A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) (32 page)

I
looked over her shoulder and sure enough there was a rotating image of a
something that looked like a large tricycle with a two seater open carriage
behind the bike seat.  “Driving through the Blight in that thing is asking to
get mugged,” I offered weakly.

“We
just went through that earlier today,” Estella quickly jumped in.  “There’s
hardly any of the previous occupants.”

“Fine,”
I conceded tiredly.  “Beth please call ahead and see if we can purchase a
‘rickshaw’.  I’ll pull it myself, no way am I waiting for some slowpoke.  Make
sure it’s all durasteel construction.”

I
gave her my account information and went off to buy a few bags of food to eat
on the way.  It was looking like it was going to be a long day.  If I had known
a traumatized elf was going to be such a pain in the ass I would have
blindfolded her before we took the taxi.

An
hour later I was feeling very conflicted.  Biking was definitely slower, but I
enjoyed the feeling of the wind.  Due to the durasteel frame material I was
able to push the rickshaw up to forty miles an hour.  It got less stable at
that point and the wind was buffeting the passengers.  It likely would have
been worse, but I felt Stella moving some magic around.  It probably just made
the open carriage seat behind the bike portion act less like a parachute.

On
the other hand, there was the basic fact that I had passengers.  I wasn’t
really sure, but it felt somehow demeaning.  Perhaps after all this I would buy
a single bike with ridiculous gear ratios so I didn’t have to spin the pedals
so fast.  It might even catch on among the supernatural community.  Most of them
were like me long on strength but not so fast on the pedaling.

Beth
squealed in delight and in the mirror I saw her put out her hand like an
airplane.  At least the adventure was distracting the girl.  Even Stella had
relaxed and her natural bubbly personality was peeking through.  I really had
no idea why.  Driving a rickshaw at speeds far beyond its intended
specifications seemed more hazardous than an aircar and there wasn’t any stashes
of foam to slow your crashes. 

I
had made this walk fairly often through the Blight, but as I had seen earlier
it had really been transformed by the flurry of construction.  There was actual
air traffic above us and the roads that weren’t blocked off for construction
were clear with only normal city pedestrians.  No gangs, homeless, street fires
or similar scenes of urban disaster met our eyes as we sped through the
streets.

The
detours around the construction zones took most of the time, turning a rather
straight shot into a winding maze.  Never the less, we eventually made it out
of the Blight and into the monolithic Tower Plaza’s shadow.  A different set of
guards in their ever classic tuxedos were at the doors, but I saw some spark of
recognition in their eyes.  Either that or they were surprised to see a man-sized
tricycle with a coach barely slide to a halt in front of them.  It really
wasn’t built to go that fast.

“Please
let Vincent know that Derek is here to see him,” I told the larger one.

“He
is expecting you,” he looked dubiously at the vehicle.  “Should I call the
valet to park your... bike?”

“Nah,
I’ll just leave it here,” I nodded back with a smile, as I helped Beth done
from her seat.  “I shouldn’t be here long.”

As
we entered through the doors Beth drew a breath in wonder at the authentic
holographic view of wilderness.  To be honest, I think it looked better than a
real forest meadow.  Certainly less dirt.

The
elf was less impressed.  “It’s a room full of pretty lies,” she said with
disdain.  “There is nothing natural here at all.  Are these ghost plants?”

“I
hadn’t thought about it that way before, but how much more appropriate is it
for the vampire’s central headquarters to be an undead vision of nature.”  Beth’s
smile immediately dimmed and she pushed up against my side shivering.  Perhaps
I shouldn’t have dwelled on the creepy parts of the view.  Still it’s hard to
get away from that around the undead.  There’s not much creepier than them.

Winding
my way to the elevator again, I saw a glowing orb floating in the air showing
me the way the contrasting metal interior.  As we piled in, I looked worriedly
at the girl.  The vampires would use reliable inertia dampeners in their own
home, wouldn’t they?  I was about to have us turn around and use the stairs
when the numbers flickered and started to swiftly increase. As before there was
no sense of motion before we came to a halt.  I shrugged, we’d take the stairs
down.

There
were fewer people in the hallways as we went through.  Most had the telltale
grace that signaled the undead.  Beth looked around at the people in wonder,
obviously realizing what she was among.  Stella was obviously far more
suspicious of them and gave them wary sidelong looks as they passed us.  In
return, they gave us sneers, though Stella earned a few admiring, though
puzzled looks when they noticed her ears. 

We
finally came to the meeting room’s ornate doorway and this time I just entered
without knocking.  Hopefully, they would have something to eat, I didn’t get
much snacking done with me doing all the physical work.  Looking around the
room, I noted the central table was still strewn with papers and a somewhat
harried Vincent sat at the end, reviewing some documents.  I wondered if he had
even moved since I was here last.  A well-dressed man was at his elbow.  He was
likely an aid, or a sycophant, maybe even a butler.  Heck the various style
escaped me, he could’ve been a duke for all I knew.  I had no idea if he was
the same aid that was here previously.

“Hello
Vincent, it’s been while.  You never call or write,” I opened the conversation
with a smile.

Vincent’s
eyes slowly rose from his papers, “Flippant, as always,” he muttered with a
remarkable amount of disdain.  “Still Vivian insists you are worth the
annoyance.”  He glanced at my companions.  “Why did you bring a child and a
Sidhe with you?”

“I
am not a Sidhe,” Estella denied indignantly, “I am an álfar, not one of those
barbarians.”

“You
can never go wrong with a magic elf,” I started smiling.  At Stella’s glare, I
weakly continued.  “Unless your one of those uncivilized brutes of course. 
Everyone knows álfars are the best magical elves around.”  Looking away from
the angry elf and towards Beth, “I’m just looking after my friend’s sister
until I catch up with his kidnappers.”  I patted her on the head in a friendly
manner.  She turned and gave me a pouting look.  I wasn’t sure why my
companions were all glaring at me today.

“Vivian
told me that she had given you the data, wasn’t that all you needed,” he asked
with poorly hidden impatience.

“Thanks
for that,” I nodded to him.  “We used that data to get a map of the lay lines
and nodes.  It gives us an excellent idea of where the next test sites will be.”

“I
see,” he stated neutrally.  “How does this impact us?”

“So
you have no desire to stop random apprentices from summoning demonic horrors
into your territory,” I prodded.

“Vivian
gave orders not to interfere with Jin’s plans,” he stated gruffly.  I think he
only gritted his teeth slightly.

“Right,
you wouldn’t want Jin to kill off the High Council... again,” I said, noting
his wince.  “However, it is your territory and it can’t look good to the
community to have all Hell break loose and all you can do clean up the mess.”

“I
expect you have a suggestion or you would have no reason to be here,” he sighed
in resignation.

“Well,
since the maps show where the likely nodes are going to be it would be
reasonable to set a watch on those locations and perhaps notify someone that
such activity is happening.  If those other parties take action I really don’t
see how there could be any repercussions,” I offered with a smile.

“I
suppose you would want me to contact the new Special Forces department,” he
said, frowning.

I
paused.  Actually, I had pictured him contacting me.  Now that he had brought
it up, I was thinking he had a point.  Most of the time my vid terminal didn’t
work.  I had even fixed it so it wouldn’t blow up and due to circumstances
beyond my control it still was out of order.  Vivian had also brought to my
attention that some supernatural entities might perhaps spontaneously combust
just a tiny bit around my house.  That makes it a really poor central office.

“That
might be best,” I reluctantly agreed.  “Do we have an agreement?”

“I
will need the new data to set up the surveillance,” he reminded me.

“Not
a problem,” I said while digging out the data key that Vivian had supplied me. 
I tossed it to him and he effortlessly plucked it from the air.

“Then
we have an agreement,” he concluded.

That
wasn’t quite the end.  We reviewed the map, dithered a bit about what kind of
watch was needed.  I was adamant about using older vampires.  The younger set
had not impressed me with their psychic ability and any observers would most
likely need as many senses as they could get a hold of.  After that, I asked to
see Sebastian.  He gave me a suspicious look, then shrugged carelessly.  The
three of us were led to a small waiting room with several couches and chairs. 
We had just settled in for a wait when Beth asked me, “Do you think we should
tell the police about my brother?”

“I
thought you already had,” I stated, perplexed.

“All
I could think of was to head to you,” Beth mumbled in embarrassment.  “Jeremy
always said to contact you if anything ever happened.”

“Well,
I doubt they can do anything except what we are doing, since we need to find
Jin’s people first in order to track down where they took Jeremy.”  I continued
thoughtfully, “However, I think the police would get annoyed if they weren’t
notified.”

“Like
Conrad not being told about the new map,” Stella added helpfully.  She was
looking more like her cheerful self since she was surrounded by less evidence
of the undead.

“Yeah,
sorta like that,” I trailed off.  Perhaps I should call him.  Looking at the
antique style phone on the table I reached for it and dialed.  “I wonder if
this thing actually works?”

“Hello,
Conrad?” I called into the phone after a moment.

“Derek,”
answered his gruff voice.  “Is that you?  There’s no video attached and the ID is
for Fiero Inc.”

            “Yeah,
there been some updates I needed to tell you about,” I said while playing with
the phone wire.  Wow, this was actually very authentic.  “The vampires came
through with the locations and we mapped out the ley lines and likely target
nodes last night.”

“That’s
better news than what officer Cromwell told me,” he growled.  “Sounds like they
had a beachhead all set.  I am going to have to sell some story to the military
to get them to divert a satellite over the location to dig down that deep.”

“Why
not just tell them the truth?” I asked puzzled.

“You
know about the Moscow thing?” he asked.  “Well, a lot of the people that were
in power at that time still are.  Thanks to that wonderful little spell that
hid magic under a barrel of enforced denial, trying to get acknowledgment of
anything out of the ordinary is hit and miss.  Depending on who you get in
touch with you, may get support or you may get no response.  Better to couch
the issues in mundane terms.”

“Well,
sounds like that will fix itself with a little help from you,” I said still
playing with the cord.  Swinging it around, I had it spinning like a jump
rope.  I winked at Beth and gestured her to the swaying rope.  She must have
been as bored as me because she jumped right in and started to skip in places
as I swung the rope.

“So
tell me more about the map,” he flipped topics again. 

“With
the ley lines maps and node points identified we have narrowed down where Jin
has to send his minions to test the locations,” Beth did an especially
difficult skip and Stella and clapped.  “I have already talked to Clan Fiero
and they have agreed to set up surveillance on the nodes in their territory and
to inform you of when they see activity,” Beth tripped on the cord and had to
start untangling it with the elf’s help.  “We just need the shifters to do the
same and we should be able to tag some minions.”

“Again?”
he complained.  “If I have to beat any more heads in this week I just might be
tempted to do something permanent that a man with my responsibilities should
not do.”

“Yeah,
I hear Mei feels the same,” I commiserated.  “Anyway, Jin kidnaped Jeremy and
sent an army of demon bugs to my house, so it’s pretty important we track his
lair down before they have Jeremy too long.”

“What?”
exclaimed the city’s resident supercop.  “When did this happen?  How did you
deal with the demons?  If you’re at Tower Plaza now why didn’t you call this in
earlier?”

“It
happened a couple hours ago.  My wards took care of the demons, but all the
magic blew out vid terminal again. Things just calmed down enough to call all
this in.”