“So then we should leave?” Roman asked.
“Why? You still want to eat your meatloaf?”
Roman and Jess exchanged glances, both nodding at Miranda.
“Fine, fine, eat your food. I’ll keep everyone as they are until you’re finished. How’s that?”
“So they’re just going to be standing behind the bar and staring at us?” Jess asked, raising an eyebrow at the six people who currently looked like zombies, their arms at their sides, their faces blank.
Miranda shook her head. “Would you prefer I have them lie down?”
“I mean, it would look a little better.”
All six people got down behind the bar, no longer visible. “Happy?”
“Yep,” Jess said as she filed back to the booth.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Roman asked Miranda.
“No, but I will have another glass of wine to wash the meatloaf out of my mouth.” The telepath reached for her glass and made her way over to the bar, where she proceeded to locate the best wine in the establishment.
“We really cannot tell Ava about this,” Jess told Roman as she shoveled the meatloaf into her mouth. “Seriously.”
Roman looked up from his meatloaf and nodded. “Nope, we really shouldn’t.”
Chapter Twenty: And You Will Know Her by the Trail of the Dead
A mousy young woman entered the bodega. She was a petite female in a red leather jacket, the only thing interesting about her look being the single red stripe in her white hair.
“Can I help you?” a man named Paul asked.
He was the manager of the bodega, forced to work overtime because his former employee, Roman, had recently quit. He turned to the other side of the bodega to see Jasmine, his employee, stepping out of the back room.
“Hi,” Jasmine told the customer, a box of snacks tucked under her arm.
Jasmine and Paul had just finished setting up a new display stand featuring MindLenz with salty snacks hanging from her body via plastic hooks that matched the famous telepath’s uniform.
“Hello,” the petite woman said. “I’m looking for someone, and I was hoping someone here could help me find him.”
“Okay,” Paul said, stepping around the register. “I don’t how helpful we can be, but maybe we can point you in the right direction, young lady.”
“Roman Martin,” the woman said with a smile, a dead look in her eyes. “I’m a friend of his.”
“Roman…” Paul shook his head, an irritable look painted across his face. “Unfortunately, he quit a few days back.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“Actually, I really have no idea where he is. And another thing—if you do find him, be sure to let him know I wasn’t happy with the way he just locked up and left the place. We’re a twenty-four-hour convenience store, not a place that just closes when an employee feels like taking the night off.”
“I just messaged him,” Jasmine said, a helpful smile on her face. “What was your name again?”
The petite woman turned to Jasmine, slowly starting to tilt her head to the side. “Did I ask you to message him?”
“No, I just thought…”
A gust of wind swept Jasmine off her feet, smashing her into the glass doors of the walk-in freezer, the sound of the impact ricocheting across the bodega.
Jasmine hit the floor, glass falling on top of her. Part of the floor wrapped around her and lifted her, repeatedly smashing her into the ceiling until the bodega employee was a bloodied mess.
Paul froze in his tracks, his hands shaking at his sides, his heart starting to give way.
He’d been on heart medication for some time, but seeing this, especially when he was already stressed from working a double shift, only made things worse.
“Let me help you with that,” the white-haired woman said as Paul let out a final gasp, his heart exploding inside his chest.
He blinked twice, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.
“Useless corpses,” the woman said as she looked down at her hands.
Margo was still getting used to being in someone else’s body.
It was different than the doll she had inhabited for the last month. And while she had taken over others’ consciousness before, she had never completely willed herself into someone else’s psyche.
Now that she saw that it was indeed something she could do, she wished she had done it earlier, possibly after she had been attacked by the vampire during the Western Plague, the bottom half of her face shredded beyond recognition.
Margo crouched in front of the man she’d just killed.
Something about him reminded her of her father. Perhaps it was his goatee, or how groomed his eyebrows were.
She placed her hand on his head, noticing that it was still warm.
As she stood, a tornado swept beneath Paul and lifted him into the air, tearing through the shelves of the bodega before depositing him at the back of the room.
A noise caught Margo’s attention. She turned to see that Jasmine’s hand was still twitching, her fingernails tapping against the floor, the woman likely paralyzed.
Margo exploded her heart as well and then brought the woman back to life. As Jasmine sat up, Margo instructed her to walk out on the streets to stir up a little trouble.
The woman—whose face was black and blue now, her nose broken, one of her eyes now looking to the right and her jaw barely holding on—nodded slowly, her jaw flapping as she exited the bodega.
Margo watched the woman leave, noticing she’d left a trail of blood in her wake.
People were going to have to start dying.
Margo had attacked the Lottery Council, and now that she had this new body, this wind user named Catherine, she planned to do a whole lot more, starting with the bodega.
Careful not to get blood on her white high heels, which she’d taken from Roman’s shitty basement apartment, Margo stepped out of the bodega. She found the sex doll she had once inhabited standing with her back against the wall, arms crossed over her chest.
She smiled at the beautiful doll and her perky tits, her perfect body. “Are you ready to go, Paris?”
“I am, Margo,” the doll told her.
“He wasn’t there, by the way.”
“I figured. So where are we going to go then?” Paris asked as they turned down a side street. People behind her were already starting to notice Jasmine and her mangled face. It wouldn’t be long until Centralian law enforcement came, which gave Margo an idea.
“Actually, maybe we should stick around for a moment. I don’t believe we’ve made a big enough statement. What do you think?”
“I think whatever you think.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
Margo and her doll returned to the street, watching as Centralian police began to appear via teleporter. Margo waved her hand and all of them fell to their knees, face-planting near the trolley track, dead.
People started to scream, no one yet understanding how the three police officers had died.
A man ran out to them, a good Samaritan by the looks of him, and his reward came in the form of a spike that lifted from the pavement, tearing through his neck and out the back of his head.
“Had enough fun?” Paris asked Margo.
Margo slowly slipped her hand around her doll’s waist and drummed her fingers on Paris’s left ass cheek.
“Why? Are you getting bored?” Margo asked her.
“No, but I think there are better ways to entertain ourselves.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Margo smiled at the ensuing pandemonium. “Let’s have dinner somewhere, or at least I will, and then we’ll visit Orange. For some reason, I get this feeling he’s not living up to his side of the bargain.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Truly.”
Margo and her doll stepped back to the side street, leaving the chaos she had caused behind them.
“What are you hungry for?” Paris asked her.
“Meat. Something hearty, perhaps a Western Province restaurant. It has been a while since I had a good meal.”
Nadine ran her hands along the front of her skirt.
She looked left and right to make sure no one was going to step in her way, then joined the crowd in one of the main trolley stations in northeastern Centralia.
The Eastern Province spy passed advertisements on the walls, exemplar teams selling everything from toothpaste to health insurance policies. One featuring famous duplicator William Bottorf caught her eye. He was depicted wearing a variety of uniforms, from doctor to construction worker, in a public service announcement reminding the viewer that everyone, exemplar and non-exemplar alike, played a role in Centralian society.
As she had been instructed to do, Nadine made her way to the third floor of the station to a tea shop at the far end that overlooked the tracks.
She was greeted at the front door by a handsome man in a bowtie, and after she confirmed who she was there to see, the man led her to a table in the back corner that provided views of the tracks and the sober red-brick exterior of the station.
“I’m glad you could join me, Nadine,” the woman sitting at the table said. She had a powdered face and shiny black hair, her makeup elaborate yet done in a way that looked good when paired with her designer pantsuit.
“Lydia,” Nadine said as she took a seat in front of the woman.
Lydia was at least five years younger than Nadine, maybe even more. The woman had clearly moved through the ranks.
“We have a lot of things to discuss,” Lydia said as the waiter refilled her cup of tea. He filled Nadine’s cup as well, not sticking around to ask if she would like a different flavor or a food menu.
“Yes, yes we do.”
Nadine had dealt with new handlers before, enough times now that she was of a mind to get all the bullshit out of the way as quickly as possible with the hopes of solidifying any power dynamics in her favor.
“I am under the impression that you are not happy in your new assignment at the border as Diana Turn, Project Coordinator for the Department of the Interior. Does that sound about right?”
Nadine bit her lip. “I don’t know what gave you that impression.”
“Everything I’m going to go over with you is based on the nightly notes Oscar sent in. So that is how I have come to this impression.”
“I’ve gotten used to it,” Nadine finally said, realizing that in doing so she’d just played her hand.
“I have a solution for that,” Lydia said. “But I will get to that in a moment. I have been told to congratulate you on killing off some of the border rebels. While our government supports the rebel group from time to time, they can overstep their boundaries. What they did while you were at the border was an example of the rebels overstepping their boundaries, and that sort of behavior makes it difficult for agents on both sides to come up with solutions for our border problem.”
“I see.”
“But I have more important things to discuss,” Lydia said, smiling at Nadine. “Were you aware there were explosives placed in key structural points in Oscar’s home?”
“Come again?” Nadine asked, setting her tea down.
“Yes, it has come to our attention that perhaps someone was hoping to attack his residence. We found evidence of explosives placed in several rooms, in spots along the outer wall that would affect the building support beams.”
Nadine didn’t say anything. Lydia continued.
“It appears that the release of Eli’s power not only did its own damage, but it triggered these explosives. Did Oscar ever mention anything to you about explosives in the home?”
Nadine shook her head. “He never said anything about that, but maybe he had a detonator somewhere. Maybe it was a contingency plan for if exemplars ever attacked the safe house.”
“Personally,” Lydia said, smiling at Nadine, “I find that hard to believe. Oscar meticulously recounted everything he and the people under him did through his daily transmissions back to headquarters. So I am very skeptical he would have placed explosives in his home without reporting it.”
Nadine shrugged. “Have you checked any of the armories? Perhaps it was one of our agents.”
“I have, and no one has checked out explosives recently, at least ones that would be capable of this type of destruction. But for now, let’s put this little mystery on the back burner while we take on a bigger task, which will be locating Eli and Lisa.”
“I thought they died in the fire. At least that’s what I wrote in the report.”
“While your report has been officially filed, which any of the other groups within our agency will take at face value, I am not convinced. Forensics tests didn’t tell us much, mostly due to the intensity of the flames, but I would like to operate under the assumption that both of them somehow escaped.”
“Then they could be anywhere by now,” Nadine said.
“True, they could, which is why I am tasking you to find Eli and Lisa and bring them back into our custody.” Lydia locked eyes with Nadine. “If you do this, I will personally see about having you reassigned. I will also make sure that this top-tier information regarding explosives placed in the home is buried for good. As it stands right now, our government is looking the other way. But that may not always be the case.”
“I understand,” Nadine said, not breaking eye contact with Lydia. “I will see what I can do.”
“Good. I have been told several times now that you are one of our best agents, which is why I think you are perfect for this task. Do not let your emotions get in the way. I figured that was something Oscar would tell you.”
Nadine tried not to glare at Lydia. “I won’t. If Eli and Lisa are out there and it is within my power to find them, I will do so.”
“Good. Now, run along,” Lydia said, waving her away. “I have other people I need to meet, and I prefer to not have my agents cross paths in the hallway.”
Chapter Twenty-One: Big Mouth, Little Doll
It took Roman a moment to find Ava in the fancy restaurant, the place packed with patrons dressed in crisp suits and sparkling dresses. His former teacher already had a bottle of wine on the table, chilled, and she smiled when she saw him approach.
“You’ve been quite productive today,” she said, motioning the waiter over.
Roman sat and the waiter approached, quickly uncorking the bottle of wine and pouring two glasses.
“We got lucky,” Roman said.
They really had.
If it wasn’t for Devil’s sexual deviancy and Chap happening to be a day drinker, they would have never uncovered the information about Kevin’s upcoming party. And even though they had initially kept what they were doing away from Ava, she was now impressed with what Miranda had discovered in Chap’s mind.
“By the time we get back to our command…” Ava started to say.
“Is that what we’re calling it?” Roman asked. “Command?”
“Would you rather I call it our apartment?”
He smiled. “That seems more appropriate.”
“Did Miranda or Jess say what they were getting into tonight?”
Roman shook his head. “No. Celia was cooking dinner for them when I left. Thanks for giving us the afternoon off, by the way. It was nice to just hang out and get to know them a little bit better. They are warming up to me, you know. Especially Jess. I can’t figure the telepath out and I’m not going to try.”
“Telepaths. Can’t live with them…”
“Can’t live without them.”
“It wasn’t by choice.” Ava took a sip of her wine, savoring it. “We have the information we need, and as I was saying, by the time we get back to our apartment, we should have a schematic of the restaurant they’ve rented out to host the party. It’s in the Brownlock District, which was one of the districts most affected by the Western Plague, in case you don’t know.”
“Is being here bringing back memories for you? I keep meanin
g to ask you that.”
Ava nodded. “It really is. You know, it’s weird when you visit a place you’ve been before, even if it was a decade ago. Memories come flooding back in this weird way. Being here has also reminded me of the power of a government cover-up.”
“A government cover-up?”
“Yes,” Ava said, her eyes darting left and right. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now if I tell you. You’re part of the Centralian Intelligence Agency, after all.”
“As long as I complete this mission.”
“Were you planning on abandoning it?”
Roman shook his head. “Not unless I can get a better deal working for the Western Province government.”
“You shouldn’t kid about things like that.”
“I’m not.”
Ava rolled her eyes at Roman. “Trust me, you don’t want to stay here.”
“You’re right, I’d rather go back home and live in my basement apartment.”
“Is that so?” Ava asked, sensing the sarcasm in Roman’s voice.
“Or whatever hotel the government has arranged for me to stay in. You don’t still need a roommate, do you?”
Ava’s smile hardened. “Anyway, as I was about to tell you…”
“Right, the cover-up.”
“I’m sure you’re familiar with the common narrative in Centralia, that we swooped in and helped the Western Province eradicate all the vampires.”
“Yes, I’m familiar. I only wish I had a cut of all the money that’s been made off fantasy vampire stories revolving around Centralia coming in at the last minute. That’s what you were doing, right?”
She blew a curl of red hair off her forehead. “Hardly. The truth is that there were two members of the Protectorate who were infected. Remember me telling you about them?”
“Orange, Margo, and two others, right?”
“Destry and Amethyst. Amethyst was the first to get infected, and she infected Destry. They used their powers to infiltrate the vampire ranks, and just when it was looking like the plague was truly going to spread, they pounced, killing the leader of the infection, who happened to be a former classmate of theirs. They then proceeded to hunt all other vampires. Those two single-handedly stopped the spread, if you can imagine that…”
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