Wraith

by Phaedra Weldon

  And if something happened to the nice-looking cop, would it reflect badly on Hirokumi? One of those honor things?

  The Japanese could be a very strange bunch. Now we Southerners—we definitely believed in an eye for an eye.

  Daniel moved to stand to the man’s right, between him and the desk. “We want Tanaka’s murderer, sir. Don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Hirokumi continued to look out over the city. Through the gathering gloom I could see the World of Coca-Cola if I stared hard enough, as well as the Georgia Dome and Turner Field. I moved to the opposite side, in the area of the office where two windows formed a corner. It was kinda dizzying looking out—especially when I found my apartment building.

  How do people work way the hell up here on a daily basis and not get vertigo? Or at least get a god complex.

  I turned and looked around this man’s stunning office. Hrm…maybe they do.

  I noticed Daniel avoided looking out the window. In fact, he kept his back to it and his attention focused on Hirokumi.

  “Take some advice from me,” the businessman said. His voice had softened, which of course peaked my curiosity as well as Daniel’s. “Stay away from him.”

  “Who? The murderer?”

  One nod.

  “Then you know who the murderer is.”

  One shake of his head, slow and deliberate. “No one knows who he is, Lieutenant. Much less what.”

  Shit. What he is? Trench-Coat? I hate it when people speak in riddles. I wanted to blurt out my own questions. But I didn’t. I suspected Hirokumi knew what killed his employee. I also wondered why Maharba wanted to know about this particular conversation. Was it because of Trench-Coat? Did Maharba know about the spook? I was sure Hirokumi did.

  And I think he was afraid of it.

  “Lieutenant Frasier, the man you seek is a myth, a ghost, nothing more. My advice—turn away. Before you, or someone you love, gets hurt.”

  I looked around the room and wondered where Faceless got off to. I don’t trust someone when I can’t see her eyes.

  Literally.

  Daniel clasped his hands together in front of him and frowned. Score, no ring! “Was that a threat, Koba?”

  “No, Lieutenant Frasier.” Hirokumi turned then. It was a poignant movement, made all the more important because of the dramatic pause the man made before answering. “Only a warning. The man who destroyed Tanaka is a myth because in the world you and I live in, he doesn’t exist. But in the world around us, the unseen one, he is the servant of a greater evil.”

  I’m sure at that moment every hair on my physical body stood on end. I was getting astral goose bumps. Picking Hirokumi’s brain for more information would answer my fondest wish at that moment.

  “I’m not here to discuss mysticism, Mr. Hirokumi. I’m here to find out what enemies Tanaka would have who would turn on him so brutally.”

  “William had no enemies.”

  “So his death wasn’t his fault.”

  “No,” Hirokumi said, and turned his attention back to the window.

  I could almost hear his mental admission, It is my fault.

  “So let me understand this.” Daniel took in a deep breath and focused his gaze on Hirokumi. “You can’t look me in the eye and say you don’t know the killer, because you do. Or rather you know who he is, but he’s a myth. But the killer didn’t have a personal vendetta with Mr. Tanaka—he had it with you.” He cocked his head sideways as he looked at the businessman. “Am I right?”

  One nod.

  “Mr. Hirokumi, I could have you arrested right now for obstruction of justice, as well as harboring a criminal. If you know who killed Tanaka and why, you have to say.”

  “You can try to put me in jail, Lieutenant Frasier, but that will not stop evil. Even when it is cloaked in good.”

  Ack. Riddles again. Evil cloaked in good was basically a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Even I knew that. But would Daniel get it? And what the hell did it mean?

  I felt something at that moment, a cold presence behind me. Much like someone had opened a door and let in the winter chill. I turned.

  Faceless stood directly behind me. And even though I couldn’t see her eyes, I knew she was looking right at me, or at least in my general direction.

  “Mitsuri?” Hirokumi said as he turned and looked at us. But he only saw her.

  I looked over at the window and saw the woman’s reflection in it. In there I could see her face. Asian. Very Lucy Liu.

  And she was squinting at me.

  She said something in Japanese. The color drained from Hirokumi’s face.

  I took a few steps back. Daniel was looking from his suspect to the female.

  “Mr. Hirokumi? Is there a problem?”

  The man nodded several times. “Mitsuri is a Japanese seer. She can sense the presence of spirits. She’d thought she’d sensed one outside the barrier earlier, before you arrived. But somehow it made its way here. In my office.” He shook his head. “But that’s impossible.”

  Mitsuri said something else and glanced at Hirokumi. He gave her a slight nod, and the woman left the office at a dead run. And in heels. Impressive.

  So, Faceless sensed a presence—that would be me.

  I was worried about what Faceless had planned. I don’t speak Japanese, but it sure as hell sounded like she said, “Hey boss, should I go get the gun?”

  “Where did your assistant go?”

  “To retrieve a few items.” Hirokumi moved back toward the waterfall. “I’m afraid we have to end this discussion, Lieutenant. I had believed my office a safe place.”

  “Safe from what?”

  I was following close to Daniel. If that nasty wall at the door had been thrown up as Hirokumi’s “safe” measure, I sure as hell didn’t want to be caught inside the freak’n office when Faceless returned.

  My thoughts were I could ride the wave behind Daniel out the same way I got in.

  We were in that little space at the door.

  “This talk isn’t finished, Hirokumi,” Daniel was saying in his best cop voice. “We still have that other matter to discuss.”

  Huh? What other matter?

  “We are done for now, Lieutenant Frasier. I’m afraid we were spied on, and the enemy knows we’ve spoken. Neither of us is safe at the moment. I didn’t want you involved, Daniel. But now it’s seen your face.”

  Spied on? Damn. I looked around the office. There were surveillance cameras galore, but did he mean some other form of snooping?

  Like astral projection?

  “What’s seen my face?” Daniel wasn’t having any of it. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  I got right behind him and stuck to him. His emotion level was a bit high, and I could almost feel his frustration and panic. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me from getting out of there. Trench-Coat’s mark throbbed again, and I tucked my arm beneath my right arm.

  “Evil, Lieutenant Frasier.” Hirokumi opened the door just as Mitsuri stepped back in. She held a small jade statue in the shape of a dragon.

  Very nice piece actually. Too bad I wasn’t staying to find out what it was.

  Daniel squinted at Hirokumi. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re afraid we’ve been spied on by evil?”

  Evil? Me? Never. Sure I cheated on a few tests in high school, and maybe I forgot to file taxes a few times, but evil?

  “Good-bye, Lieutenant.”

  Daniel stepped through the door, and I saw the air shimmer as he passed.

  I jumped right in there behind him—

  And smashed into the barrier again. This time I’d sort of built up speed and the crash back made me a bit dizzy. Or was it the barrier itself? I felt tired as I fell back on the floor beside the coffee table.

  I heard the door shut and looked up to see the curtain close back together seamlessly.

  Not one to give up without a fight, I stood and put my hands out to the door and felt again the invisible wall. My sleeve of my astral cat-suit sli
d up on my left arm and I saw Trench-Coat’s handprint. So vividly red on my monochromatic astral self.

  Crap. I tried a shoulder slam against the barrier. When all other intelligent options don’t present themselves, brute force is the most obvious option.

  Ouch.

  I paused and tried returning to my body through my silver cord.

  Nothing. I couldn’t even “sense” my body. I was cut off from it. Time, time. I looked at my watch. One hundred fifty minutes remaining. An hour and a half out. Okay—I had some time.

  I ran to the windows. Even there I could feel the barrier I’d not noticed before.

  I heard the door open again, but I was too far away to try to dive through the opening. Faceless was back.

  “Is it still here?” Hirokumi asked.

  “Yes but it is trying to get out. It tried to leave with Lieutenant Frasier but he closed the door before it could make its escape.”

  Rats.

  “But this will trap it inside so that I can torture it and discover what its purpose is.” She turned her blank face to Hirokumi. “I told you the ward was a good idea.”

  Trap it? Torture it? They meant trapping and torturing me! “Can you see it?”

  “No, but I can sense it. It is still now, and perhaps watching and listening to us.”

  I did not want to be tortured. I thought being bodiless meant no torture if I was ever caught.

  My arm chose that moment to throb with an electrifying pain, as if reminding me that being incorporeal did not mean painless. I held my arm with my other hand as I watched and listened.

  I’d never been caught on any job—

  Wait…

  Hirokumi! Was he maharba@maharba.com? Or was Mitsuri? Was this a setup? To lure me here, then capture me?

  No…that seemed unlikely. Faceless and her Big Cheese seemed honestly surprised I was there.

  “Is it the one that killed William?”

  Mitsuri shook her head. “No. It is something—else. But do not worry, once it is trapped inside the dragon for a while, I will know its purpose, then I will exorcise it.”

  Trapped for a while? How long is a while? I thought of my body. Right now it was like an old car sitting in the front yard with no motor. Up on blocks.

  Useless. No soul inside.

  An empty house.

  The dragon Mitsuri mentioned turned out to be that nine-inch-high statue she’d brought in earlier. Looked like something I could buy at the Phoenix and Dragon over off of Roswell Road. Couldn’t tell if it was wood or marble. It thunked when she set it on Hirokumi’s desk. She struck a match and lit the sculpture’s extended tongue.

  A large orange flame burst outward, then snuffed immediately into a winding tendril of green smoke. I watched with my mouth open as the smoke morphed and changed into the dragon’s image—extending its neck and then its tongue and showing several rows of smoky teeth.

  I watched in fascination as it undulated through the air much like a sea serpent would in the water. Up and down and up and down. It moved past Mitsuri toward the door, then turned and looked at me.

  The eyes glowed red like two pinpoints within the mist.

  I wondered if Hirokumi could see it too. Or was he just seeing smoke and fire from what looked like an over-decorated incense burner?

  “It’s found it,” Mitsuri said in a low voice.

  The thing bared its teeth and hissed as it turned and came right at me.

  “Oh shit,” I muttered out loud.

  5

  ONE day I’m going to learn to keep my mouth shut. A thief is silent and invisible. And even if a thief isn’t, a snoop sure as hell is.

  And until now, I thought I had at least one of those requirements nailed down.

  The moment I swore, both of them turned and looked in my direction. Well, I’m assuming Mitsuri did—she still didn’t have a face as far as I could tell.

  What I did know was that I’d given away my location. And the truth of my presence.

  “Did you hear that?” Hirokumi’s expression twisted. He looked as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard. Wide-eyed, pale complexion (well he was pale before—but he graduated to pasty white) and very tense. “It sounded like a woman.”

  “Demons can take on many shapes and forms.”

  And again my mouth slipped past my control. “Who you calling a demon? At least I have a face.”

  The businessman stepped back as if struck, but Mitsuri didn’t. She folded her arms over her chest. I sooooo wished I could see her face.

  I hadn’t forgotten that snaky, dragon-like smoke thing either. It was hanging about in the air just over Mitsuri’s head. It looked as if it was going to strike at me—which it kinda surprised me that it hadn’t already. It looked as if it was waiting on some secret, silent command.

  Not that I was complaining or anything.

  Would it hurt? Would it kill me? Would it go through me and out the window behind me? Or would it bump into the barrier as well?

  “Speak, demon.” Mitsuri had a very commanding, as well as annoying, tone.

  And it pissed me off. Speak? Like a dog? “Woof.”

  That actually produced a slight smile from Hirokumi.

  And that touched off my wicked curiosity at the situation. “Mr. Hirokumi, can you see the smoke dragon coming out of that statue thing-a-ma-boojie?”

  I could have sworn the man’s color went from pasty white to bone white when I said his name. Who knew there were so many shades of scared? I caught myself rubbing my left arm again. The ache was now a full-on fire.

  Pain in the astral. This was new.

  “I-I s-see only smoke.”

  I looked up at the dragon. Still there. Hanging in the air above Mitsuri. Glaring at me. Mouth open. Shiny teeth. Drool.

  Ew.

  “Uh-huh—but Mitsubishi here sees it, I’ll bet.”

  Mitsuri turned her body to face me. No hesitation, as if she could actually see my astral form. “Do not speak names, demon. You believe you have power over him—but we will avenge Tanaka’s death. Your master will not succeed in terrorizing the honorable Hirokumi. He will not give him what he wants.”

  Say what? This was all beginning to sound like a really bad Japanese movie—you know with power and honor and all that. Only the English dub was done much better.

  At least it matched the movement of the lips.

  “This is silly,” I said, and moved away from the window, intent on getting past these two nutcases and back to the door. Someone had to walk in at some point, and that’s when I was going to get out. I’d been paid to listen in on the conversation between Frasier (Yummy!) and Hirokumi (Boo!). That was done.

  I heard the thing before I saw it coming. A wet, gurgling hiss as I turned and looked up. The dragon had tripled in size as its mouth extended much like a snake’s, ready to strike.

  The damned thing was going to eat me!

  My first instinct was to duck and run—forward. So I did. I screamed like a girl and ran right into—and through—Mitsuri. Her scream joined my own.

  I’d passed through people during my early experiments as an astral Traveler. I mean, think about it. Standing on the city’s sidewalk, looking up all wide-eyed and thinking “What the hell…” and you’re bound to have a passerby walk through you.

  They can’t see you.

  And you’re not paying any attention. I sure wasn’t.

  And when they passed through me, I’d catch glimpses of whatever was on their minds at that moment. Usually I see their pets. Fish, birds, dogs, cats. And if the person doesn’t have a pet, I usually see the next closest thing to their heart.

  Their car. Their money. Their…well let’s say it is true what men think about and with all the time.

  The first “walk-through” was the most memorable. It’d been a man in a suit ten-hutting at a brisk pace down Peachtree N.E., just outside the Starbucks on the corner.

  His most dominating thought at that moment had been the black, lacy women’s u
nderwear he’d been wearing, and how good it felt against his balls.

  Surprised? I sure as hell was.

  But this…

  This wasn’t right. Usually there’s some sort of thought. Some hint of the person’s soul as I brush by it. Some glimmer of the personality formed through that person’s experiences in life. It was always in flashes, images. Sometimes feelings. Warmth. Cold. Trees.

  Mitsuri had none of this inside. It felt like passing through a hollow container filled with ice.

  Gave new meaning to the phrase “frosty bitch.”

  I can only imagine what it’d felt like to her with me passing through. I think I thawed a few things on my way out.

  I pitched forward, probably from my momentum as well as her own soul’s unique ability to shove me out. Never had that happened before.

  Landing beside the tall, flat panel of cascading water, I lay on the green carpet shivering. I usually don’t feel things like temperature while traveling. But first the ache in my hand, and now this cold? The cold had crept into my soul.

  Mitsuri wasn’t standing either. She writhed on the floor as if something pretty nasty and slimy had gotten up her dress. Her hands flailed around, and she was wailing something at the top of her lungs. “Wraith! Wraith! He has sent a Wraith!”

  Heh?

  Wraith? I pulled myself up to a sitting position and looked around. Where was a Wraith? I remembered that being one of the creatures Rhonda mentioned that morning as living in the abisol plane. Ambisol?

  Christ. Pox on my memory!

  “A Wraith? He has shown us our death.” Hirokumi looked really upset. Let’s say to the point of keeling over. Which would be weird because he was on his knees in front of his desk beside the less-than-calm secretary.

  Wait a minute. I blinked at the two of them. They were calling me a Wraith?

  “Now wait just one damned minute,” I said as I started to get up. “I am not a Wraith here, people. And that’s just mean calling me names like that.”

  “Kill it! Destroy it!” Mitsuri commanded. “Before it returns to its master.”

  I almost didn’t see the smoky dragon’s head till it was on top of me. I used a few of my more colorful phrases on this one, hoping their evil design—the promise of Hell my mother used to spout at me for having a foul mouth—would warm me up enough to move faster.