Nadine knew exactly what he was saying.
The time she had spent there had opened her eyes to some of the bureaucratic drama that went on in these Centralian government offices, from division rivalries to middle managers trying to undermine one another.
It was mind-boggling to her how a government so successful could operate so poorly.
A flash at the back of the room let them know that the final person needed for their little meeting had arrived. Abby, the hazel-eyed psychometrist, wore a trench coat. She had short brown hair, which was parted at the side. A bolo tie with a rare stone on it hung from her neck, and she was in a pair of high-waisted pants.
“Nadine, Roman,” said Abby as she sat across from them. The waitress came over and Abby ordered a cucumber-infused tonic that sounded expensive. “Okay, where were we? Yes, greetings, greetings to both of you.”
She smiled at them, her eyes focusing on Roman in a way that made Nadine feel a bit uncomfortable. A quick glance to Roman and Nadine caught him staring right back, unfazed by the telepath.
“You really are good at that,” said Abby, with a little sigh. “But I’m just playing with you. If I really want to turn up the heat, I would be able to.”
“Are we going to have a telepathic dick-measuring contest, or are you going to tell us what you’ve learned?” Roman asked.
“A telepathic dick-measuring contest?” Abby swallowed hard, the color in her face draining. “How did you know?”
“It was the bolo tie. Kidding, I had my suspicions, so I went for it. Anyway, now that I know what you are and you know what I am, and you know more about me than I would like, do we need to continue to skirt around the edges here, or can we get down to business?”
Nadine cleared her throat, hoping to cut through some of the tension that had just spread across her table. “Let’s not get carried away,” she said.
“Well, to cut right to the chase, as you requested, I’m ready to present the data I discovered about the person who took your wife’s dead body.”
“Please, any information you have,” Roman said, his body shifting forward.
“What I’m going to tell you is strange, and possibly a little unsettling,” Abby said. “I checked the room, and I also checked the coffin, and your wife wasn’t removed from the coffin in the same way that you would imagine she was removed, like thrown over someone’s shoulder and carried out—you know, something like that.”
“What do you mean?” Roman asked.
Abbey cleared her throat. “Your wife got out of the coffin on her own.”
“Celia’s alive?”
“No,” Abby said, her eyes glowing ever so slightly. “Something gave life to her.”
“What do you mean?” Nadine asked for Roman, whose jaw had dropped, the man unable to say anything.
“I know it sounds strange, so I checked the rest of the room, and I found that there had been a teleporter, that the teleporter had one other person with them, and it was this person who gave your wife life.”
“But I thought you said she was dead…” Roman said, the grip on his glass tightening, the glass starting to balloon upward until he noticed it and stopped animating the object.
“She was dead. I could sense this, even when she got out of the coffin, which means that…”
“Someone like me?” Roman asked, looking to Nadine. “Someone who can animate inanimate objects?”
“I don’t understand,” Nadine told him.
“I…” Roman took a deep breath in. “One part of my power that I haven’t really explored yet is the ability to animate the dead.”
“You can animate the dead?” Abby asked, looking at Roman now with a hint of disgust. It only took her a second to plug the memory out of his brain, evident in the way she nodded, exhaling deeply.
“Please, leave my brain alone,” Roman warned her. “And to answer your question, which I will do verbally rather than mentally, it’s something that I have experimented with just once or twice. My trainer wanted to see if I could take over the mind of a lab rat. I was only able to do it after I killed it. Same with a grasshopper.”
“Interesting. It would make sense. Something dead is technically an inanimate object,” said Abby. “But why would someone animate your wife’s body?”
“I don’t know,” Roman said, looking down at his hands. “Could you tell anything else about this person? Male or female?”
“She wasn’t in there for very long, and didn’t touch anything, so the only thing I was able to go off was the place where she was standing, and as you can tell by the pronoun I’m using, it was a ‘she,’ not that I could really distinguish her from the teleporter, because both of them were women. So that kind of makes it easy. All that to say: the person who did this to your wife is a woman.”
“Nadine, do you know anything about this?”
“Why would I know something about this?” Nadine asked Roman, almost offended.
“No, not that way. I mean are you familiar with an exemplar who has the same power as I do?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean this person doesn’t exist. I can ask Oscar; he’s been around a little bit longer—actually a lot longer—so maybe he knows something. But I haven’t been briefed on anything.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Abby said.
“Of course I’m telling the truth. I don’t lie to Roman,” said Nadine, instantly canceling out all her thoughts just in case Abby tried to look deeper.
Nadine had tried to shoot as straight with Roman as she possibly could, but she was a spy, so there were details she didn’t let him in on. Still, it was mostly true; she hadn’t technically lied to him yet. And she was being honest about never hearing of someone who could animate inanimate objects.
That was a new revelation.
“It seems that whoever this person is, they are trying to get to you. Now, I’m no psychologist, but I am a telepath, and I can tell you there is often competition between exemplars who share similar abilities,” Abby explained. “Usually, these are friendly competitions, but there have been cases in the past where an exemplar has murdered another exemplar so they could be the only one with their unique ability. I’m not saying this is what’s happening here, but it is an angle you should think about.”
The waitress came with another glass of cucumber water for Roman, and the infused tonic for Abby.
“Fuck,” Roman said as he threw back his glass, drinking all the water in a single, long gulp. “This was the last thing I needed.”
For some reason this caused Abby to laugh, which also caused Nadine to laugh.
“What?” Roman asked, a confused look on his face.
“It really is a terrible situation,” Nadine admitted. “How do you keep getting into these types of situations?”
“Now there is a question I would like a telepath to answer,” Roman said.
“You’re going to need more than a telepath to answer that,” came Abby’s response.
Chapter Three: Why is Everyone Going Crazy?
Roman awoke earlier the next morning than he normally did. His slumber began with the same dream—the twilight meadow, falling, reaching out for Celia, shadows all around him swarming everything they touched…
After meeting with Abby and Nadine, he’d fallen asleep on his couch, Celia the doll curled in his right arm and Coma sitting on the ground in front of him, his hand crossing over her body.
Casper was asleep near his head, actually sharing the same pillow with him. Roman was careful not to disturb her too much, well aware that waking Casper up could prove troublesome.
Celia on the other hand didn’t seem to mind, the beautiful red-haired doll blinking her purple eyes open and moving in closer to Roman, kissing him.
She moved away, allowing him to sit up, and Coma immediately stood as well. Her mask was off for once, her dark hair in its trademark pigtails.
“Morning,” Roman told her.
“Same to you.”
“Do you ne
ed help getting ready?” Celia asked.
Roman declined as he made his way to the restroom. Stopping in front of the mirror, he ran his hand through his white hair, staring at himself. After a long inhale, he turned the water on and washed his face for a moment, feeling the water turn from cold to warm as he continued waking up.
A mental message came in from Harper the waitress: Tonight’s the night. My roomie and I are so excited to cook for you.
He responded almost immediately: I’m definitely looking forward to it, and let me know if there’s anything I need to bring.
Just yourself, Harper replied.
“Just myself,” Roman whispered as he went to his closet, using his power to move coat hangers. Roman eventually chose a black suit and a dark-gray shirt to go underneath it.
Celia had made him a cup of tea by the time he made his way back into the living room. She also warmed up a croissant, which Roman readily ate. He was up earlier than normal, which meant he didn’t have to arrange for a teleporter this time; he could take the trolley.
And Roman was just about to step out the door when Casper called to him.
“You’re not going back to work without me!”
“I figured you would want to stay here…” he lied.
“With these two?” Casper laughed. “Please, take me seriously for once.”
The tiny doll looked down from the pillow to the couch, and from there on to the hardwood floor. She jumped down and ran toward Roman. Rather than protest, he dropped to his knees and placed his palm out, allowing her to climb into his hand before depositing her in the front pocket of his jacket.
“I might—no, I will be deactivating you throughout the day,” he told her. “The day is already going to be shitty enough.”
“It’s that can-do attitude that makes you such a great employee,” she said as he moved to the door. “Besides, it was either me or my killer clone. And I’m probably easier to deal with.”
“Probably,” Roman said as he stepped into the hallway, just about to close his door when he saw Celia appear on the other side.
“You didn’t even say goodbye to her,” Casper scolded him.
“My apologies.” Roman bent forward and kissed Celia on the forehead, his eyes dropping to Coma, who stood near the couch with a nervous look on her face.
“What is it?” Roman asked her.
“Just be safe out there,” Coma said, “and send a teleporter if you need us.”
“You act like someone’s trying to kill me,” Roman told his combat doll with a halfhearted chuckle.
He hadn’t forgotten that his dead wife’s corpse had been kidnapped—that someone really was trying to play games with him. But Roman was trying not to focus on that for the time being.
He needed to take care of something else first.
Roman’s cubicle was the same as he’d left it, somewhat sparse, dust in the corner, nothing really on his desk aside from paperclips, which he planned to use for a paperclip war later. There were also some files that some of the other immigration advisors had put on his desk, a big stack Roman wasn’t interested in tackling.
“So this is where the magic happens,” Casper said, peeking out of his pocket.
“I’m deanimating you now,” Roman told her.
“Noooo…” she said as the life left her little body.
He carefully brought Casper’s knees to her chest and then tucked her back in his pocket, stuffing her down, his finger touching her fake cat ears.
“Roman,” Selena said, charging into his cubicle and startling him.
“Morning,” Roman told his terrible manager, not looking up from his paperwork. This was his go-to defense—look busy.
“I heard about your wife,” the woman said, breathing heavy as she adjusted her belt. “And you had a week off to mourn, which should suffice. I hope you are ready to get started again. I have asked our administrative assistant to fully book your schedule today, starting in about thirty minutes. So catch up on what you need to catch up on, because you’re going to be busy today, tomorrow, and pretty much the rest of the time you’re in this bay.”
“Is that right?” Roman asked her, doing everything in his power not to react to the angry woman. There were a number of things he could do if he were going for petty revenge, from tightening her belt to loosening her shirt, making a ripple on the ground when she stepped away, or locking her in her office permanently.
But Roman wasn’t going to go there; he had other plans.
“Is there a problem with what I told you, Mr. Martin? Is it something you would like to go to HR about?” she asked with a huff.
“I see you learned a lot on your personal development retreat,” Roman said coolly.
“I…” Her eyes narrowed on him.
Roman placed his feet on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “Want to talk about it?”
“This isn’t over,” she finally said, stomping her feet as she walked away.
Before Roman could pat himself on the back for being an asshole to his asshole boss, Phil Pott, the young frat boy advisor who had already taken a senior role, knocked on the wall of Roman’s cubicle.
“Mind if I come in?” Phil asked, and once Roman had given the go-ahead, he stepped in and sat down in front of him.
“Nice to see you,” said Roman, his feet still on his desk.
“You know what happened, right?” Phil asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t tell the place looks a little different? You did notice an uptick in security when you came in?”
Roman shook his head. “I was distracted. Well, I noticed Coco, but I always notice her because she stands by the door. What happened?” Roman asked, interested to see just how much the office knew about his fight with the cat girl down in HR.
What Phil said next completely took Roman off guard.
“It was Kevin,” Phil said.
“Come again?”
“Kevin Blackbook, our Kevin. He showed up with two cat girls, a few people died, the cat girls’ nails were poisonous or something. We were all rounded up in the middle. And then he asked about you…”
“Did you just say Kevin attacked the office?” Roman asked, his mind spinning for a moment as he tried to put the pieces together. “Kevin is dead. I don’t know what you’re talking about, Phil.”
“He’s not dead, I fucking swear it. He asked about you, and we told him the last time we saw you, you were going to HR, but we meant the previous week you were going to HR. Also, I’m sorry about your wife. I probably should have said that first.”
“It’s fine, I’m dealing with it. Tell me more about Kevin. I am still trying to process that…” Roman said, barely able to put words to how he was feeling.
Did Kevin know that he had taken his power? Did Kevin have something to do with the disappearance of Celia’s body? How was Kevin even alive? Why was he asking about Roman?
“Like I said, Kevin showed up here with this teleporter and the two cat girls. One went downstairs to get you, even though we tried to tell him you weren’t here, that you had the week off. But she went anyway, and then…”
“And then what?” Roman asked, remembering his meeting with Dante in HR, the cat girl appearing, Roman driving her through the ceiling and then through another ceiling, using the concrete to make a mask over his face as he burst onto the main floor and escaped by jumping out the window.
“What happened?” Roman asked.
“Everyone just disappeared,” said Phil, an empty look in his eyes. “That’s how it happened. Everyone just disappeared.”
“You didn’t see anyone? No one tried to stop the cat girls?”
“No, they all just disappeared,” Phil said, still a blank expression on his face. “Anyway, that’s what happened. I thought you knew. I thought someone would have contacted you about it.”
“Well, HR did send me a message about something, but I ignored it,” Roman admitted. “They sent me a couple messages actuall
y; maybe I just paid attention to the wrong one.”
“It was scary, man. I’m glad you weren’t here, but maybe if you had been, you could have talked Kevin down. He always listened to you, weirdly enough.”
“Did he?” Roman asked.
“Yeah, I mean, he seemed to like you. Or at least you gave him the feeling that you liked him, and he liked you because of it.”
“But he was looking for me…”
“Yeah, but he was looking for everyone. In fact, I think he was actually here for Selena, or some people from upper management.”
“Is that why she’s so frazzled today?” Roman asked.
“Probably, and it looks like you’re already pushing her buttons, which she probably doesn’t need. I think they’re going to give her some time off in the future, but the manager in the Fast Travels department took an extended vacation after what happened last week, so Selena has to cover this week.”
“And you are sure it was Kevin? That just sounds… impossible.”
“Of course it was Kevin; how could I not recognize Kevin? He was wearing an exemplar uniform, acting like a real tough guy. You should have seen his uniform…” Phil said, a grin forming on his face. “He looked fucking ridiculous. It was like this black and turquoise bodysuit, tight in all the wrong places. Try not to visualize it too much. But anyway, a real exemplar uniform. What the hell is this world coming to? Why is everyone going crazy?”
Chapter Four: Future House Call
“It’s impossible,” Kevin told Turquoise. The old woman healer had taken care of the cat girl in a matter of minutes, Turquoise’s wounds disappearing and the color returning to her face. But she still needed rest, something to do with how the woman healed, the Type IV Class H making all of her recipients sleepy, herself included.
It was morning now, a day after their pretty much botched attack on the prison in southern Centralia.
Even with the two casualties, the absorber named Scarlett and the strongman named Ray, they’d still saved one of the only lives that mattered to Kevin—Turquoise was now alive and well.
House of Dolls 3 Page 3
