by Jon F. Merz
I leaned close to Jack. "Bet you never thought you’d be so popular, huh?"
"No," he said smiling. "But I think I can get to like it."
*** *** ***
We dropped our bags back in Boston and then headed for the Council. Wirek frowned as we drove up.
"Never did like this place. Bunch of old stodgy fools."
I slid the Volvo into a rare parking spot a few doors down on Beacon Street and stepped out into the early Spring sunlight. It seemed like all of Boston had thawed while we were chasing Arvella. A warm breeze blew over us.
It felt good to be home again.
Arthur met us at the door looking very relieved to see Jack. He scooped him up and gave him a hug.
"Master Jack, I’m very pleased t’see ya in one piece!"
Jack gave him a quick hug. Arthur put him down and turned to us. "They’re waitin’ on ye."
I nodded. "Not sense putting it off then."
Arthur led us all down to the Council chamber, knocked once and opened the doors for us to enter. Six high-backed leather chairs sat in a half-moon circle facing us. Only five of them were occupied.
The same faces that greeted me a few months back when I visited after killing Cosgrove looked at me again. Vague amusement registered on all of them, as if they were beholden to some great secret.
I didn’t let it irk me so much this time.
The oldest man in the Council, a pompous bastard named Belarus, cleared his throat and spoke.
"Welcome back."
I nodded. "It’s good to be back."
He peered closer at Jack. "This is the boy?"
"His name is Jack," I said.
Belarus nodded and scrutinized Jack for another minute before turning his attention back to me. "You left us in quite a lurch here, Lawson. Deserting your post without so much as even a note explaining your whereabouts. What were you thinking?"
"One of you betrayed us. I couldn’t risk leaving a note and possibly informing her of my intentions. It would have been suicide."
Belarus put up his hand. "Stop right there, Lawson." He frowned. "We know all about Arvella’s actions. But your refusal to inform us of your travel plans implies that you didn’t trust the rest of us with that information – that perhaps even one of us might have been in league with Arvella?"
"Try to see it form my standpoint," I said. "I’d been given a bogus sanction, my movements had obviously been tracked from the start and my very survival was in question. What would you have done?"
"We’re not here to idly speculate on what might have been." Belarus looked at the other members of the group and then back to me. "At the very least, you should be fired, Lawson."
I sighed. "Arvella was planning something very big. She needed the help of Jack here-"
"Why?"
"He’s an Invoker," said Wirek suddenly speaking up. "But apparently a very special one. He obviously needs to go to the right school so they can teach him how to develop it."
Belarus squinted at Wirek. "Do I know you?"
"I’m a retired Elder."
"Retired?" Belarus grunted and then sighed. "Lawson, why does it always seem like we’re discussing your inability to keep your superiors informed of your whereabouts?"
"This wouldn’t have happened if you got me a replacement Control-"
"You killed your last Control."
"Only because he was a traitor." I looked around the room. "This was one of those times when I couldn’t take the chance. The boy had to be rescued. He came first."
"What was so urgent about the nature of this that you couldn’t have filled us in first?"
Wirek cleared his throat. "We concluded that Arvella’s aim had something to do with the new vampire millennium. What it was, we’re not sure exactly, but we had a feeling it had something to do with the calling up of powerful spirits to help her take over the vampire community."
"Rubbish," said Belarus. "That would never have succeeded."
"Why not?" I asked. "Who among you is powerful enough to fight spirits?"
Several of the Council members looked away. Belarus bristled. "Are you insinuating something, Lawson?"
"No need to insinuate. I’m just asking a question."
"Arvella’s plan would not have succeeded."
I looked at Wirek. "This, as usual, is a waste of time."
"What did you say?"
I looked at Belarus. "You heard me. Why do you refuse to accept the word of a loyal Fixer?"
"Well, honestly, Lawson, you are a bit of a conspiracy freak. What with the whole Cosgrove affair just a few months back and now this."
"This is ridiculous." I shook my head. "Seems to me the Council has always had a problem accepting the role of Fixers in society. I don’t know if this is a personal grudge or what, but no matter how apparent the danger is, you always react the same way. Disbelief combined with stupidity."
The color rose in Belarus’ pasty face. "I’ll remind you, Lawson, that you are addressing the Council."
"Don’t I know it." I looked at Wirek and Jack. "Why don’t you two wait outside for a minute?"
Wirek raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"
"I’ll join you in a second."
"All right." Wirek led Jack outside. I waited until the door shut and then walked over and plopped down in Arvella’s old chair. If I was going to piss them off, I might as well go balls to the wall. "Let’s get a few things in order, shall we?"
I leaned forward. "First off, the boy goes to the Invoker school. He needs to be there and since he has no father – courtesy of me and a bad seed among your ranks – it only makes sense.
"Second, get off my back. I do my job well and despite that, you all seem to think it’s open season on me. That stops here and now or else."
"Or else what?"
"Or else I walk."
"What makes you think we won’t simply find a replacement?" asked Belarus.
"Because I know who you have to choose from. And you know as well as I do it’s damned hard to find talent like me out there among the untrained newbies coming out of the Academy."
Belarus smiled. "I never took you to be so self-assured, Lawson."
"Nothing wrong with knowing you’re good at something." I glanced around the chairs and continued. "Third, you have a vacancy on the Council. You need a replacement."
Belarus’ eyes narrowed. "Yes?"
"I think Wirek would make a fine addition to the Council."
"Him? The old Elder? You can’t be serious!" Other Council members began murmuring to themselves. I grinned.
"I’m absolutely serious. His love for our society knows no bounds and he’s used to dealing with Fixers. Hell, you could hand off all Fixer liaison work to him and wash your hands of it entirely. You’d like that wouldn’t you?"
Belarus said nothing.
"Wirek’s got a great service record and you’d be fools to discount it so quickly."
Belarus coughed once. "Yes, well, we’ll certainly take these things into consideration, Lawson."
I stood up. "You do that."
"By the way, what happened to Arvella’s body?"
"Destroyed. No trace of it left."
"Indeed?"
I thought I saw him smile. "Yeah, she got wasted by another spirit. Turns out she wasn’t as powerful as she thought."
"And the conspiracy ends with her does it?"
"Not exactly. She had help from an old Fixer. You might know him. Alexander Petrov."
Mentioning his name produced a series of gasps which I thoroughly enjoyed. "Yeah, turns out that he wasn’t so thrilled about being the fall guy for one of your dirty little secrets. So, he sided with Arvella."
"You-you killed him, too, right?" Belarus suddenly seemed a little less sure of himself.
I shook my head. "Y’know, funny thing about that. The guy snuck away during the fight. Must be all that good Fixer training coming back to him." I grinned. "Mind you, I wouldn’t want to be on the guy’s shit list when he comes
calling. I spoke to him once and he seemed pretty steamed about the whole affair. Said something about ‘getting all those Council bastards’ or something like that."
I turned to leave, stopped and turned back around. "When do I get a new Control?"
Belarus recovered himself somewhat. "Within two weeks. He’s finishing up some work in Saudi Arabia right now."
"Good."
"Lawson?"
"Yeah?"
"Where are you going now?"
I thumbed over my shoulder. "Got to take the boy to school. Then I need to get some sleep." I turned around again and walked out, feeling pretty damned good.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jack and I spent the next two days gathering up his belongings and packing away most of his house. He decided he wanted to keep it rather than sell it, so he’d have his own place whenever he came to Boston.
"I guess it makes sense," he said. "That way I don’t have to inconvenience anyone."
"You’re not inconveniencing me if you ever want to stay over."
He nodded. "Yeah, I know. But I should have the house anyway. I had a lot of good memories there."
"Your dad would be proud of you," I hoped it didn’t sound too corny.
He smiled again. "I think he already is."
We flew out of Logan the next afternoon, west bound. At Denver’s new airport, a mile up, we caught a private plane bound for a small Canadian town with a nothing name in a nothing place.
Jack got a real thrill out of the plane that had been lent to us by the Council.
"They really said we could use it?"
"Yeah, believe it or not sometimes they’re actually a decent set of people." I didn’t tell him one of the reasons they’d been so gracious was because despite a worldwide Fixer sweep for Petrov, the sneaky bastard hadn’t been found yet. The Council wanted to stay on my good side in case he came calling.
The pilot came on over the intercom and told us we’d be taxiing shortly. I strapped Jack into the seat and watched the excited look on his face.
"Is the pilot one of us?"
I shook my head. "They’re loyalists."
"What’s that?"
"Humans who agree to help us."
He looked shocked. I grinned. "I felt the same way. I only found out about it a few months back."
"Are there many of them?"
"I was told there weren’t. But I think there are more than a few."
He considered this and then peered out of his window. "They said we’d buzz the mountains on the way up. Isn’t that cool?"
I smiled. He’d matured a lot in the short span of time I’d known him, but he was still a kid. I hoped that however much he grew up, he’d still keep some of the child within him. Too many adults shirk that childish behavior.
Me? Well, lately, I’d been thinking it’s kind of healthy to keep some around. Especially since sometimes I considered myself a great big excuse for a kid as well.
"The coolest," I said. "Maybe we can convince him to do a barrel roll, too."
Jack’s eyes widened. "Oh, man – you think they would?"
I explained what I knew about barrel rolls while we continued to taxi on the runway. Finally, the engines gunned and we raced down the tarmac, then there was that single moment when the wheels left the ground and the ride suddenly got a lot smoother.
"I love takeoffs," said Jack.
"I hate landings," I said.
We looked at each other and grinned.
Ten minutes into the flight the pilot announced we’d reached our temporary cruising altitude. Jack spent the time craning his head around the double-paned window, spotting craggy mountain tops and puffy clouds.
I leaned back into my seat and wondered about whether the Council would actually choose Wirek to be a new Council member. Probably not. That would be too smart a move for them.
That was the problem with bureaucracies, any bureaucracy. The more entrenched those in power became, the harder they were to dethrone. And the harder it was for them to see trends and dangers that should be taken care of. This was twice now in the past six months they’d annoyed the crap out of me.
If it kept up, I just might have to think about retiring.
I grinned to myself. I was still far too young to think about that. And besides, I was the only Fixer who seemed to be able to spot trouble.
They needed me, whether they liked me or not.
I sighed again, relaxing back into the brushed velvet of the spacious seats and stretched my legs. I seriously considered taking a nap.
"Excuse me, sir, would you like a drink."
I’d forgotten about the flight attendant. A drink might actually taste good. I cracked one eye and looked up.
"Or maybe you’d just like a bullet in your fucking heart instead."
Petrov.
He stood a few seats away pointing a gun at us.
I sighed. "You really have piss-poor timing, Petrov."
"Go to hell, Lawson. You don’t even know how much trouble you’ve caused me in the past few weeks."
"I can guess. That worldwide manhunt must have made things tough for you, eh?"
"You could say that."
"And Killing Arvella must have pissed you off. Robbed you of some silly power grab, did I?"
He shook his head. "You don’t even know the half of it, Lawson. You think I really gave a damn about Arvella? You think I care about some old washed up hag like that?"
"Sure seemed that way." I pointed to my legs. "Mind if I bend ‘em back? They’re getting stiff." Beside me, Jack clutched the armrests tightly – not saying a thing.
Petrov frowned. "Go ahead, but do it slow. The rounds here are subsonic Fixer bullets. They won’t go through your body and rip into the plane. I can comfortably kill you anytime I want without a fear of losing cabin pressure."
"Glad to hear you worked that all out, Petrov." I bent my legs into a figure four position with my left on top of my right. "Ah, that’s better."
He regarded me for a moment. "You shouldn’t have followed the boy to the Himalayas, Lawson."
"Yeah, well, I’ve got this bad habit of sticking to my word. Nothing I can do about it, I’m just like that I guess."
"I’ve got a solution," said Petrov waving the gun slightly.
"I can see that." I glanced at Jack. "So, what’s the whole story then? We aren’t going anywhere for a while. You might as well tell me."
"I started to tell you back at Arvella’s estate. Weren’t you listening?"
"As I recall you were busy pumping voltage into me. I think I can be forgiven for my lack of mental acuity at that time. Electrocution has a way of making me a little forgetful."
"The Council sold me out. I took the fall for their stupidity."
"Nothing new there. The Council’s well known for their inability to keep things running correctly."
"You work for them still, though, what does that say about you?"
"Probably that I’m just a big fool." I shrugged. "But, see, I’ve got all these skills that don’t really lend themselves too well to the general business world. Being able to double tap someone from ten meters doesn’t exactly qualify me to be CEO or something." I smiled. "Besides, I like being a thorn in their side."
"They’ll turn on you some day, Lawson. Mark my words. You’ll find yourself in exactly the same position I found myself in. I went from being their pride and joy to being an outcast." He frowned. "And now a hunted criminal."
"Maybe so," I said. "But I won’t ever sell them out."
"You still cling to that foolish naiveté that what we do makes the world a better place?"
"Yeah, I do. But that’s my problem, not yours. What the hell do you care – it’s my life. I can do what I want with it."
"I didn’t care before. I do now, though, especially since you may not have much of a life left to live."
I redirected him. "So, go on and tell me all about you and Arvella."
"I seduced her-"
"Hey
, c’mon," I gestured to Jack. "Be mindful of the boy, would you?"
Petrov cracked a thin smile. "Still with the humor. All right have it your way. Arvella and I became lovers."
I grimaced. "Didn’t you just call her an old hag?"
He nodded. "I obviously didn’t do it for the enjoyment."
"You don’t say."
"I became her lover in order to get back at the Council for what it did to me. Using her, I was able to find out about her own secret agenda. She told me about the boy. She told me about what she could do if she pooled her power and the boy’s power together. What she could do to the power structure of our society."
"So you went along with it."
"Absolutely. I had contacts, resources that could be used to keep her in the dark. I went after the boy, first approaching his father. He wanted no part of the deal." He smiled. "Killing him would have been easy but not prudent."
Beside me, I could feel anger rising in Jack. It came off him in waves of heat. I looked at Petrov. "So, you had Arvella concoct some bullshit story and set me on him, is that it?"
"Yes. You were the perfect choice because you had no Control. A Control would have seen through the story immediately."
"You didn’t know my last Control. I doubt he would have suspected it."
"Anyway," said Petrov. "You got the file and did your work perfectly. You should be complimented."
"I’d rather not."
He ignored me. "Once the father was dead and gone, we felt free to move ahead with the plan. I dispatched a team to the house to grab the boy and bring him back to me." He frowned. "You, however, saw fit to interfere at that stage. You and your damned sense of honor."
I shrugged. "Told you it was a bad habit of mine."
"You caused a lot of sleepless night for me, Lawson. Do you have any idea how gruesome it is to watch an old wrinkled woman like Arvella stomp and shout at my inability to kidnap a simple boy?"
"No, and I don’t think I ever want to."
"Well, it’s pretty disgusting," said Petrov. "And then you tracked down one of the team members. Fortunately, I’d rolled him up shortly before you got there. But you still managed to track down my cellphone."
"You seemed surprised when I called you, though."
