Harbinger

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Something the Diablos did gave you the ability to harm the living?” asked Kirsten.

  The Harbinger tilted one vaporous hand side-to-side.

  “Not exactly,” muttered Kirsten. “Okay. You, err, Harbingers can hurt the living, but you usually don’t?”

  It gave a wispy thumbs-up.

  “Usually don’t or aren’t allowed to?” asked Dorian.

  It pointed at him.

  “Not allowed?” Kirsten reached toward her terminal, tentatively adding some notes to the file.

  The Harbinger glided closer, poking one finger into the word ‘Diablos’ on the screen.

  “Normally, whatever laws of the universe there are state that Harbingers can’t harm the living, but because of what they did, you can?”

  It nodded, then bowed its head for a moment before wrapping its arms around her.

  She stiffened at the beyond-cold embrace.

  When it released her a second later, it again pointed at the word Diablos on the screen.

  “I think he’s trying to say you are somehow doing something to protect him from the forces controlling him. Fairly sure he didn’t want to kill those people.”

  The Harbinger bowed at Dorian.

  “Wait.” Kirsten looked back and forth between them. “Are you seriously suggesting that Diablos, two chromosomes lower than cavemen, managed to summon a Harbinger, force it to stay in this plane, and somehow weaponized it?”

  The Harbinger nodded.

  Kirsten bowed her head. “Shit.”

  “I think this situation calls for something stronger than simply ‘shit.’” Dorian chuckled. “But, at least you’re doing something about it.”

  “Sitting here being frustrated?”

  “No. Something about being near you is allowing the Harbinger to resist their control. He can’t go home so he’s doing the next best thing.”

  The Harbinger again gave a wispy thumbs-up.

  “Okay, sorry for the random question. She, he, or it?”

  It stared at her, tilting its head.

  “Are you male?”

  It shook its head.

  “Female?”

  It shook its head.

  “You were never human, right?”

  It nodded.

  “Okay, it’s a genderless elemental force of the universe.”

  “Sounds like this teacher I had in high school.” Dorian snickered.

  Two wispy thumbs up.

  “It’s kind of cute,” said Dorian.

  The cloud of inky blackness stared in Harbinger.

  24

  An Awkward Position

  Kirsten leapt up and ran to Captain Eze’s office.

  He jumped as she barged in, almost spilling coffee down his chest. “Kirsten?”

  “Captain, I’ve figured out what’s going on.” She didn’t bother sitting, waving her arms around while explaining about the Harbinger. “The Diablos who did this have to be in Sector 4196. It’s at the middle of the pentagram.”

  “Pentagram? What pentagram?”

  She accessed her armband terminal, went to the inquest record, and flicked the image capture she’d taken of the Navcon screen toward his desk. It appeared on his screen. “The locations of the five murders from that P10 inquest correspond on the map to five points of a star. I’m sure the Diablos killed them as part of whatever ritual they used to either summon or entrap a Harbinger and bind it to service as an assassin.”

  Captain Eze steepled his fingers, staring at the screen. “And it’s following you around because…”

  “She’s so sweet and innocent her mere presence neutralizes the evil magic affecting it,” said Dorian.

  Kirsten rolled her eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

  “Who said what?” asked Captain Eze.

  “Dorian has a rather twee theory on why I’m protecting the Harbinger. In my opinion, it probably has more to do with the Seraphim choosing me as some kind of agent of theirs. Either way, as long as it’s near me, it won’t be forced to murder anyone else. But, I have to break whatever hold they have on it. Ideally, that also involves discovering how the Diablos managed to do this and taking steps to make sure they don’t do it again.”

  “You know what you’re asking…” Captain Eze raised both eyebrows.

  “Yes, sir. I know. I’m asking for permission to go into a giant, ten-mile-wide black zone full of Diablos on a mission to arrest the ones responsible for this.”

  Dorian snickered.

  She glared at him.

  “Arrest. Cute.”

  Kirsten sighed. “I know how it’s going to end, but I am not going in there with the intention of killing them.”

  “I’m worried for your safety, Kirsten.” Captain Eze shifted his jaw around, then sighed.

  She smiled. “I know. And I appreciate that. But, the NPF brass isn’t going to want to touch this because ‘only gang thugs’ have been killed.”

  “Kirsten, the National Police Force has limited resources and needs to allocate those resources where they can do the most good for the most people.”

  Dorian leaned close to her and whispered, “That’s manager speak for ‘let the criminals kill each other. If someone rich dies, call us.’”

  “Sir, if the Diablos are capable of weaponizing a Harbinger, they are not going to stop with street thugs. Exactly how would anyone stop a Harbinger from spree killing Senators? Or cops? Or whoever the heck they want to send it after?”

  He shifted his eyes to her. “It is a bit of an awkward situation. Outside of Division 0, your mention of Harbingers would be disregarded as a product of insanity. They barely keep straight faces during discussions about ghosts. It would take someone prominent being found dead by unexplainable means for them to even agree to listen to any talk of these beings.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but shut it at his raised hand.

  “Give me a little while to see what I can manage.”

  Kirsten nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

  Head bowed, fists clenched, she trudged out of his office. Out of sheer randomness, she headed down the hall toward the cafeteria. The Harbinger trailed along after her, having regained the usual imposingly regal posture she’d come to expect from them.

  Whoa. Was it ashamed of me finding out what it did?

  The crowd in the main foyer of the Police Administrative Center fell strangely quiet as she entered. Fortunately, the radiant dread of the Harbinger came from a point sufficiently behind her that only a handful of people (who knew she had a rating in Mind Blast) glared at her accusingly.

  She walked by the corridors leading to the Division 1 and 2 areas, heading for the big hallway in the center of the wall opposite the main entrance that led to the food court. Division 0 (and 9) had their own private cafeterias, while Div 1, 2, 5, and 6 all shared a massive one. The food in the big cafeteria was way better, so she often went there on the rare occasion she didn’t order something from an outside place. Delivery food beat both cafeterias, but here, active duty cops ate for free, just like the military.

  The Harbinger hesitated near the middle of the atrium, gazing toward the Division 9 entrance.

  She shivered. “Wouldn’t surprise me if a few people in Nine interested you, but they’re mostly okay.”

  The Harbinger tilted its hand back and forth.

  “Wow, really? Some are that dark?” She sighed, and headed off to the cafeteria.

  Perhaps due to the large number of people, reaction to a Harbinger gliding into the room took the subdued form of increased tension in conversations and people looking around in confusion. Naturally, some people associated the odd sensation with a Zero being around.

  After claiming a moderately-decent-looking grilled chicken wrap sandwich and an iced green tea, she took a table off in the corner at the least-populated part of the room. The rigid metal stool bolted to the floor reminded her why she rarely ate here: uncomfortable, and cold through the thin material of her uniform. The Harbinger attempted to ‘sit�
� opposite her at the table, floating above the stool.

  She peered over her wrap at it, feeling altogether bizarre for sitting there having lunch with an immortal agent of the Universe Engine. “Sorry, I guess I should’ve asked if you wanted some food.”

  Its silvery eyes sparkled with a blank stare.

  “Bad joke.” She took a bite, thinking about her role in the grand scheme of things while chewing. “Do you know… did the Seraphim do something to give me my abilities or did they choose me because I already had them?”

  The Harbinger held up two smoky fingers.

  “Option two. Already had them.”

  It nodded.

  Yay. I won the lottery of fate. She wondered about what happened to Mother. Ritchie, the ghost who’d convinced her to run away from home that night, started a rumor in the prison where Mother went after twelve-year-old Kirsten told the Division 0 people about what the woman had done to her since she’d been six. That rumor, whatever it had been, caused another inmate to murder her.

  She ate a few more bites before finding the courage to ask.

  “Did my mother go to the bad place?”

  The Harbinger nodded.

  “Guess you guys don’t take an insanity defense.”

  It shook its head.

  “That woman was clearly insane, what she did to me and why.”

  The Harbinger stared for a few seconds before wiggling its fingers and bouncing in a manner completely wrong for such a creature. Something that dark and ominous should not appear gleeful.

  She raised an eyebrow. When the shock of seeing that wore off and she could think again, she got the hint. “She took pleasure in what she did to me.”

  The Harbinger nodded.

  “Please,” asked Dorian, from behind her. “Never do that again.”

  “What?” Kirsten glanced over at him.

  “I was talking to our friend. That giddy gesture… Harbinger… no. That’s a mental image I could’ve done without.”

  She smiled. “What about killing people?”

  It made the ‘so-so’ gesture again.

  “Intent, right? Someone forced to kill to protect themselves or another person isn’t as bad as someone who kills for the heck of it, and even worse, someone who takes joy from causing pain and death.”

  The Harbinger gave a shadowy thumbs-up.

  “Taking delight in killing more than the act itself.” Dorian rubbed his chin.

  Kirsten munched on grilled chicken, thinking. “Why did that one Harbinger look at Dorian so long?”

  “Umm.” Dorian flashed a cheesy smile. “I perhaps took an undue amount of satisfaction in one or two summary executions I performed.”

  The Harbinger raised one hand, making a pinching gesture.

  “Oh, get dragged across spiritual planes and bound by dark forces, and everyone becomes a comedian.” Dorian fake-rolled his eyes.

  Kirsten laughed, almost choking on green tea.

  25

  Middle Ground

  Existing as a passive force that allowed a Harbinger to resist the Diablos’ control made Kirsten feel at least somewhat useful.

  When she returned to the squad room after eating, Captain Eze’s window appeared dark, nearly opaque, the door closed. In the six years since she’d been activated at sixteen, she’d only seen him close the door and black out the window twice. Both times involved discussions of classified materials.

  “Wow. Think he’s trying to convince Command that a street gang might be a serious threat to the UCF?”

  Dorian grinned. “I would love to be a fly on the wall in there.”

  She sat at her desk. “So why aren’t you?”

  “Because I’m not cleared to know whatever he’s talking about.”

  “You’re a ghost.”

  “I still consider myself active Division 0. It wouldn’t be right to snoop on a captain.”

  She whistled. “Wow. Okay.”

  “Or are you asking me to snoop for you?”

  “No.”

  “You answered that awfully fast.”

  She unlocked her terminal. “It just surprised me you aren’t fully exploiting your ghostliness.”

  “I routinely exploit my ghostliness, but not when doing so is directly against regulations.”

  Kirsten almost laughed. “There is nothing in the regs about ghosts.”

  “Well, if I eavesdropped, it would eventually come out in conversation with you, and I don’t want to put you in the position to know things you haven’t been cleared to know and explain how it is you came to know them.”

  “You’re so thoughtful.” She winked.

  Chin on her hand, she set about plotting the locations of wherever Malden Walker attacked women. She created dots for the victims’ homes as well as the sites where the assaults occurred. Unfortunately, other than being mostly confined to the southern third of West City, no pattern emerged. It made sense that he stuck to the south during the later months, since areas too cold would reduce the odds some random piece of shit would attack the women he dangled as bait.

  She sat there staring at the map, angry and guilty for not being able to do more to track Malden down. Freya had been a lucky break. Her neural accelerator had given her the time to call for help before he moved from spectral pawing to possession. Unless the next woman he targeted also had both speedware and a headware uplink to the GlobeNet, she’d be talking to another victim after the fact and no closer to finding him.

  “I hate this part the most,” said Kirsten, barely above a whisper.

  Dorian peered over his datapad at her. “The waiting?”

  “Not exactly. The sitting here knowing there’s a dangerous ghost out there and having no damn way to find or stop him.”

  “Wren?” asked Captain Eze.

  She sat up tall—relatively—and peered over the top of her holo-panel. The captain stood in the doorway to his office, beckoning her with a wave. Kirsten sprang out of her chair and rushed over, trembling with anxiety. She wanted him to say yes to her idea the way Evan wanted Monwyn stuff, but she also dreaded he would say yes… since that would mean an extremely dangerous trip into the black.

  He closed the door after she entered.

  “Uh oh. This is bad news, isn’t it?”

  Captain Eze shook his head. “I hope not. It’s partially classified. What I’m about to discuss with you stays inside Division 0. It’s not a good idea to discuss it with the younger cadets, but anyone activated is legally obligated to maintain confidentiality.”

  “I understand.”

  “This is going to be handled strictly inside Division 0. I approached the Command Council with your findings and theories. We’ve come up with a compromise that should work for everyone involved, except me.”

  “You?” Kirsten blinked.

  “I’m going to be a nervous damn wreck until you’re back here safe.” He smiled.

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  He chuckled. “All right. Here it is. There’s a new officer in Tactical, a bit of a unique situation as her abilities are far into uncharted territory. Director Carter has agreed to the two of you going into Sector 4196 in search of the source of this Harbinger problem.”

  “Just two of us?” Kirsten swallowed. “Not like a whole unit?”

  “Since when does the Command Council huff Icewhisper?” asked Dorian.

  She nearly laughed.

  “They are concerned about a similar situation as what happened in that ‘church.’ We’re dealing with abyssals again. They also believe Officer Solomon is capable of handling the Diablos, and highly interested in seeing how this plays out. Deputy Director Burkhardt was quite keen on learning what she can do in there.”

  “I’ll bet he was,” muttered Dorian.

  “Officer Solomon has already been approached with this mission, and she’s agreed to help. Whenever you’re ready to do this, head over to T-9 and talk to her.”

  “Who am I looking for?”

  “Officer Kate Solomon. S
he stands out…” Captain Eze pulled at the corner of a holo-panel floating above his desk, turning the rectangle of light to face them. It showed the ID photo of a twentysomething woman with red hair, perfect skin, and the looks of a supermodel.

  “Yeah, okay… she does stand out in a crowd.”

  “You are hereby ordered to wear armor, and a stim suit.” Captain Eze smiled.

  Kirsten nodded. “Oh, yeah. I was planning to. I was also planning to go in there with at least twelve people.”

  “Officer Solomon crossed the Badlands on foot. No weapons, not even clothing.” Captain Eze fidgeted.

  “Seriously? Naked? Is she insane? Why would she do that?” Kirsten gawked.

  “I don’t have those details. Maybe she’ll explain when you meet her.”

  Kirsten checked over her belt. “Well, the sooner I deal with this, the sooner the Harbinger can go back where he belongs and the universe returns to normal.” She caught herself shaking. “Umm, sir. Do you think it’s really a good idea for just the two of us to go in?”

  “There will be at least three of us.” Dorian smiled.

  “Not entirely, no. But… some of the things in her file defy explanation. I trust you to use your judgement. I’ll have a strike team standing by around Sector 4090 or so with an A3HV, inside a one-minute response window. If you start getting in over your head, you call them in and get the hell out.”

  “Understood, sir.” Kirsten saluted him.

  She couldn’t help but think about her disastrous raid on the cyberdoc that nearly resulted in Nila’s death. That mistake, she would not make again. She would come home to Evan, even if the Diablos got away with murder—for now. Retreat from a bad situation didn’t mean total loss. She’d merely have to find a new way to approach the problem.

  But, she also had an unknown quantity to deal with.

  Who is Kate Solomon and what on Earth makes the Council think she’s worth an entire squad? And what kind of crazy person streaks the Badlands?

  Squad Room T-9 sat at the end of a hall one floor down and on the opposite side of the Division 0 wing.