"Cassie, I need you stay awake a little longer. Where did they inject you?"
I looked down to my arm.
Taylor looked over the injection site. "I'm going to try to numb your arm for an IV. What did they do after they injected you?"
"They went away for a while."
"Tell me when it hurts." Taylor wiped a liquid on my arm that started cold but then turned my skin to putty. He pressed my skin in a few areas to test the pain, and then inserted the IV.
"And when they came back, what happened?" Taylor asked.
There was no way I was going to take myself back to that place.
"I'm sorry, Cassie. Try to think about what they did that might have caused any trauma."
When I moved my thoughts back, I started crying and shaking. Why did he have to do this? Breathing became difficult.
"Okay. It's okay. Stop. Your friend knows what happened?"
God, he did know, he had seen it all. My cries were on the verge of sobs.
"Calm down, Cassie, you're safe now. I'm going to give you medicine that's going to dull the pain, and help you sleep."
Swallowing hard, I tried to get myself under control. My only comforting thought was that my partners couldn't see me here, at my breaking point.
Taylor gave me a shot through the IV. The pain was there, but I began to relax bit by bit until I fell asleep.
Chapter 27
As far as I could see, there were flecks of broken glass twirling through the air. Each piece was its own dazzling color, and they appeared to be playing roughly, or maybe fighting, but without smashing one another. Some of the larger pieces moved out of the way, as others approached and refused to take part. I sensed another piece, larger than all the others combined, but I couldn't see it anywhere.
Logan was always humming a song. I had no idea what it was, but it had been beautiful, and I tried to hum it now while watching the glittering display.
The recklessness they displayed began to die away and everything slowed. Like dandelion seeds, the colors moved lightly, but steadily.
A few changed course, and before I could react, they slammed into me.
Bolting up, I expected to feel the shards, but they were gone. Taylor was there, already trying to get me to relax and lay back.
Logan had been sitting next to the bed, but now he was standing next to me.
"Howdy, partner. It sure is good to see you awake."
I frowned and looked around the room.
"The doc said he'd have you on your feet in no time."
I closed my eyes. The pain was gone, my muscles felt like a knotted mess, but even that was a huge relief. Dull aches I could manage.
"Can you tell me how you feel?" Taylor asked.
The question took some contemplation, but in the end, I opened my eyes. A large part of me had wanted to ignore him and stay insulated behind closed lids. However, the world doesn't work like that.
After clearing my throat twice, Taylor gave me some water.
"I feel much better." Even after the water, my throat felt raw.
"That's good to hear. I'm going to put pressure in different areas. Tell me when you feel pain."
Taylor went to work. He squeezed my arms and legs, and put pressure on my stomach and face. In each spot, he pressed lightly, then harder. In a few spots, I told him about the muscle aches but assured him it was nothing like before. The only exception was the injection site, which caused spasms of pain to radiate out when touched.
"Vincent filled us in on the case." Logan kept his voice level, but no trace remained of that musical tone that elves usually have. "He didn't give too many details about what happened in the house."
I didn't even acknowledge Logan's unasked question. "Where is he? And Rider?"
"The doc didn't want us crowding you. Do you want me to send Vincent in?"
My heart jumped into my throat and I shook my head. Little beeps I hadn't noticed before sped up.
"Don't worry. You don't have to see anyone you don't want to." Logan sounded like he was extremely careful with his words. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"
I looked at my partner for the space of a few heartbeats, and then I looked away. "They made him watch." I swallowed hard. "I mean, I got in the way, everything went to hell, and because of that..." I stopped. "I don't want to see anyone."
"It's raw now. It'll get easier with time, but you know he doesn't think that way. We did our jobs and did them well. That's all we can do."
Taylor interrupted and asked more medical questions, well, if you can call questions about swallowing a piece of the void as medical. Who knows, maybe it was for Taylor. Once he was assured that I wasn't being eaten alive from the inside, he wrapped up for a while. He didn't have any questions about the leprechaun, only the void, which had settled down. For the short time I'd been awake, the leprechaun soul was what gave me trouble.
Once the doctor was done, Logan picked up where he left off. "We might want to discuss what to put on the official reports."
Work. I could latch onto that and move forward. "Yeah, I can do that. If you bring me the tablet, I can work on it."
Logan grinned. "I didn't mean right now. It can wait ‘til tomorrow."
"I don't want to sit here all day and do nothing. My mind needs to work."
"Ethan's called a few times. Might be good to hear another friendly voice."
My heartbeat ratcheted up again. "He doesn't know that I was... gone, does he?"
"I didn't tell him or Margaret anything.”
"Maybe I can call him back tomorrow."
"Okay, how about some company? Rider's pretty worried. Maybe he could come in and visit? No work talk. And nothing about the past few days."
"What day is it?" There had been no sense of time in the basement.
"It's been about 36 hours since we found your car in the parking lot. You spent a good chunk of that here, though. Resting up."
I felt behind, which didn't sit well with me. "You need to fill me in with what's been happening. What have I missed? Have we moved any further in the case?"
Logan raised a hand to stem the flow of questions. "You haven't missed anything. We'll fill you in tomorrow. For today, though, no work talk. I'll make sure Rider sticks with the same."
Seeing Logan's resolve, I agreed.
"It's good to have you back," Logan said. "I'll send in Rider."
Rider was a giant bundle of nerves, but those fell away after a few minutes of talking. He stuck to Logan's rules, so we mostly talked about what we were going to do after the case. There were lots of hikes we could take, we talked about renting a kayak, though neither one of us had ever tried one. I explained the concept of an amusement park to Rider, and when he understood the concept, he was geared up to go. We moved the conversation to families, Rider wanting to know if Gran and I could teach him to bake something. He didn't really seem to care what. Around that time, I closed my eyes.
***
Images of Jin, Cedric, and Vincent were mixed up and thrown through my brain. My eyes flew open and I bolted up in bed. The room was dim, but I searched every corner until I found that I was alone.
At least almost alone. Vincent was in a chair, moved far enough away from the bed that someone might say that he wasn't sitting with me. I watched him sleep, looking uncomfortable in the chair. He had to be as tired as I had been, although, with Logan's probable interrogation, he may be even more worn out.
Letting him sleep was the best thing I could do. Besides, what could I say? Asking him if he was okay was a stupid question, and how do you ask someone how bad off they are?
Luck was on my side, so I was able to slip out of the room undetected. I wandered the dim, silent halls, feeling better for moving around after such a long time in bed. A few dull banging sounds became louder the closer I came to the end of one of the halls.
My good fortune led me to a refuge in the one place that no one would think to look. I found Neil's lab.
"Get the
f—" Neil started, turning around. "Oh, it's you." He turned back to the table.
The smell of pot was stale in the air.
Neil picked up a small hammer and hit a piece of metal, flattening it more with each strike. "Taylor's going to be ticked you're in here. Or out of bed at all." He dropped the hammer and moved to one of the many computers that littered the room.
I moved to a chair close enough to see what Neil was doing. "I won’t tell if you won't."
We sat in silence for a while, and Neil worked on whatever it was he was working on. Computers and machines whirred. Neil clicked the keyboard and mouse every now and again. It was relaxing in a way. I didn't have anyone looking over me, worried about what might happen or what I might do.
"Want to see something cool?" Neil asked.
"Sure," I said.
Neil moved away from the computer screen, and I took a look. There was a map on the screen. "Watch here." There was a glowing spot on the screen. In a few seconds, it grew brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding to see. Then it went back to a dimly glowing spot.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Portal." Neil sat back in his office chair and watched the screen. "A permanent portal to be precise."
"That looks pretty close to a populated area. I didn't know there were any permanent portals around there."
"I don't think anyone's supposed to know. I mean," he picked up a joint, then changed his mind and sat it back down, "the area is cordoned off. It's like the government is keeping this one secret."
"The government keeps all the portals secret. Does AIR know about it?"
Neil lit a cigarette. "It's in their system, but they don't monitor it. It's like they purposefully keep it off their radar even."
"How come your system sees it?"
"My system sees the unseeable. I built it from the ground up, and it goes everywhere and sees everything."
"That's impressive." More than impressive really, it was a good thing he's on our side. "You know what they're doing with the portal?"
"There's nada in the system. Paper trail only."
We sat in silence for a while longer.
"Sorry about the drugs, man, at the party I mean," Neil said.
"It was probably for the best," I said.
"What happened with Indian Dude was messed up."
"It was."
"You coping?"
"Getting there, I guess. Going back to work will help."
Neil turned to his computer. "Almost time to face the world again." He stared at the little dot for a while, then powered down the screen.
"Almost." I wasn't quite ready to face the day.
Neil smoked another cigarette, and we sat in silence for a while.
"I see you're forgoing the hard stuff today." I indicated the cigarette.
"Don't tell Taylor. He'll like, try to make a big deal of it, and it's not like I'm turning all straight laced or anything. I've taken enough stuff tonight to keep my brain pretty mellow without checking out."
"Finding a balance?" I asked.
"I see what I see, and then people want it explained to them. Sometimes there's not even words to cover the jumps my brain makes. By the time people finally understand, if they ever do, I'm so ticked off I can hardly stand it. Taylor gets it, though. He knows it's hard."
"Everything seems hard lately." I sighed and got to my feet.
"I'm getting that," Neil said.
We reentered the world together, Neil showing me the way since I hadn’t paid too much attention as I roamed the halls. Although the halls were empty, all the lights were on, which I guess meant the day had begun.
Neil and I turned a corner and saw Logan and Vincent talking. They both looked up. Vincent took a step towards us, stopped, and then spoke with Logan again.
"What do you think?" I asked Neil. "Do they look upset?"
"Nah, you've got a free pass with them."
"I could use one of those. You're the smart one. How do I get them to hold my free pass until I really screw up."
"If I could figure that out, Taylor and I wouldn't fight so much."
"Maybe. As much as you all may fight, I can tell it comes from a good place. Maybe one day you won't clash so much."
"Maybe," Neil said.
Deciding it was best to get over my reluctance to talk to Vincent, I walked up to them.
Logan smiled. "Morning. We're getting together in the conference room to plan our next moves. I think Taylor wanted to see you, but we'll wait to get started when everyone's together."
Neil slouched around behind me while Logan talked.
"Sure," I said. "I'll see you all soon."
Neil kept me between him and the others, but he stayed nearby to show me the way back to my room. It's sad when you start thinking of a hospital room as your room.
Taylor looked up when I entered. He looked at me for a few seconds before turning back to the computer. "I'd like to go over a few things with you this morning. Did you sleep well?"
"Dude," Neil said in a low voice, "if that had been me that disappeared, his face would be all red. And there's this vein on his forehead that pops out."
"Neil," Taylor said, raising his voice, "can wait for us outside."
Neil closed the door on his way out, and I took a chair near Taylor, deciding that I wasn't getting back in the bed.
"Is it me, or did Neil look sober?" Taylor asked.
"Trust me, any time he is sober, don't make a big deal about it. At least not right now."
"Did he talk to you?" Taylor asked.
I shrugged noncommittally.
Taylor's eyes looked brighter. "Having a friend that isn't an addict or a dealer will be good for him. I'd like to go over a few things this morning."
There were really only a few things. He took the usual vitals and did the same pressure test on my skin he did the day before. Except for around the injection site, nothing hurt. Even the muscle aches were fading.
"Physically, I think you're good to go," Taylor said, "and when you're ready to talk to someone-"
"No." It came out with more force than necessary, so I backed off. "At least for now. I want to focus on work right now."
"I understand, but don't keep it bottled up too long. Let's get to the conference room."
"Thanks."
Down the hall, Rider and Logan were already in the conference room. Vincent wasn't far behind us. I noticed Neil appeared to duck behind Taylor when Vincent entered the room, and after Vincent sat down next to me, Neil chose a spot that positioned himself as far away from Vincent as he could at the table.
Taylor started us off. "Sable's out on one of the farms. One of our tenants had a problem with a neighbor." The air around the table became uneasy, and it wasn't lost on Taylor. "It's nothing she can't handle. She's not alone, and no one is hurt."
"We're all worried we're going to find the next person hit. It's time we figured out our next move," Logan said. "We have more information, but we don't know what Jin knew."
"But we know what Vincent knows." Rider looked past me to Vincent.
I cleared my throat. "I'm not sure I'm up to date on everything."
Vincent blinked a few times slowly, then, through a mask of stone, he turned over what he knew. "As soon as I returned, I reached out to a friend in the West Coast office. She told me about rumors of a new drug floating around the Mid-West. It was a little too close to home for me."
My stomach quivered. Vincent had called a woman from his old office but never contacted us. What did that mean? Before I could get too worked up over it, I rolled the thought to the corner of my mind. That corner was getting a little crowded, but I'd worry about it after the case.
"They put me to work, undercover. I uh." He stumbled over his words. "I thought it better not to contact the Mid-West office, and my office, my old office. They were going to take care of that part for me. So I stepped into a new life and worked my way up through the ranks. I discovered Jin was selling something that
wasn't a drug, but worked like a drug. When I first started working for Jin, he was expanding out. He called it a designer drug and sold it to the highest bidders. He began to trust me and kept me around more often. That's when I discovered there were actually two different products. The good stuff that didn't burn out went to friends and family, and the rest went to anyone willing to pay cash, but they didn't last."
"So the most potent stuff is the stuff he didn't sell?" Taylor asked.
"I didn't get the impression he gave it away. He charged everyone. He trusted me enough to include me more. I was going to meet the one who made it all possible and learn more about the process, but uh..." Vincent trailed off.
"But I showed up," I continued for him.
There was a hint of a flinch. "I should have called. I wanted to, but I thought this way was better."
I held a hand, stopping that conversation. "The case."
Vincent's surprise couldn't be hidden from me. He knew the old me, but he didn't know the woman that stayed up reviewing case files and was always early to work, even when she had to drag a tired elf along behind her. Vincent didn't know me now.
"Dude, you discovered more working for Indian Dude," Neil said. "You said, even if I'm not the one doing this, it doesn't mean I'm not to blame. That doesn't add up with what you've told us so far."
Vincent stared at Neil long enough to make Neil slump down in his seat, looking uncomfortable.
"Before I ran into Cassie, I discovered what the drug was. I'd seen its effect on come people. Souls had been taken out and anchored into objects. Some objects only held traces, which were sold to those who could afford them. Others held together longer, and those were sold to family. It was Walker work." Vincent's thoughts seemed to turn inward. "Last fall, I reached out to Walkers that I knew. I tried to figure out how to work through what I had done to Cassie. That sparked the idea for someone."
"Good call, Neil." Logan crossed his arms and watched Vincent carefully. "So we have a Walker pulling out souls of the Lost. Any ideas about who this could be?"
"I know three people with the ability, but I haven't tracked them down," Vincent said. "It takes time."
"How much time?" Taylor asked.
AIR Series Box Set Page 55
