by Jacob Holo
Nicole stuck her earpiece back in. She cranked up the volume until the music, a boss battle theme from Final Fantasy XIII, drowned out Amy.
The city of Boston gave way to its surrounding suburbs. Crammed roadways, office buildings, steel, and concrete changed into quaint homes with lush lawns and streets lined with tall trees. The taxi driver pulled into the condominium complex just south of Burlington’s town center and parked next to building seven. Amy paid the driver and they pulled their bags out of the trunk.
“Home sweet home!” Amy said.
The two-story building had a brick exterior with vines growing up the north side near a small lake all of the condos circled. Each building contained six units that shared a central greeting room. Someone must have thought it would help foster a feeling of small town charm. To Nicole, it just meant she was forced to talk to her neighbors.
Amy held the door to the meet-and-greet room open. They rolled their luggage around wide, comfy couches and a low coffee table piled high with magazines. It wasn’t a bad attempt to get neighbors to socialize. It even had a real fireplace stocked with wood.
Nicole and Amy filed in and took the stairs up to the second floor balcony overlooking the greeting room. Amy stopped by their door and patted her coat pockets.
“You didn’t lose the key, did you?” Nicole asked.
“No, it’s in one of these pockets. I’ve just got all these receipts and tickets in the way.”
As Nicole waited, she realized home felt different now. It took her a few minutes to fully appreciate why, but the answer was simple enough. Home equaled safety and comfort, and this place no longer granted either. She silently wondered if she’d ever feel safe again.
Her cell phone vibrated. She flipped it open and read the incoming text message.
area clear no problem
Nicole smiled and pocketed the cell phone. A sense of ease returned. If home truly was where she felt safe and comfortable, then perhaps she had to rethink exactly where home was.
Chapter 4
The Silence Doctrine
The next day, Nicole awoke when Amy climbed over her to get to the window.
“Wha…” she muttered, rubbing the sleep crumbles out of her eyes. She blinked until her sister came into focus. Amy stood on her knees near the bedroom window, which offered a “lovely” view of the parking lot and the next condo unit.
“Oh, wake up already,” Amy said. “It’s one o’clock.”
“It’s what?” Nicole said, sitting up in bed.
“One o’clock. Come on. Check out the new neighbor.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Nicole said. She flopped back into bed and tossed the blanket over her face.
“Nice car,” Amy said. “And he’s wearing my favorite color.”
“Amy, black is the absence of color. It can’t be your favorite.”
“Says who?”
“Says me. Now let me get back to sleep.”
“Are you sure? He’s kind of cute. Looks a bit older than us, but not by much.”
“Uh huh.”
“Plus he’s wearing a trench coat. Now that’s stylish.”
Nicole opened her eyes. She pushed the sheets away and sat up, suddenly feeling very awake.
“Where’s he staying?” Nicole asked.
“Unit 5, I think.”
“Right next door?” Nicole said. “Well, he can’t be any worse than our last neighbor.”
“Oh, God! Don’t remind me!” Amy said. “How many times did Mom and Dad call the police?”
“Five times,” Nicole said, stepping out of bed.
“Yeah, and I don’t think they were the only ones.”
“He’s not unloading a guitar or drum set out of the car, is he?” Nicole asked, pulling on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with the Batman logo in bold yellow.
“I don’t think so,” Amy said. “Just a few cardboard boxes and some suitcases.”
Nicole stepped into the bathroom. She washed her face, brushed her teeth and combed her hair.
“Do you think we should say hello?” Amy said. “You know, a little neighborly greeting?”
“I’m going to see if he needs help moving in,” Nicole said. She stepped out of the bathroom and headed out the door.
“What? Now wait a min—”
Nicole closed the door to their room, cutting Amy off. She left their unit, walked downstairs, passed through the greeting room, and stepped out into the parking lot. The air felt brisk for a t-shirt, especially with the wind, but she didn’t mind. Sunlight peeked through open patches in an otherwise cloudy sky. She found Daniel behind a red midsize car with a ridiculous custom spoiler, suitcases and cardboard boxes piled near him. He had his head in the trunk.
“Hey, Daniel.”
He stuck out a hand and waved.
“So you’re moving into the same condo?”
Daniel pulled a duffle bag out of his trunk. It rattled when it hit pavement.
“Yeah,” he said. “The unit was empty, so I figured why not. It’s not like it’s my money anyway.”
Nicole put her hands on her hips. “And how exactly does this work? Are you going to follow me wherever I go? Am I going to have to worry about those things popping out of nowhere for the rest of my life?”
“Can it wait a minute? I just drove four hours, and I haven’t had anything to eat yet.”
“Just as long as I finally get some answers.”
“Don’t worry. You will,” Daniel said with a smile. “That’s a promise.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Nicole said. She leaned against the hood of his car. “Nice car. What is it, a Toyota?”
“It’s a Ford. I don’t drive foreign crap.”
“So you drive local crap.”
“And proudly too,” Daniel said.
“I see. So how is it going over there?”
“Over where?”
“In Russia, dummy!”
“Oh, right,” Daniel said. “Well…”
“I do not like the sound of you hesitating. It makes me nervous.”
“Let’s just say we left at a good time. Something nasty is brewing. I just hope it doesn’t hit us over here.” Daniel slung the duffle bag over his shoulder, stacked two cardboard boxes, and picked them up. “Would you mind helping me with the door?”
“Sure thing,” Nicole said. She walked over and opened the door.
The boxes were so thick, Daniel had to force them through the doorjamb. When they reached the second floor, Daniel dangled a key ring from his pinky finger.
“Would you mind?”
Nicole sighed, taking the key ring. “Sure.”
“It’s the one with—”
“I know what the condo keys look like.”
“Oh, right. Never mind.”
Nicole opened the door and let Daniel jam his way in. He set the boxes in the center of the empty great room and headed back into the hall. The whole condo reeked of pine-scented cleaners.
“Maybe one at a time would be better?” Nicole asked.
“Nah, I’ll be fine. Could you stay here and open the door when I get back?”
“Sure.”
Daniel left the condo. The door closed behind him.
Nicole put a hand on the boxes. They weren’t taped shut, just folded closed. She was sorely tempted to open them and have a look, but she decided not to. Daniel would be back any moment.
“Ah, damn it!”
The shout came from the window. Nicole walked over and saw Daniel chasing after the spilled contents of a suitcase he’d dropped. A jumbo 8-ball rolled underneath a blue sedan, followed by two fluttering black shirts. A gust of wind opened a worn notebook and scattered inserted sheets. Daniel snatched them out of the air.
Nicole looked back at the boxes. It seemed she did have time if she really wanted to look. Daniel would never know. And it couldn’t hurt knowing a little more about the man assigned to protect her. After all, it was only her life at stake. How did she know she co
uld trust him?
Nicole stepped over and opened the top box. She rummaged through the upper layer, pushed aside a few sci-fi paperbacks and lifted a cheap plastic chess set before a framed picture caught her eye.
Nicole pulled the frame out and took a good look. It showed Daniel standing next to a petite Asian woman about his age, maybe a bit younger. Both had smiled happily for the camera. Nicole couldn’t tell much more about the woman because someone had taken permanent marker and added a pointy beard, mustache, horns, and a forked tail.
“I wonder if this is Shoko,” Nicole said.
Still, it wasn’t the two people in the picture that caught her attention, but what was behind them. Someone had digitally painted the background black and added row after row of red letters. Nicole thought it might have been the same phrase repeated in numerous languages. She could recognize some of them, even if she couldn’t read them: Russian Cyrillic characters, Arabic, Chinese or Japanese or maybe both, French, German, and finally English.
It read: Censored in accordance with the SILENCE DOCTRINE.
“The Silence Doctrine?” Nicole said. She was about to put the picture frame back when a muscle in the nape of her neck twanged. It was like what she’d felt in the subway after the tau freeze had lifted, but without the pain. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Despite not hearing the door open or someone walking in, she knew she wasn’t alone.
Nicole turned around slowly.
Daniel stood two feet behind her, his face cold and unreadable. Not angry, but so different he barely looked like the same person. He took the picture from her unresisting fingers.
She didn’t say anything, didn’t move a muscle or dare breathe. For the first time ever, she found herself terrified of him.
Then Daniel sighed. The cold expression melted away. He smirked at her as if nothing had happened.
“You know it’s not polite to look through other people’s stuff.”
“Sorry about that,” she said, thankful her voice didn’t crack.
“Yeah, whatever. I’m just glad you didn’t find my stash of porn.”
“Err…”
“Don’t worry. Forgiven and forgotten.”
Daniel opened the condo door and wheeled in two suitcases. He started humming a tone deaf song.
Nicole swallowed hard and tried to summon up the courage to speak.
“So would you like to know who that was?” Daniel asked.
“What?”
“The young lady in the picture.”
“Oh. Umm, sure.”
“That’s Shoko. You might remember me mentioning her. She’s a weapon smith who spends most of her time in Chronopolis these days. She’s also an acrobat like me. Fast, too. And I mean really fast, like a blur of death fast. Way faster than me. We actually made a good team before realizing we hated each other’s guts.”
Daniel opened one of his suitcases. It had five black trench coats in it and twice as many black pants and shirts, all faded to slightly different shades.
“Look, I’m really sorry,” Nicole said. “I was just curious. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Hey, forgiven and forgotten, remember?” Daniel said, hanging the coats in the closet. “Which reminds me, she’s sending me a replacement sword. Man, I can just picture her face when she got my message asking for another. I bet a lot of really fast and angry Japanese spewed out of her mouth. Anyway, another tau guard will be stopping by tomorrow to drop it off.”
“Don’t you already have a new sword?”
“Yeah, but it’s not the same. Here, take a look.” Metal whisked against cloth, and suddenly he had a sword in his hands.
Nicole took a step back, but Daniel didn’t seem to notice.
“You see, some people think swords are just sharp pieces of metal.”
“Aren’t they?”
“Oh no. There are swords, and then there are katana. Believe me when I say the difference has saved my life—” Daniel counted with his fingers. “—four times. Shoko is very good at forging them, and she uses better materials, too. For instance, this piece of junk came from a sentinel reaver like the one we fought. Shoko makes hers out of the carapace of juggernaut reavers. Be glad it wasn’t one of those we ran into.”
“You mean she actually makes swords from reavers?”
“Well, of course.” Daniel started twirling it in circles single-handedly. “Here, look. The thing is hardly balanced. Too much weight in the blade. I’ll kill my wrist using this thing.”
“Yes, I can see that. Would you please stop spinning it around?”
“Sure,” Daniel said. He threw back his coat and sheathed the blade.
“Sounds like you really respect Shoko.”
“Respect her? Yes. Like her? No. She’s the devil incarnate.”
“I gathered that from the picture.”
“Oh, and before I forget. We have a new tau tunnel.”
“A what?”
“Go check it out. It’s in the closet.”
Nicole gave him an incredulous look, but walked over anyway. She opened the closet and pushed his coats aside.
“There’s nothing here,” Nicole said. She hit the drywall in a few spots just to make sure. “You call this a tau tunnel?”
“Check it out—”
* * *
Time stopped.
“—now.”
“Ah!” Nicole jumped back and fell on her butt.
Daniel laughed.
“Damn it! You did that on purpose!”
“Guilty as charged.”
Nicole stood up and brushed herself off. The closet no longer had a back. Instead, it opened into a wide tunnel made of what looked like roughly-carved black crystal. The tunnel walls gave off an eerie light, enough to walk by if she had to.
“Another tau guard put it in before I arrived,” Daniel said. “He tunneled from here to a junction that leads to the Boston safe house. So if some reaver comes by you can’t deal with, you head straight for this tunnel and keep going until you reach help.”
“You could have shown me in a nicer way.”
“And you could have kept your hands off my stuff,” Daniel said, all smiles.
“So this tunnel connects to a safe house in Boston?”
“There and a bunch of other places.”
“Such as?”
“Well, I need to look over the map they gave me some more, but I know one of the exits is at the airport. Another is in Harvard. You know where that is, right?”
“Well, of course I do!”
Daniel gave her a sheepish look. “I was just asking.”
Nicole sighed. “Amy’s parents teach at the university.”
“Oh, so they’re professors?”
“Instructors, actually.”
“What’s the difference?”
“According to them, its tenure and a lot of nasty office politics.”
“Huh.”
“So are there a lot of tau guards in the area?” Nicole asked.
“Normally half a dozen in Boston. Just an observation team. They’re not a particularly friendly lot. They kept complaining when I told them to make the tunnel.”
“You can’t make one of these?”
“About the best I can do is collapse an existing one. Most guards are the same. We have specialists called—”
“Tunnelers?” Nicole asked.
Daniel paused with his mouth open, then said, “Has anyone ever told you you’re a quick study?”
“Actually, I still don’t have any clue what’s going on. I have so many questions I don’t know where to start!”
“Looks like you need the hamburger speech.”
“The what? What are you talking about?”
“The hamburger speech. It’s the best way to get up to speed. And I’m hungry, so we can have dinner too.”
“Lunch, you mean.”
Daniel checked his watch. “Ah, so it is. Regardless, I’m starving. Let me bring the last few boxes in, then we’
ll go have a bite to eat, okay?”
“Sure.”
“Are you ready?”
“Ready for—”
Blackness enveloped her, then time restarted.
Chapter 5
The Hamburger Speech
Daniel stepped out of his Ford and gazed up at the fake red-and-white lighthouse in front of the restaurant.
“The Beacon, huh,” Daniel said. “I like the sign. It certainly is big enough. Are you sure they have good burgers?”
Nicole sighed. “Yes, they have good burgers. I can personally vouch for the burger quality. You can stop asking about the burgers.”
“I’m just making sure. It’s an important visual aid.”
“A visual aid for what?”
“The universe.”
“When are you going to start making sense?”
“Hopefully by the time I have my burger. Come on, I’m hungry.”
Nicole rubbed the back of her neck and rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say.”
She followed Daniel in, and they seated themselves at a booth by the window. When their waitress stopped by, Nicole ordered a Caesar salad with a glass of water. Unsurprisingly, Daniel ordered the largest, greasiest burger the restaurant offered along with coffee and Coca-Cola.
“So, are you going to tell me what this is about?” Nicole asked.
Daniel took four sugar packets, tore the tops off, and poured their contents into his coffee. He stirred until all the sugar dissolved.
“I’m going to hold off on the difficult bits until my visual aid arrives, but yeah, I think we can start.” He gulped down half his coffee cup and leaned forward. “The thing is… the really really super important thing is you need to be properly trained. I’m not sure how someone as talented as you got missed or why the reavers never found you before. Point is, none of that matters. They’ve found you once, so they’ll find you again.”
“You said that before, but what would this training involve?”
“At your age I imagine you’d get an accelerated curriculum on the practical stuff. Say, maybe four years studying in Chronopolis.”
“Four years!”
“Maybe longer. I’m not sure.”
“I can’t do that!”
