Chapter 41

Hammond was finally back at the laboratory after a long but successful day. He had managed to track down some contacts from his previous life under the guise of being an associate of his old identity. They had led him to a dealer for what he needed, two doses of the outlawed HEx drug.

It had been interesting to see what people had thought of him when he had been Tomas Albright, Physics teacher by day and diabolical Summoner Adept at night. Most of them laughingly agreed he had been a pompous ass with a superiority complex and Hammond had to acknowledge the truth of that assessment.

Being under the thumb of Sister Domenica had let him see what his own past behaviour had been like, both to his students yet also his few friends. Friends like old Bob Crepsley, the school janitor who had become the unwilling host to the Emissary. For all the misery he had endured in his life, Creepy Bob had been loyal to Albright to the end.

Hammond had been spared the fate of his friend, yet now he endured a miserable life of his own under the tyranny of the Necromancer. Filled with vague thoughts of retribution against the older woman, he came to the main door to the underground laboratory.

He was shocked to see the big door wide open in clear violation of the security rules for the hidden research facility. The Guard clone Z-Zero-Twelve stood alertly to one side as always, watching the dumbfounded expression on Hammond’s face without comment.

“Why is the door open, Z-Twelve?” he demanded quietly, in case there was a raid or some snap inspection under way. He could see through to the middle of the lab from here but it appeared empty and silent to his senses.

“Sister Domenica entered the laboratory one hour, twelve minutes and thirty eight seconds previously” the Guard advised him at its normal volume. Hammond flinched and glanced worriedly inside the big chamber. “She did not trigger the door closure from the inside” Z-Twelve added.

The door had to be opened by either Hammond or Domenica along with the Guard’s smart key, but it was only closed by a button on the inside. Hammond wondered why something so ingrained in the Sister had been forgotten today.

“Okay, thanks Z-Twelve. I am going in” said Hammond and crept inside, lifting his feet carefully as he walked slowly forwards. For now he left the door open, knowing that he would be abused by Domenica if she had left it open for some reason and he just closed it.

He had just passed a big bank of freezers, the ones the Necromancer stored cadavers in she used for research, when he spotted the small woman. She was in the centre of her own Summoning Circle, facing away from him. With her was a man in a military uniform, not one Hammond recognised.

Hammond paused, using the corner of the freezers to peek at the pair. He could hear Domenica speaking soflty, the words unclear but her tone obvious. Words of regret and suffering, apologies to the one before her. From the military man he could hear nothing, so he strained his senses, focussing on just the man.

With a start he knew why he could hear nothing. The figure was a spirit, summoned from the After! Whatever words the ghost was uttering they were for Domenica’s ears only.

To be such a clear and visible spirit the man had to be someone near and dear to the Necromancer. Someone she had cared for deeply to allow her to bring forth such a tangible image of the departed soul.

Hammond tried to hear the whispered words of the Necromancer and only got a single phrase that he could comprehend clearly. Right before she sent the spirit back to the After, she made it a promise.

“It won’t be long, Rico, I promise” she spoke. “I am so close to opening the path to you. Just wait for me, my dearest”

Then the figure dissolved and drifted away like pale smoke, drawn into a dark opening that appeared overhead. The Sister slumped and shuffled out of the circle, heading for a chair she had placed to one side. Hammond took the opportunity to creep back to the main door, then turning as if he had just walked in, called out loudly.

“Hey, Domenica, why is the door open?” he bellowed and triggered the closing mechanism. It swung closed with a soft thump, shutting out the rest of the world. He walked a little more noisily down the main aisle until he could see the Necromancer once more.

“There you are, Domenica!” he declared jovially. “I was a bit worried about you because the door was hanging wide open”

Sister Domenica looked up from where she was sitting, her pale face highlighting the red-rimmed eyes that she wiped with the back of her robe sleeve.

“Don’t be so noisy, Albright!” she said testily. “You make enough racket to raise the dead, and that is meant to be my job!”

Hammond regarded the Necromancer with a stunned expression.

“Was that a joke?” he gasped.

“No, just an observation” she answered and stood up, her face adopting its usual haughty lack of regard for her partner. “Did you find the HEx?”

“Yeah, two doses” he admitted and fished them out of a pocket to show her. “Are we really going to inject these into the kid?”

Sister Domenica came up to him, standing a bare arm’s length away. This close he could see the intensity in her eyes, the sheer strength of will the woman maintained at all times.

“I’ll do whatever I have to, Mister Albright” she stated and before he could stop her, grabbed the two metallic vials from his palm.

“Hey!” he cried. “I paid for those!”

“I know” she answered. “I appreciate that, Tomas”

With that the older woman strode off with determination so Hammond let her go. Besides, he could see the cunning old cow was wearing her Binding and Sleep spell rings today. He was not going to make her angry with him. Not today at least.

Naomi was tense and Oracle seemed to be picking up on it. They were both in the elevator to the Brackenridge family penthouse, her Net Diver carrying his datapad and portable holo-projector clutched to his shallow chest like some kind of protective talisman.

He probably knew this briefing was not going to be well received by their bosses yet they had no choice. Frank Brackenridge had demanded a personal update by his Head of Security and Naomi had dragged Oracle along as her expert witness.

And maybe as another kind of witness if things went badly.

“Calm down, Oracle” she said out of the corner of her mouth. “The Brackenridge’s just want a private update, without the rest of the company Board listening in”

“Sure, boss” he stammered. “But I have never been at a private briefing like this. Are you sure I need to be here?”

She smiled grimly at her underling.

“Yes I am” she told him flatly. “You were the one who uncovered the data, so you should be the one to get the praise”

Or maybe the bullet in the back of the head, she added in her own thoughts. This meeting could go either way.

The elevator pinged to signal their arrival at the topmost floor and the doors slid open. Naomi involuntarily clenched her right hand, the one she had placed so casually into her jacket pocket, and felt the weight of the pistol concealed there. She had loaded it with Marked Rounds, improbably expensive for only fifteen bullets but each one was guaranteed to wound or kill any supernatural creature.

Naomi had no idea if the infection of her blood by the black oil would be detected by the Witch or her Familiar. If they did discover her betrayal, Naomi would not die so easily.

“Miss Tengaki, Mister Leong, welcome” announced Monique Shaw once they stepped into the foyer. Naomi’s heart did a backflip in her chest and it took a supreme measure of control not to pull the trigger on her pistol.

“Thank you, Miss Shaw” Naomi managed to get out and slowly drew her right hand out of the jacket, leaving the deadly contents within. “My apologies if we are too early. I was not certain of how long it would take to get here in the traffic”

“It is of no matter” the Head Maid answered without a glimmer of emotion. “My Mistress and her husband are ready to receive you” With that the maid gestured to the open double doors that led into the penthouse and the pair of them preceded her.

As they crossed the big central living room, a young girl with long dark hair drawn into two pigtails came out of a side room. She stopped in her tracks at the sight of them, her eyes locked onto Naomi.

“Good evening, Miss Brackenridge” Naomi greeted her respectfully and nodded her head in a brief bow. Oracle had paused too and nervously bowed over at the waist, juggling his datapad and projector when they shifted in his grip.

“I know you!” Angelina Brackenridge declared. She walked closer so Naomi stopped and watched her approach, wondering if the child saw the dark oil inside of her body. The girl was an Awakened not an Adept, but she had been intimately exposed to the machinations of the Emissary twice before.

“That’s right, Miss” Naomi responded politely. “We have previously met at Corporate Board meetings”

The girl was right next to her now, her dark eyes nearly on a level with Naomi’s own despite her youth.

“No, it was recently” the girl continued, her brow furrowed. Naomi racked her brains too and realised she must have meant the time before Christmas when she had inspected the Junior High School.

“Ah, of course!” Naomi spoke lightly. “I believe we met at your High School. You were leaving one afternoon as I was arriving for a meeting with Fiona Smith”

“Yeah, I guess that must be it” Angelina agreed slowly. The girl continued to examine Naomi with an inquisitive air, making the Security Head feel distinctly on edge.

“If you will excuse us Miss Brackenridge, I have a meeting with your parents” Naomi interjected. “I don’t want to keep them waiting”

“Hmm? No, of course not” Angelina agreed but did not retreat to her room nor continue on her way. She simply stood there, watching as Naomi, Oracle and the maid continued on to the Library room.

Naomi’s instincts were telling her to run, but there was no point. Even if she evaded the formidable Miss Shaw here, she could not escape from Yolanda Brackenridge. The slim pistol in her pocket thumped gently against her waist as she walked, giving her enough courage to keep moving.

An open doorway beckoned and she entered, followed by a cautious Oracle. Miss Shaw came in too and pulled the door closed, cutting off the escape route. The Library was a spacious affair, long wooden shelves covering the walls, as tall as the high ceiling and filled with books of all sizes and titles.

Against a window filled wall sat her employers in plush, wing backed chairs, watching her arrival with interest. Two smaller, less presumptuous chairs had been placed to face the couple, with a small wooden table between laden with a silver tray of coffee and biscuits.

“Thank you for being prompt. Miss Tengaki” Yolanda Brackenridge announced, her dark eyes glittering in her shadowed face. Her chair was outlined in the dying sunlight from the windows behind her, making her features difficult to see. “Please, take a seat and then give us your report”

“Of course, Mrs Brackenridge” Naomi answered deferentially. She seated herself in front of the woman’s husband, leaving Oracle to sit directly opposite the dark haired Witch. The older woman gave a wide, teeth flashing smile at Naomi and she wondered if that was meant to be encouraging or a warning. Either way it was terrifying and Naomi turned hurriedly to address her subordinate.

“Oracle, why don’t you get us started?” she requested and the poor young man gave her a startled look in reply.

“Me?” he squeaked.

“Yes, please begin” came the deep and reassuring voice of Frank Brackenridge, the CEO of the company that employed them. “There is nothing to worry about, just give us the details of what you found”

Naomi was impressed at how easily he calmed her nervous Net Diver. Not for the first time she wondered what it had been like to serve under him in the Global War and its aftermath. While his wife earned loyalty by fear, the CEO earned it by being reliable and loyal to his employees in return.

“Thank you, Mr Brackenridge” Oracle managed to mumble and set out his holo-projector, ready at last to begin the report.

====

“So the body found in the scrapyard fire was definitely this man, Quent Scarfe?” Frank enquired from Oracle.

“Err, yes, Mr Brackenridge” Oracle assured him. “Our own employee records showed a DNA match with the tissue samples we took. Plus the cybernetic arm grafted to the body had the same serial number as the one from his medical files”

“It was lucky the man was an ex-employee” Yolanda observed. “Otherwise it would have been a lot harder to confirm his identity”

Yes indeed, Naomi thought to herself. Scarfe had been clever, inserting new DNA data into the medical files held by Brackenridge Transportation. She wondered which poor fool had been given Scarfe’s old mechanical arm, then sacrificed to make it look like their foe had been killed in the scrapyard raid.

Scarfe and Nothing had been very clever, manipulating the responses by the company to make it look like the attackers were defeated. Instead those attackers were still alive and well, with their hooks deeply imbedded into the company and the owners oblivious to the danger they were in.

“Miss Tengaki, what about the HEx matter?” Yolanda asked her, dragging Naomi’s attention back to the briefing.

“We dove into the chemical program that was sold to us” Naomi responded. “It took Oracle some time to decode the data, but it was definitely corrupted at the source”

“I see” Frank spoke thoughtfully. “You mean we thought we were buying the program to make Heightened Experience, yet somehow it was printing out that HEx drug instead”

“That’s right, Mr Brackenridge” Oracle interjected excitedly. “The Chem Printers were only meant to make the High Ex, however there was a hidden sub-routine that created a dose of HEx about once every thirty times”

“Why make our labs produce that drug without us knowing?” Frank wondered aloud.

“In order to put us in exactly the situation we are facing right now” Yolanda answered. “They made us an unwitting accomplice in spreading that damned drug all through the city! No matter how much we protest our innocence, it was our labs and our network that sent HEx into every corner of Pan City”

“That’s right” Naomi added. “The shipments that Scarfe attacked were deliberately exposed to the Guard and Police Auxiliary. Once they tested the samples found they would see some were Heightened Experience and some were HEx. The obvious connection is that Brackenridge Transportation were making the drugs and selling them”

Yolanda sat back into her plush chair, mulling over her thoughts. Naomi noticed her eyes rarely left Oracle, which relieved her in one way but made her suspicious in another.

“Could our own data streams be compromised?” the Witch asked Oracle. He blanched and glanced guiltily at Naomi. He may as well have confessed outright so Naomi decided to leap in front of him. Not actually leap in front of him she amended in her own head.

“We think an AI has been monitoring our streams” she admitted. “Oracle detected it a few days ago and I told him to keep it quiet”

“And you neglected to tell us?” Yolanda breathed out with an undertone of menace.

It was Naomi’s turn to pale and she thought once again of the pistol in her pocket. If she drew fast enough she could get one shot off, the question was into who? Monique Shaw was hovering somewhere behind them and Yolanda was a dangerous Adept. Even Frank had years of military experience and would easily outclass her in a close quarters fight.

She sighed and nodded her head in agreement.

“It was too late to do anything about it” she answered her employer. “We had no real idea for how long it may have been sifting through our files or what it may have altered”

“Do you think Archimedes is behind the plot to bring us down?” Yolanda asked Naomi with sincerity.

“It is possible” Naomi agreed. “But he won’t be the only enemy we are still facing. The intruder who attacked the warehouse laboratory was not working for the AI or the Board of Governors. There is still at least one other foe out there, waiting to bring us down”

“Very well” Frank Brackenridge said. “So we have two opponents to deal with. Archimedes and another unknown group. Your priority is to identify these other people as soon as possible and look for some means to eradicate them”

“Understood, Mr Brackenridge” Naomi acknowledged. “What about Archimedes? He would be the biggest threat of all”

“Don’t concern yourself, Miss Tengaki” Yolanda assured her. “We have already been making arrangements to handle that particular target”

“I see” Naomi replied. “Am I permitted to know what those arrangements are?”

“No” Frank Brackenridge told her flatly. “I think we have all we need from you this evening. Thank you for coming here at such short notice”

Naomi realised her and her Net Diver were being dismissed. With an internal sigh of relief she thanked her employers and hustled Oracle out of the room.

=====

The elevator car was playing a classical music piece as it descended, helping to calm the wildly beating heart that hammered away in Naomi’s chest. Oracle was silent on his side of the car, hunched around the equipment that he held to his chest.

“We survived” she spoke softly to the younger man.

“Are they always that scary up close?” Oracle asked her. He rarely ever saw the company heads and that was his first time in such proximity.

“No” Naomi answered. “Sometimes it’s worse”

Oracle was thoughtful for a moment. The elevator was nearly at the lobby so he spoke quickly.

“Miss Tengaki, why didn’t they ask more questions about the corrupted files for the Chem Printers? I thought they would want to take revenge on whoever sold us that data”

The doors opened and they stepped into the luxurious lobby. They crossed to the exit, where a uniformed doorman opened the doors for them with a gracious nod.

Naomi waited until they were on the street and she triggered her phone to summon an Auto-Cab.

“They know who sold the company the corrupted files” she answered him at last. Her eyes drifted up to the top of the tower they had just left, seeing the bright lights of the various floors glowing in the dusk. “The Brackenridge’s will deal with that personally”

Her words elicited a shiver from Oracle and she marvelled at how innocent the young man was. Especially considering who he worked for.

Their Auto-Cab arrived, pulling into the kerb and opening the side doors. It was cosy and well-lit inside the cab interior so Naomi gently pushed the youngster in.

“Come on” she chided him. “We’re safe for now. Don’t worry about the Brackenridge’s, they will be hunting other prey for a while”

He sat himself on one side of the cab interior and Naomi settled herself on the other. Her pistol thumped into her stomach, reminding her it was there. She was very glad she had not needed to use it this evening.

“I can’t believe how calm you are all the time” Oracle told her in an admiring tone. “You always know what to say and do in any situation”

She regarded the Net Diver with half closed eyes, then realised he was utterly sincere.

“Nah, I just know how to fake it” she admitted.