House of Dolls 3

by Harmon Cooper

  Chapter Thirty-One: Checking on a Friend

  “Don’t worry about them,” Oscar told Nadine.

  There were two Eastern techs setting up a room with the ultimate goal of performing tests on Eli. The young blond-haired boy stood behind Nadine, watching the techs move up and down the stairs bringing more gear that a teleporter had dropped off.

  “I just don’t want…” An incoming message caused Nadine to pause. “I see that Roman has come and gone, dropping Coma off.”

  “And we’re able to track where he’s going next?” Oscar asked, knowing the answer to her question almost immediately. Roman’s safehouse was outfitted with advanced technology that tracked where someone teleported to and from.

  “He is at a diner,” Nadine said as the information came to her over a mental message.

  “Good, then wake Lisa; you two can go visit him while I keep an eye on Eli.”

  Nadine hesitated for a moment.

  “Nadine, I know the last week or so has been a lot for you, but you need to get it together,” Oscar said under his breath. “You are too deep now not to realize your role in all this. Tracking Roman and seeing what he is up to will help us better understand how to respond. Once he teleports away from the diner, we won’t know where has gone. So now is the time to check on him. Do not worry about Eli.”

  Oscar placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

  “I’ll be okay,” Eli told Nadine.

  “See?”

  “Okay, we will see what Roman’s up to.”

  “Tell him I said hi,” Eli called to Nadine.

  “Sure,” she said as she took the stairs to find Lisa, who was asleep in her bedroom at the back of the hallway, a blanket over her head.

  “Lisa…”

  For a brief moment, Nadine thought Lisa had skipped out on them. But then the covers moved, Lisa emerging from a deep sleep, and Nadine was happy to see she had not.

  Why hadn’t she left?

  That was one thing Nadine couldn’t quite figure out.

  It came to her then that someone might have done something to the young exemplar’s brain back in the East, possibly a telepath. It wasn’t unheard of for a telepath to rewire someone’s brain, to make them obedient, to make them think something they wouldn’t have otherwise thought.

  “We need to check on Roman,” Nadine told her. “He’s out and about without any protection, and Oscar wants us to keep an eye on him.”

  “Do you know where he is?”

  Nadine gave her the diner’s location as Lisa yawned. “Fine, but I’m not leaving my bed,” she said.

  “Am I supposed to lie on the floor?” Nadine asked.

  “That, or you can try to squeeze in this little bed with me. But I’m not budging. I should be sleeping now, so at least let me lie in my bed. Plus, it is warm.”

  “I’ll make do.” Nadine lay on the floor next to the bed as Lisa’s arm dropped down, their hands connecting.

  It wasn’t long before they were standing outside of their bodies, Nadine a little annoyed at how unhelpful Lisa had been.

  Time flashed by them as they moved to the location, umbilical cords of light connected to their backs as they shot forward. They arrived at the diner just as a woman with white hair and a red braid met Roman.

  “Who’s she?” Lisa asked.

  “Roman seems to know a lot of women,” was Nadine’s only comment.

  It was weird being in the diner yet completely invisible, people passing through Nadine’s body, nothing completely solid. There was a lot of chatter, so eventually, she bent over next to the table listening to Roman and the woman speak.

  “Seeing all this food is making me hungry,” Lisa said.

  “Quiet.”

  Lisa more or less obeyed Nadine as Roman started up, detailing his story thus far but keeping key details out. Nadine listened even more carefully, trying to see where he was going with this, understanding completely once Roman got to his request.

  “He’s actually going to go after Margo,” Nadine said.

  “Will you help?” Lisa asked. “Roman went after you, and he hardly knows you. Of course he’s going to go after the person that is fucking with his wife’s corpse. She’s in his house, too. So I don’t think this should come as any surprise.”

  “I’m not as surprised by that as I am that he’s actually going through with it. I understand that Roman can be as loyal as he is aloof to the people he cares about, but he just got classified as an exemplar. Doing something like this could…” Nadine shook her head. “They may strip him of his power, put him in jail.”

  “Can they just take his power?”

  “I don’t know; they gave it to him,” said Nadine. “We’re still working that out on our end, in terms of how Centralia is giving people powers. But my guess is, if they can give it, they can strip it, and at the very least, they can imprison him in a place he can’t get out of.”

  “But he can animate anything—how would you imprison him?” Lisa asked.

  “I…” Nadine thought in terms of her own government, what they would do if she had Roman’s power and she disobeyed a direct order. It wouldn’t be like what had happened to Nadine in the East; they would try to take her out as quickly as possible. There would be no prison.

  “Well?”

  “They have objects that can nullify powers. Or they could simply kill him,” Nadine finally said. “I have to contact Roman…”

  “But then he’ll know you’re spying on him,” Lisa reminded her.

  “I could start the conversation casually, you know, trying to see what he’s up to.”

  “Yeah…” Lisa said, light shining all around her. “Let me play that out really quickly. ‘Hey, what are you doing tonight? Oh, I see, you are going to avenge your dead wife. Can I try and talk you out of it? No. Okay. Well, at least I tried.’ My point is, I don’t think this would play out very well.”

  “I would have a little more tact than that,” Nadine said.

  “Well, you’re going to have to report this to Oscar, and he’s probably more interested in seeing how things play out than in getting involved.”

  “We don’t have to report it to him…”

  “It’s your call,” Lisa finally said with a shrug. “If he asks me, I’ll just tell him I was doing what you told me to and I assumed Oscar approved of it. So my ass is not on the line here.”

  “Thanks for your support,” Nadine said sarcastically.

  “What can I say? It’s what I’m here for, to be useful. Where is he going next? Did they say anything about that?”

  “I was a little too busy talking to you…” Nadine said under her breath. “But it doesn’t matter. We have the information we need for now: Roman is planning something as soon as tonight. We already have people watching his home, so we should be able to get there pretty quickly if something starts to happen. It would probably be smarter to stake out near there as well, just in case things escalate.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two: Fighting in the Park

  Training seemed to drag on and on, Ava running Roman through a number of drills, wanting him to hone his ability to focus on a minute object while also working on elemental forces again.

  This meant Ava versus Roman, the fire user coming at him harder than she had ever come at him before—and Roman realizing she was even more powerful than he had originally anticipated.

  He’d known she could control fire, grow the size of flames and even affect the air in a contained area, but he hadn’t known she could make fire beings that seemed almost sentient as they chased him around the gym, trails of scorched ground in their wake.

  By the time they finished this part of the training, Roman was drenched, both from his own sweat and the water he had borrowed from a pipe. Aware that he could be pretty messy when he used his powers full on, Roman fixed the pipe, merging it back into the wall and smoothing the concrete over it.

  He had Coma with him, and he was set to meet Emelia the empath after he finished traini
ng. Fresh from visiting Catherine’s modest apartment and counterfeiting money for her, Roman was feeling good, ready for whatever was to come.

  And even though they had been at it for two hours now, Ava hadn’t mentioned a single thing about what had happened between them last night. Of course, she did offer him a flirtatious smile at one point, while flames licked off her face and hair, but that was about it.

  “Are we done?” Roman asked, using his power to wick some of the water away from his exercise clothing.

  “Do you have a hot date tonight or something?” Ava asked. She stood before him now, her flowing red hair framing her face, her hands in front of her body, Roman immediately recalling what she looked like naked.

  Beautiful…

  “Nothing like that, I’m just picking up Celia,” he told her, keeping to his surface thoughts just in case a telepath was present. “I probably should get some rest. I’m feeling a little hungover still.”

  “We could have dinner somewhere? I know a great place that serves Northern Alliance dishes.”

  “Maybe not tonight…”

  “Well, let me know. Anyway,” Ava said, clearing her throat, “we have seen you animate very small things. And you seem to be able to do quite a bit of damage with objects that are roughly your size. But before we go today, I wanted to try something a little different, something a bit larger.”

  “Larger?”

  “My teleporter should be here soon, and then we will move to a federal park on the edge of the city. Ever heard of Mystery Hills State Park?”

  Roman gulped. That was the same park where he’d married Celia. “Should I change clothing?” he asked after a long pause.

  “Yes, go ahead and change, especially if you’re going somewhere after.”

  “I’ll make it fast,” Roman said as he turned to the dressing room. Coma caught up with him once he exited the gymnasium.

  “What do you think she’ll have us do?” the doll asked, Roman not hearing her the first time as he thought about his wedding. When she asked him again, Roman turned to her.

  “It could be anything, really. Either way, it will be nice to get some fresh air. It’s a nice park, too. Just think of it like the Eastern Province. There will be trees, fresh air, nature.”

  “We should have stayed in the East for longer,” said Coma as she turned to the woman’s dressing room.

  “Did you like the countryside?”

  “I don’t know if I really have much of an opinion on it,” Coma admitted. “But it was better than being in your apartment. So yes, I guess I do have an opinion on it.”

  “Well, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about ever staying in that place again.”

  Roman hadn’t given much thought to what would happen to his place after he got Margo out of there, but he was pretty sure he’d never be able to live in it again. That was if he survived, and if he didn’t face repercussions for using his powers to kill someone.

  But Roman didn’t dwell on any of this as he toweled off in the men’s dressing room.

  There was always the threat that a telepath would be nearby, and aside from that, Roman had already decided how he was going to proceed. He had recruited Catherine, Emelia was on board, and that was probably it.

  He had already envisioned how it would work out, the swiftest way to kill the wretched woman. If they moved quickly enough, he could kill Margo before she could destroy anything or take another person’s life.

  So this was what he told himself as he wiped some of the sweat away. If he could make it a clean enough kill, he would likely face less repercussions.

  No time for questioning, no need for an unnecessary fight that he would inevitably lose. Roman would explode the blood vessels in her brain and that would be that. If he couldn’t do that he would move to her heart, and if that didn’t work, he would pull her skeleton out of her body.

  He just needed a distraction…

  Roman met Coma in the hallway, the dark-haired doll back in her mask, her hair and pigtails, a sexy Gothic Loli dress as usual and a pair of knee-high stockings that cascaded into shiny black shoes.

  “You look great,” he told her.

  “Thanks,” Coma said as they turned back to the gym. They found Ava standing there conversing with a male teleporter, this one muscular with a big scar across the bridge of his nose.

  “Ready?” Ava asked.

  “Definitely,” Roman told her.

  The teleporter spread his hands wide and then brought them together in front of his body, his fingers touching. The man formed a spherical vortex between his palms. Once it solidified, he tossed it up, Roman naturally looking up at it.

  It happened that quickly.

  The four of them took shape in the park as soon as the sphere landed, Roman thoroughly impressed by the teleporter’s power. He watched the guy again, the teleporter forming another sphere between his hands, tossing it up and suddenly vanishing.

  “These teleporters never cease to amaze me,” Ava said.

  “Seriously.”

  It was clear there had been rain in the park earlier, the sweet smell of wet soil meeting Roman’s nose and tufts of grass glistening in the sun that had appeared in the sky. He didn’t know what part of the park they were in, but he had a notion that the meadow he’d married Celia in was to the west.

  “Follow me,” Ava said, and in the way that she reached for Roman, he could tell she wanted him to take her hand.

  He did so, his thoughts confirmed as Ava started speaking.

  “Whatever happened between us, happened,” she said as she led him onto a gravelly path. “But we have to keep work separate from pleasure, which is why I didn’t say anything back at the gym. You should always be careful what you say or think at a place like that.”

  “The walls have ears, huh?”

  “Not always, but sometimes.” Ava laughed. “This isn’t the East, you know. We aren’t actively spying on our citizens here. Just sometimes.”

  Roman looked over her shoulder to see Coma, his combat doll, happy to be outside. She swung her arms as she walked, paying more attention to the overarching trees than to the path that lay ahead.

  If she thought anything about Ava holding Roman’s hand, she didn’t say it.

  “Also, I have an update for you,” said Ava as they continued along the path. “I guess it’s not much of an update, but it is something: the Centralian intelligence agency is reviewing your case. I believe they will reach a decision soon. If they aren’t willing to take you into their ranks, then we will find something else for you, possibly a risk management team again.”

  “You don’t think they’ll take me?”

  “I have no idea what they will do. You’re older than the exemplars they normally recruit. You know how it is—the younger the better—but they have taken older recruits before. It’s just harder to shape an older person’s mind, especially with what they may have been through. And you have been through a lot,” Ava said, turning her head to him.

  “Has anyone made any decision about Margo?” Roman asked.

  “If they have, they haven’t shared it with me,” she said. “One thing you will find about our government, if you haven’t already noticed by now, is that they are more reactive than proactive. We are the most powerful country in the world, so we let others act, and then we react to what they have done. Is this a good policy?” Ava shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. It feels like a bad policy to me, but if our goal is to maintain the status quo, it’s a pretty sound strategy. So they may be waiting for Margo to do something. Stupid, but that’s how they operate.”

  “I see.” Roman felt his muscles tense up as he thought of Margo, wondering how he could have an enemy like her, an unseen force looking to kill him.

  All of this would end soon, he reminded himself as Ava came to a fork in the road, taking a left into an area that moved down the hill. There was a stream cutting across the land, pine trees on the right and large boulders on the left.

  �
��And, we have arrived,” said Ava.

  “Are we going to have a picnic?” Roman asked, going for a joke.

  “Whatever job I find you, we should keep it as far away from comedy as possible.”

  Coma laughed, Roman giving her a playful dirty look. She didn’t normally laugh at jokes, and to see her laughing at a joke that ridiculed Roman was rare. Speaking of which…

  Casper came alive, peeking out from Roman’s pocket almost immediately.

  “You took me to the park? Also, please stop deactivating me. I want to experience this world, dammit!”

  “I see we are now a party of four,” Ava said as she led Roman up a small dirt path that cut through some of the rocks.

  “It’s so nice out here, kind of like the Eastern Province,” Casper said, pretending to take a breath of fresh air. “Wait, we aren’t in the East, are we?” The tiny doll looked around frantically. “That place is way too fucking repressive.”

  “No, we’re in a park.”

  “In Centralia?” Casper asked.

  “Yes.”

  Roman looked up, watching Ava make her way up a winding path, her ass cheeks bouncing a little as she took exaggerated steps.

  “Enjoying the view?” Casper asked, elbowing Roman in the chest.

  “Every time I activate you, I regret it immediately after,” he told her.

  “If you ask me, I think you secretly have a crush on me, but you can’t bang me like you do Celia,” she said, quiet enough that Ava wouldn’t hear. “And it’s too bad about the big doll that could have been me. If I were in her body, I would have done things to you Celia could only hope to do. I’m a sadist at heart.”

  “Watch it,” Roman told her. “Do you want to go with Coma instead of me?”

  “Unless you plan to tuck me between Coma’s tits, I get a better view from my current location.”

  “Fine, but keep the bullshit to a minimum,” Roman said as he caught up to Ava.

  It was an interesting space, a good hundred yards long, trees surrounding it and large boulders peppering the landscape. A few boulders in particular were the size of a two-story building, maybe a little taller.