Other Places 3: Detours

by P. S. Power

  "Sure. What's up?" There was no reason to take his slightly down mood out on her. After all, he was planning on sleeping with her, eventually. If nothing else she was decently friendly and had a tight looking body. All the Bats did. Including her Aunt. Of course, Calley wasn't his employee. Not that he wouldn't sleep with people just because of that. After all, Demon. He made his own rules, or would, as soon as he worked out what that was supposed to really mean.

  "Jahn Samson called, or rather, he had people call for him, since he's at the summit? His little girl, Frieda, the youngest? She's got an earache and needs some drops for it. The Ettarians have a perfectly suitable substitution, but that won't do for his wife. She insists that you bring the medicine right away. Or, rather, she's demanding it, and no one else can get it there in time to help. I wouldn't blame you for telling her to jam it up her ass, but... Well, my job is to get this done. So, do you want anything I can get you?" She snapped her fingers and smiled, "I know! You can take that bitch of a Rabbit as your slave and then I won't have to deal with her again. At least make her do a porn shoot with Humans or something. She's such a bigot I bet she'd kill herself first. Either way, I win." The words came fast, and too freely for an Assistant Ambassador. At least if she wanted to keep her job.

  "That sounds like a plan. Still, the girl needs something. Can you get the meds? I'll deliver those directly. A million, cash. Out of her personal budget. I don't care if she has the funds or not, she can make payments. I'm just getting sick of being mistreated by her. Hey, speaking of Vampires, I need to get my night shift outfitted. Roland and Rowan? Have you met yet?" Not that there was time, but it was a good distraction, since her eyes were huge looking behind her glasses. It was kind of cute, really. Like a cartoon lemur.

  "Nooo, not yet. We can do that, as part of this. A million from her personal funds? Ouch. Still, I was just suggesting how to push her into suicide, so I can't really talk. Can I mention the porn thing as a secondary option? I'm pretty sure that our leaders don't have that kind of money sitting around. In fact, I know it, since all our governmental funds are held in common trust. Probably to stop things like this from happening." She grinned though, clearly far too happy to be needling the wife of her top boss.

  He nearly relented, not wanting to have to put that together, but he realized that it either wouldn't happen, or if it did, he could use the threat of it as leverage to get the woman to behave.

  "All right. Do that." Then he held out his hand, which had the woman dig for a small paper sack that was sort of hidden under the clipboard she was holding. As if anyone would miss what that meant? Then, just to make it all happen, he took her along, so that she could deliver the medicine herself, at least to the tall and decently handsome Ettarian man that was waiting by the node.

  'Line Walker. I see my message was understood? It's always a bit hard to know for certain, using a booster. I tried to contact the Westfield Ambassador, but I think I missed and got another location. Still, as long as the horrible little rat woman shuts up, it was worth it.' He blinked slowly after sending the thoughts, and Zack nodded back that he understood, responding in the same way.

  'This is Calley Hale. She's sweet, but still has to go and deliver the medicine. Can you get her there? I'll be back to get her in an hour, if that's enough time?'

  'It will be done, Line Walker.'

  The man couldn't communicate with Calley directly, so some explanations were in order. The Bat girl cringed, but didn't explain why that was. Not at first. Finally, just before Zack left, she touched his arm.

  "For those clothes?" There was a lifted brow and a desperate tone to the words, but he shook his head.

  "Heck no. That's just payment for your people putting a spy in my place of business. We'll call this transfer an investment in your future. You owe me though. Big time."

  She made a face, but was already there, so left with the tall, very blond, Ettarian man.

  Really, if all went well, he'd have enough time for a long lunch and then be able to pick her back up. If it didn't, well, he was going to eat anyway.

  It killed time and was a chore, but a needed one for someone like him. How the rest of them managed, he didn't know. How he'd done it for years without pain... Well, he did know that one. Mirror Him had protected him from anything that would let him remember what he was, including hunger. Now that things were integrated, he recalled having done it, daily.

  Lunch was several chickens, since he needed more protein in his diet, and a lot of buttered bread. It was fresh and crusty, but also made a mess of his desk. That meant he had to clean up before getting his Bat girl back. That she was his now was a bit strange, but it was the plan, wasn't it? It explained why he was pressing her to be around Jahn, and his wife. Being the one that got the job done and who, after he horribly worried the Rabbit shifter that was being a problem for a while, the Bat woman that nobly sacrificed her own virtue, taking the bitchy Rabbit's place in porn. Literally sacrificing her tender ass to protect the evil harridan. If that didn't boost her up the ranks of their power structure, Zack would have to think a lot less of them.

  Unless they ponied up the cash. In that case, he'd let it go and simply figure that the message would be well enough delivered.

  Calley was, helpfully enough, waiting for him, when he got back to the summit, along with three Vampires, and a Cellephant. The last was a very Human looking person, who was actually part reptile, appearances aside. Before he could say anything at all, Calley did, gesturing to the assembled individuals.

  "Line Walker, these people asked me to request your aid? The Vampires here need more blood, and while they can pay for it, they can't actually afford the line travel fee to get it here. Which, since you charge a million for a tiny bottle of ear medication, makes sense. This lady also has a food issue, and requests both a trip to her home caves and return here, so that she might harvest some fungus to eat?"

  The reptile woman, who looked a little yellow, in the right light, hissed, her heavy frame shifting under her robe. That was, Zack guessed, due to her tail twitching. Agitated for some reason.

  "Is for supplement. The light here, is too much. Use to dark, am I." There was a slight hiss to the words, but one of the Vampires, who looked to be pretty old, and had been when he was turned, nodded.

  "That is a thing that I have felt as well. They do much with light here. It is spectacular, and a true feat, but hard on the eyes."

  Zack could see that. The very walls glowed in places, after all. It gave things a very futuristic feeling. Like something from a science fiction movie. Looking around for a few seconds, he nodded.

  "I'll see to those things. The blood will be delivered shortly. I'll contact the needed people as soon as I get in. Ma'am? If you'd like to come with us? We can go to those caves directly?" It took a bit to organize, and then longer, since the Vampires wanted to know what the blood shipments were going to cost them.

  In the end, after far too long standing there chatting about the idea, they worked out that one case of delivered blood would be worth approximately ten million dollars to them, given the shipment method. They didn't have that kind of money, not for things like that, so he traded them other things. They owed him information mainly, and some back up, if he ever had a war or minor skirmish he wanted seen to. It never hurt to have friends, so he memorized all their information and got Calley back to the mall, before taking a trip through several miles of subterranean caves. It was a lot more impressive than he would have figured, since there was an entire underground world to look at. They didn't see anyone, but he could feel the beings watching them.

  It was interesting.

  The mushrooms weren't really, being the thready portion that normally existed in the soil, as far as surface dwellers like him were concerned. The good part, no doubt. At least the reptile woman next to him, who he realized after a while was projecting the image of a Human at him pretty hard, seemed to think so. She kept sneaking bites as she worked, and looked at him guiltily, a
s if he'd have a problem with that.

  As they walked out of the cave complex, she stopped and made a move that felt like a shrug, even though it was more of a bobbing at the knees.

  "There are medicinal fungus that we have, that no one on the surface does. Would this be a trade worth your time, for your efforts here today?"

  He didn't know, but nodded. If nothing else he could let Master Wu-Li and his Apprentice try them out.

  "It would. We can arrange a time to pick those up, after the Summit? I know you must be anxious to get back to the rooms full of shouting and ego displays."

  There was a long hiss, a thing that didn't sound happy at all.

  "They do say that Greater Demons know everything, even if they are not there. You have the correct idea however. Why they do not simply listen to those saying 'let us not fight' and go home, I cannot tell."

  Zack knew though, when he thought about it.

  People lived in separate worlds, without understanding that they did. Their minds were all geared toward their own concerns, and even most of the others, the cousin races, had similar things going on. They were selfish and vain, petty and distorted reality to try and make it fit what they wanted, rather than what was. Even Greater Demons did that, he knew. He certainly did.

  Of course, he was still at least a little bit crazy, wasn't he? For his kind, that meant ignoring reality in favor of what they wanted to exist. He could do that with the best of them, he didn't doubt. The trick there, if he wanted to survive, would be in finding out when he was doing it and where. If he could manage it, he might even, sometime in the far future, become sane.

  That didn't get explained, since the Cellephant couldn't get that she was just as crazy as the rest of them. Very few managed to take that last step. Other people were crazy, and did the wrong thing, but the blinders were firmly on, when it came to themselves, right?

  He just took her back to the summit and acted like he didn't understand people either. There was a time when he really wouldn't have gotten it at all. The day before, in fact.

  Now...

  Well, things weren't any more comfortable, but he was starting to make sense of the world around him. Little things were falling into place, that he hadn't known about before. Rules and even morals, seemed different, and like they were, part of the time, simply meant to control people.

  He could opt out though, Zack knew.

  If it was in his own interest.

  The trick there would be in doing that, but making his own interests also be the best thing for those around him, at the same time.

  That part, no doubt, would be a bit harder.

  Chapter nine

  Two hours later, Zack was back in his book store, watching people trickle in, mainly to head off to the back with different hot women. It was a bit more like a whore house than a place to find information and stories, but that was the Alede way, after all. He could get after them for it, if he wanted, but that wouldn't change them. Not really. They were, in the end, what they always were.

  Succubi.

  So, he and Madeline actually worked in the store, which meant, when the virtual explosion happened, he was right there to witness the thing.

  "Fuck you! I'll kill you!" The voice was far too girlish to be taken seriously, at first, until Zack noticed the bubbling space around the tiny female form. The adult man that she was about to kill, well he seemed to miss that part all together.

  How another Greater Demon had managed to work into his shop without being seen, he didn't really know, but he got the basic idea rapidly enough. She was, if she was a female at all, which he knew might be in doubt, tiny and very cute. Not hot, really, but like a thirteen year old girl that was real, and wearing glasses for more than just show. Her skin was flawless, and her bust line was modest, really. An A cup, if Zack had that kind of thing right.

  Of course the Human man, who looked to be pushing forty, had no business grabbing her ass in a book store at all, which was why, clearly, he was about to die. Zack was of two minds on the issue. On the one hand, even with his emotions being well and truly shut down, he didn't really want a body cluttering up his space. It would mean police involvement, and after batting their Chief around the day before, that might not go to well. Or, well, it probably would, after he went to the station and anally raped the woman into submission, but it would still be a pain to deal with.

  On the other, no matter how old the Demon actually was, she looked like a little girl. A slightly nerdy one. Cute, in a wholesome way, but not like she was at the store trawling for a good time. Not in any way, shape or form. She didn't even have visible make-up on.

  The man jumped back, his hands going out defensively, a smile coming across his lips.

  "Oops, sorry, I thought you were someone else." It was so clear he didn't really mean it that Zack just walked up and pointed at the man, who had tattoos on his knuckles in blue ink. Prison tats. Even someone that had lived as sheltered a life as he had got that one.

  "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave, now." It was, he decided, all the warning he was going to give the man. After all, he was being a creep.

  That meant two things, first the little girl looking Greater Demon crossed her arms and nodded, as if vindicated, and the man...

  Started doing his own cussing.

  "Fuck that bitch. What are you going to do, call the cops? If I want to grab a little tail, no punk ass like you is going to tell me not to." He was gearing up to start a fight, so Zack shrugged.

  And hit the man, right in the solar plexus. Then, as he gasped, since something had clearly broken deep inside from the impact, Zack locked his right hand and arm behind the man, and walked him carefully backward toward the node, going through the carved owl door. The little girl followed along, as if she knew exactly what was happening, and when he got to the node, ready to step through with the other man, she took his arm and hopped a bit, so that they all ended up in the purple land with two moons.

  The man still wasn't able to stand up straight, but the girl, who had nice black hair, and slightly Asian features, whistled a bit.

  "This is not too shabby. I don't think I've ever been here myself, before. Macrovian lands?" Her voice was clear, but less worked up now.

  Zack looked at her, feeling a little bit blank.

  "You know, I've never tried to find out. It's a good place to hide bodies though. There are some predators here that appreciate the extra meat, I think. Do you want to just leave him or should we kill him first, do you think? Or, you said you were going to?" It was cold, and sounded that way, but whoever this girl was, Zack didn't think he really wanted to fight her. After all, she walked around looking like a child. No one weak did that.

  Not if they could help it. It marked you as a target, as the pervy man next to them was showing pretty clearly.

  The girl seemed happy enough to be asked. Like Zack was being particularly polite to her.

  "Well," she said cutely, clearly trying to sell the act, which had to be for Zack, since the other man wasn't paying proper attention to detail yet. "I could give him what he wants, and service him."

  Zack didn't particularly want to see her do that, he decided, since it would possibly be very different than what the man wanted at all, but everything inside him screamed that he needed to not get in her way. That, given everything, would be a mistake.

  Instead he shrugged.

  "He did mention liking punks. Do you think he secretly wants to be treated that way?"

  The man groaned a little, especially when the tiny female thing that he'd tried to feel up pushed him down, face first into the loamy, deep purple soil. Then, mightily, the kid sighed.

  "I don't have the right equipment for that, I'm afraid. Do you want to do it?" She reached out and touched the front of his pants, her hand rubbing a little, as if to start something.

  The only thing he was certain of about her at that moment was that she wasn't Xenses. The ripples in space were all wrong for that. She was, also, i
ncredibly old.

  Zack shook his head.

  "No. I'm dealing with some things right now and that wouldn't help at all. Really, if you want to play that way with me, you'll need to look about ten years older yourself. Stay a female too, for now?" He grinned though and snorted a bit. "On the good side, it really isn't you, it's me. What can I say, I'm young and delicate that way." He glanced at her as she pushed her wire frame glasses up. They were big, but did distort her eyes a little as they moved, meaning real lenses. Considering she could have had perfect vision if she wanted, that showed dedication to the role, didn't it?

  He spread his hands a bit.

  "Oh, I'm Zack. Hartley. Called the Line Walker, by some." He didn't know if she'd give a name or anything, but the tiny form actually curtsied a bit, holding her skirt out a little.

  "Ann. No last name. Like Madonna, only not a dried up old scant with several venereal diseases. I've been called many things, but right now most know me as The Rotted. I have a gift with things once dead. I came to see if you wanted anything. Well, here, let me show you my trick, since you already showed me yours." She touched the front of his trousers again, but then kicked the downed man hard. It was a stomp, really, and her little shoe struck right over his heart, on the back, stopping it.

  With a few more gasps, the man died.

  "This part will take a bit. It always does. We could hurry it up, but it messes the body up and the dead don't heal easily, without using magic, and I really don't want to bother with this one. He should have kept his greasy paws to himself. Or at least asked if I wanted the attention. It's not like I would have said no." There was a giggle with the words, and she twisted her right foot, the tiny tennis shoe, which was red over the toes and orange for the rest of it, as if she hadn't just killed the creep in front of them.

  After a bit she leaned in, her hand touching the dead head, lightly. Zack got the flow of power, but not exactly how it was being done. It was a complex thing that spoke of vast learning, at least compared to what he understood about the universe.