Rise Of The Soulless

by Erik Lynd

  Christopher started pacing, he wanted to scream. “There has to be something. This is THE Library right? I mean all the knowledge in the world, right? There’s got to be something.”

  “All the knowledge that ever has been or ever will be. Except about your unique circumstance of being a mortal Hunter. What that means for you…that knowledge is not here. But Apophis, that is another matter.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The name is familiar. I’m sure I can dig something up on it. It is the name of an ancient being, something your predecessor encountered.”

  “Yes, Apophis did seem to be harboring a grudge against him, that was his whole motivation for going after me. But what good will understanding Apophis do if I can’t get out of the tomb? Even if I know their life story and all their weaknesses I’m stuck here.” Christopher instantly regretted the use of the word tomb; it sent a chill up his spine.

  “I don’t know, but it is a place to start. Besides, I won’t be the only one looking for a solution.”

  “Great, point me in the right direction; I can start looking through the shelves. I might not be as fast as you, honestly I was never good at using the what’s-it-called Dewey Decimal system, but I’ll give it a shot.” The idea of searching through an infinitely large library was too daunting to even think about, but he needed to do something. He needed some sort of hope.

  “I was thinking of a more special form of research for you. You searching through this place for such specific information would be futile,” said the Librarian.

  Then he turned and glided off through the books. Christopher, caught by surprise, chased after him. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

  “I can search this body of knowledge; however, only you can search for the answer inside yourself.”

  “Please don’t tell me you have a touchy-feely self-help section you want me to read through. I mean, I suppose they can help some situations, but I don’t think reading a copy of How to Make Friends and Influence People is the best use of my time right now.”

  The Librarian stopped and turned back to him. Christopher couldn’t see his face, and nothing had changed about his body language, but he was pretty sure the Librarian was angry. When he spoke, however, the words still had that same calm control.

  “I’m glad your humor is still going strong even as you look at hundreds, maybe thousands of years of suffering. Not to mention mine at having to deal with you. Frankly, I wish I could die because I would gladly go to hell rather than listen to your whining for eternity.”

  Christopher put up his hands in a placating gesture. “Whoa there, sorry to set you off. I know full well what’s at stake here. I’m the one out there wasting away in a hole in the ground. I’ve got skin in this game, so you’ll pardon me if I use a little humor to get me through it.”

  “Fine,” the Librarian said. “But I am not giving you self-help books. I’m suggesting we advance your training.”

  They turned a corner and in front of them was one lone book shelf. The books were all different shapes and sizes from different time periods. Some were ancient tomes covered in dust, others glossy paperbacks that could have been found in a bookstore today. It was like a microcosm of the Library itself, modern and ancient at the same time.

  “These are like training books I have used before?”

  “Yes, in fact some of these are those books. My thought is if you train your body and mind to be stronger perhaps it will give you access to stronger power in yourself, maybe the wisdom to see a way out of your situation.”

  Christopher looked over the books on the shelf. “So, this is your plan? Train my ass off, learn as much as I can with no guarantee that I will discover anything to save myself? That seems more like desperation than a plan.”

  “Perhaps, but do you have any ideas? I don’t know the extent of your power, but you don’t know either. Don’t you think it behooves us to learn as much as possible? Besides, if one of us finds a way out of this wouldn’t it be useful to become skilled enough to win against this Apophis?”

  He had a point, but still, it seemed pointless to Christopher. “But what good is a couple days of training going to accomplish? Like you said, I might not die, but my body is going to deteriorate. I won’t last long going through the type of training I have been for the past year or so.”

  “It won’t be a day or two, you have as much time as you want,” the Librarian said slowly as though talking to a child.

  “But I thought you said…” Then it hit him. “You want me to pull a Bill and Ted’s.”

  The Librarian was silent for a moment as though pondering. “A what?”

  “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Or maybe the sequel. It was a little before my time, but it’s kind of timeless.”

  The Librarian was silent, but Christopher didn’t need to see his face to know he was puzzled. “It’s a movie about two, let’s just say not very bright, teenagers that want to be rock stars. They get a time machine…I won’t go into details but at the end they are moments away from having to play a concert and they never learned to play their instruments.”

  Still silence, he wasn’t getting it.

  “Just before they have to perform they use the time machine to go spend years learning to play and then return to the exact same time and spot able to shred with the best of them. They had years of experience, but no time had passed for everyone else.”

  Slowly the Librarian nodded. “Yes, I suppose this is a ‘Bill and Ted’ thing. Especially the part about not being very bright—”

  “Hey.”

  “—As before no time will pass when you are in these books. You can spend days, weeks, even years in them training and only seconds will have passed in the stone tomb.”

  “Years? The longest I’ve ever done a session was a couple of days. And these aren’t pleasure cruises. It’s like every great warrior is a sadist deep down when it comes to training.”

  “I didn’t say it would be easy. It might be the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do. Except for that whole suffering from thirst and starvation for thousands of years thing.”

  Christopher absentmindedly held one of the books trying to think this through. “I just don’t want to waste my energy going through all this for nothing. I mean, will doing this for weeks or even years as you suggest even work? Can my mind handle it? It’s not like there have been studies done on this sort of thing.”

  “Yes, I agree. You will most likely go mad. I think it is a risk worth taking.”

  “Of course you do; it’s not your mind we’re talking about.”

  “Only by pushing yourself physically and mentally will you discover new things about your power. At least that’s my theory.”

  “You have always had a wonderful way of instilling confidence in me. What if I lose myself? What if I go through this training, and it does span years? How will I remember who I am? How will…how… what if I forget about Eris and Hamlin? What if I forget this life?”

  “I might have some ideas, but I don’t know if it will work. Either way, we don’t have much choice,” the Librarian said. A little gentler than usual, Christopher thought. Then he went on.

  “Similar to the other training you have gone through, this shelf contains great warriors and soldiers, but it is also a selection of philosophers and mystics, everything from eastern esoteric religions to European occultists to kundalini yoga masters. Anything I thought would be useful. I suggest you start with continuing your warrior training. If you get out of here, that will serve you best when you again encounter this Apophis. I will look into your enemy and see what I can discover.”

  “But if only seconds pass here, will you be able to get any work done before I’m back however many years older?”

  “This form is for your benefit. Once I am out of sight I can work much faster; not as fast as you, but I will not be idle for the minutes you are gone. Besides, I believe you will need breaks.”

  Christopher watched the Librar
ian disappear back into the stacks. Perhaps it was knowing his body was back in a dark underground room, perhaps it was the vastness of the Library, but he had never felt so alone. Christopher was suddenly thankful that the mysterious and sometimes bluntly honest Librarian was here for him. He had faded from view when Christopher spoke again.

  “Thanks, for trying at least.”

  The voice of the Librarian came from far away. “See, it's already working.”

  Christopher smiled faintly and looked at the book in his hand.

  The title read: Ksitigarbha, the Bodhisattva of Hell Beings.

  “Ha,” Christopher said out loud as he sat down. “How appropriate.”

  Then he opened the book and his mind fell in.

  17

  The building was tall and imposing. It wasn’t the largest in the Upper East Side, but it somehow seemed to dominate. Just a little nicer, a little newer than its neighbors. Hamlin had asked around as subtly as he could and the one reoccurring theme regarding it was that the owners were constantly remodeling with the latest in design trends.

  When Juan had given Hamlin the list of potential buildings with complex or suspicious ownership corporate structure, narrowed down by Juan’s accountant friend, Hamlin had made a point to visit each one over the course of the last day and a half. Just a quick walk by, not enough to raise suspicion. He had even bought a new outfit one that wouldn’t scream “cop.”

  For the most part this had just added to his frustration. Each building had been rich, opulent even, with specialty stores at the retail level, executive style gyms and garages full of cars that each cost at least three times his salary.

  This one, however, had one slight difference. Where the others seemed to be a typical splattering of wealth this one seemed almost too perfect. It was more like a museum than an apartment building for the uber rich. Perfectly clean, perfectly ordered.

  Still, this might not have stood out except for the complexity of ownership. Several corporations owned it, those in turn were subsidiaries of other even larger corporations. Juan’s friend said he had never seen a deal this complex, but as he followed each twist and turn one name kept coming up regularly. Goliath Corp. Most of the companies ultimately were owned by this somewhat unknown mega corporation.

  Then Juan had fit the final piece of the puzzle. Golyat was the old Jewish spelling of the name Goliath. It was too obvious to pass up, this had to be the building. Only a handful of tenants lived in the extensive structure, all of them were listed as working for Goliath Corp.

  There was only one problem.

  “It’s too easy,” Hamlin said turning away from the van window. Juan was sitting in the back of the van bringing the computers online. The interior was full of screens and whirling servers, as well as an assortment of other equipment whose purpose Hamlin could not even guess. The van was also fitted with a communication array hidden in the roof. Juan had it custom built. When Christopher had given him an astronomical budget to work with, he had been like a kid in a candy shop. Now here Hamlin sat feeling like he was in a Mission Impossible movie.

  “There you go with that word again. I told you I just make it look that way. It took some serious data work and financial review from my buddy. This shit was buried.”

  “And what is the name of your accountant buddy?”

  “Warren Buffet.”

  “I’m telling you this is a trap. The bodies, the financial trail, the obvious name recognition. It was like they were leading us straight here.”

  “Well of course it’s a trap, never said it wasn’t. I’m just saying it was not easy.”

  Hamlin nodded and made sure his pistol was secure. He couldn’t help but think this was stupid.

  “Have you heard from Chris?” Hamlin asked and a part of him realized he was stalling.

  Juan’s smile disappeared, “No, not since the day before yesterday,” he said.

  “Something’s wrong, he wouldn’t just disappear like that,” Hamlin said. “You’ve been following social media, right? Have you seen anything?”

  Juan shook his head. “Nothing, not about Chris and not about the crazy fucks who made the video. They haven’t said a peep, it’s like they just disappeared. Do you want to back away from this? Sort of regroup, try to find out what happened to him?”

  “It is a distraction. I’m worried about the kid and if this silence goes on much longer, I’ll be the first on a flight to find him. But the truth is there’s not much we can do for him. There is, however, something we could do here. At least while we wait for his return.”

  “But you’re going up against some strong forces. Are you sure you want to do that? I mean I got your back, but I’m a nerd in a box. I can work magic on that building's systems, including security, but when the shit hits the fan and demon monsters start to appear, I’m just as liable to crap my pants than to be able to pull you out. I mean, we don’t even have the demoness here for back up.”

  “I’m just going in for a look around, I’ll see how far I can get. I don’t plan on taking on a dark soul all by myself. That’s the kid's gig. But I’m a cop, I can’t just ignore the threat. Goes against who I am.”

  Juan seemed to study him for a moment as if deciding. “Then take this.”

  Juan handed him a tiny piece of plastic that looked like it had a USB port on one side and a cell phone charger connection on the other. It was about the size of a small tack.

  “What’s this?” asked Hamlin.

  “That’s the silver bullet we need, at least it’s what will get us the silver bullet.”

  Hamlin held it up for inspection. Despite Juan’s opinion of his technical ability he knew what USB was. “How does it work?”

  “Well, like I said, I can hack into the building systems fairly easy. They are all on a network exposed to the internet; sure they have firewalls and all sort of protection, but those are the fuckers that tricked me into doing their dirty work so I’m sure I can get in quick.”

  “So why this thing?”

  “That is our key into the real data vault. If you can plug that into a computer inside Golyat’s personal network or on the Alliance’s network or whatever, I can try to get us access.”

  “How do we even know he has any sort of network beyond what’s exposed to the internet?”

  “Because I worked with them. I got a personal look into all the networks and domains I had at my disposal. So I did some poking around. Even when they had me in the false reality, I knew enough to poke around a little. I might have been a company man, but my subconscious was always suspicious.”

  He sat back in the fancy seat he had installed that could slide from screen to screen in that little van. “I was too out of it to really learn the details, but I remember there was some pretty tricky concealed shit that I got close to. I know it’s there, just can’t remember the details to get to it.”

  “And this little plastic thing will get you in?” Hamlin asked doubtfully.

  “Yeah, if you get it into a laptop or phone that is in any way connected to this hidden network, it will give me a starting point. From there the world is your oyster.”

  “How do I know if a phone or computer has access to this invisible network?”

  “You won’t, just do your best to pick a computer that looks important and we try our luck.”

  Hamlin slipped it into his pocket. “I think you and I have different ideas on how this is supposed to go. Okay, but I have no idea if I’ll even get far enough to stick it in.”

  “That’s what she said,” Juan said and then handed him a small box. “Take these too.”

  Inside the box were two tiny earpieces, so small he wasn’t even sure they would stay in his ear. “I am on a Mission Impossible movie set.”

  “What? Those? You can get them on Amazon. I just made a modification that allows them to work across different types of networks. We should be able to stay in contact. Speaking of which, I think you might get further than you think. Check this out.”


  Hamlin moved over to the screen in front of Juan. On the display was a three-dimensional rendering of the building with tiny red dots moving on all the floors.

  “I got into the cell phone networks throughout the building and was able to access the GPS on every phone, tablet, or any other GPS device in the building. They say it’s only accurate within five feet, but that’s bullshit for the sheep of the masses. They can track that shit to within one foot or closer.”

  “Damn, and you were able to hack this all right now?” Hamlin said, stunned.

  “Oh, hell no! What do you think I’ve been doing for the past few months, playing video games? I learned a lot in the mind prison they fucked me with. I used that knowledge to preset some hacks to various network infrastructure here in the US of A. This is just the first time I’m actually using it.”

  “You are a treasure. Now if I could only get you to turn your attention to helping the other good guys—”

  “Fuck the police. Besides, what part of any of this could I have done without a warrant? And how do we get a warrant? Tell the judge a monster and his teenage daughter are killing people throughout the city and we have a hunch they are all posh in this Upper East Side penthouse?”

  Hamlin groaned again. “Okay, so this lets you see where everybody is and you can give me a heads up whenever I’m about to be discovered?”

  “Si, as long as they have a cell phone or other networked device. But everybody has a cell these days, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess we will have to test that theory. What about security cameras and sensors?”

  “Please. I have all that access, I had those skills when I was twelve. The cameras will only see what I want them to see, the elevator will come when you call even without a card key. All that shit.”

  “Okay I guess I’m ready,” He slipped the earpiece in and opened the door to step out. But he turned around one last time. “I’m pretty sure this is the stupidest thing I have ever done and that’s saying a lot considering I’ve known Chris for well over a year now. Remind me to tell you about the time we fought a hoard of zombies.”