old ways were the best ways.

  The hall was deserted, but that would change once she got closer to where she was going. Celia needed a disguise or a distraction—something to prevent her from being seen. Or did she?

  She didn’t have far to go, Jack and Asher would have the much farther journey, and if she did her job right, they would be able to move about more freely in the midst of the chaos.

  A few minutes later Celia was halfway to the holding cells as she was finally spotted.