Reality Hack (24 page)

‘It’s really hard to get any work done when she does that,’ Sandra said, her voice a little dreamy.

‘Tell me about it.’

‘And that will be quite enough of it, I think,’ Hanson said from the doorway. Faline immediately stopped purring, bolted off Nisa’s chest, and climbed under the sheets.

‘Have you been terrifying my cat, Boss?’ Nisa asked.

‘I told her that if she walked around my office naked again I would find her a nice, woollen suit to wear.’

Nisa felt the cat shudder beside her arm. ‘She actually let you see her human? You know she doesn’t usually trust people she doesn’t know to see her, right?’

‘I still haven’t,’ Kellog said as he walked in. ‘But I’m a big, scary man so perhaps that explains it. What the Hell have you been doing for the last week?’

‘Uh… there was a lot of sex.’ There was a meow from under the sheets. ‘I… I woke up in another world, in the future, and was told
this
world was a neural-interactive video game, which I helped create. I had a wife and most of you were there. Alexander Maxim was there. Anyway, I decided it wasn’t real and went back into the game.’

Sandra frowned. ‘So… how do you know this is real and not a game?’ she asked, slowly, as if trying to sort it out herself.

‘Honestly? I don’t, but if they pull me out again on Monday, the work I did in there should tell me you’re all fakes. The
real
question is, is any of it real? Or is this a game I created, but I’m stuck in here and I
will
eventually get out?’

‘I need a drink,’ Sandra said.

‘Try being me. So, what hit me?’

‘A Glitch,’ Hanson said.

‘But not of a type we’ve ever seen before,’ Norbery added.

‘All Glitches are a form of Daath energy,’ Kellog stated, ‘but they normally manifest themselves as something physical. Electrical energy is most common, but winds, rogue waves, unusually violent storms… This one was essentially just a distortion of reality, pure Daath. The alchemists were using it to alter their materials, hence the transformations in the victims.
You
were hit in the face by a concentrated burst of Daath magic. Why you didn’t just vanish entirely is an open question at this point.’

Nisa frowned. ‘Because it created an entire new reality and put me in it? Isn’t that what Da’at’s about?’

‘She does have a point,’ Norbery said, ‘but where did you learn that pronunciation? I don’t recall us ever mentioning it.’

‘Ah… Something that kept repeating on things when I was there. Daleth, Ayin, Taw. It was one of the things that made me think that world wasn’t real.’ The thought passed through her head that, again, she was not mentioning the black-suited figures.

‘And the Aramaic character names. Interesting. You spend a week in a manufactured reality and come back with accurate knowledge of the arcane.’

‘Yeah… Look, this is great, debriefing me while I’m naked in a hospital bed and all, but…’

‘Uh… quite. Well, you’re stuck here for another couple of days until your Probrum level drops. We can debrief you later. Not that you’re wearing… uh…’

‘I’ll get you a gown,’ Sandra said.

‘I can’t go home?’ Nisa asked.

‘This place is screened as a refuge,’ Kellog said, ‘in case one of us racks up too much Probrum. It should stop anything outside sensing the build-up…’

‘And in the last couple of days,’ Hanson said, ‘we have had two electrical fires, one of the servers has suffered a random short-circuit, and…’ She stopped and, to Nisa’s astonishment, actually blushed.

‘There was this random burst of wind ran through the whole place,’ Sandra said. ‘My dress was up around my armpits.’

Nisa glanced at Norbery and Kellog. Even the stoic detective looked like he was trying not to laugh, but then both men had likely been wearing trousers that day.

‘The point is,’ Hanson went on, ‘if you go outside, we’ll probably have every Bug and Glitch in London gravitating toward you.
You
,
young lady, are grounded until you’re back to normal.’

~~~

Faline wriggled free of the blankets and hopped down to the floor. The cat had been under there for hours, it seemed. Nisa had felt unaccountably tired and had fallen asleep soon after the others had left. Now, it seemed, it was after dark because the cat was changing and looking a little uncomfortable about it.

It started as a flattening of her fur, as though invisible hands were smoothing it down over her body, but the strands of hair began to meld until Nisa was looking at more of a cat-shaped blob of black fluid. That began to grow, twisting out of shape as it went. Limbs expanded out of proportion, looking almost disjoined against a far smaller body. Then the body grew, the tail absorbing into it as it went, but leaving one leg shrunken until the Faline blob was almost full size and starting to change colour. The last thing to form properly was the face, the nose extending out and the eyes forming properly before she opened them and looked sheepishly up at Nisa.

‘These are not the circumstances under which I wanted you to see me doing that,’ Faline said, still something of a purr in her voice. She coughed. ‘Sometimes my throat doesn’t settle properly. That’s better, now move over.’

Nisa giggled and shunted over in the bed so that Faline could climb in beside her. It was a bit of a squeeze, but the Witch Cat was pretty compact.

‘I don’t know why you were worried about me seeing that. I wouldn’t say it’s pretty, but it wasn’t ugly either, and it’s kind of fascinating. I bet scientists would give their eye teeth to be able to study it.’

‘Well, they aren’t getting to study
me
. So you had a wife?’

‘Alaina Peters. She came to the flat?’

‘Yes, I remember your scent when she had gone.’

‘That obvious? When I was there I was rationalising my attraction to her
here
as being the result of her being my wife
there
.’

‘And now it’s the other way around?’

‘Sort of. It’s… Which delusion do I pick? Everyone here believes that we’re programs in a computer system. There they think they’re real, but I was in a simulation. And now I need to think that was a hallucination. If I explained all this to a psychiatrist, he’d have me sectioned.’

‘So you weren’t sure what was real, and now you’re
really
not sure?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Was I there?’

Nisa giggled. ‘Yes, but you were just a rather precocious cat.’

‘So you think. Maybe I just wasn’t changing shape around you and your sexy girlfriend.’

‘Huh. Smart Alec.’

September 30
^th
.

Nisa had spent the day going over her experiences in the ‘other world,’ as they were calling it, with Kellog and Hanson. She had still not mentioned the people in the black suits, just mentioning a man with a placard and a woman who had handed back her wallet.

‘What about the drug ring?’ Nisa asked when the questioning was over.

‘We rounded them all up,’ Hanson told her. ‘The press have been told it was a crack production operation. That’s all fine, but…’ She shook her head. ‘Something isn’t right.’

‘We’re missing some backing,’ Kellog said. ‘None of the people we’ve picked up could have come up with the process they’re using, and capitalising it would have needed a lot of initial expenditure.’

‘You’re suggesting, in a very oblique way, that someone
intended
the users to change the way they did,’ Nisa said.

‘Norbery thinks they were experimenting,’ Hanson replied. ‘The exact results were not intended, but some sort of Daath-related effect transmitted through the irradiated components was. He thinks that the use of certain blood-based factors may have influenced the outcome, so it’s
possible
they were aiming for that result, but he thinks it was just bad luck.’

‘You said Da’at magic was forbidden,’ Nisa said, looking at Kellog.

‘It is, and if someone is experimenting with it we need to find out who and stop them.’

Nisa nodded. ‘You also said that Glitches were something to do with Da’at. Do you think someone could have figured out how to summon them? It might explain why this one was so strange.’

‘That particular possibility,’ Hanson said wearily, ‘is why I have bags under my eyes at the moment. You should be fit to leave here in a day or so, and then you two are going to be working full time on this case. We need this one solved, and fast.’

Tower Hamlets, October 1
^st
.

Trina was standing on the corner of the car park when Nisa stepped out of Kellog’s car. Her attention turned to the unrequited love of her life, and the cat she was holding, and she peered in through the windscreen at Kellog, apparently trying not to glower. Nisa was more concerned about the state of Trina’s face.

‘What the Hell happened to you?’ Nisa asked as Kellog pulled away.

Trina’s hand rose to the livid bruise which covered the left side of her face. The skin around her eyes was swollen and purple. Her high cheekbone showed similar colouring.

‘Jilly,’ Trina replied.

Nisa frowned. She knew the name, even recalled meeting the girl once with Trina. ‘Jilly? She’s one of yours.’

‘Not since Tuesday night. She was damn smooth about it. She got a few other girls on her side and then made a play. I took her down, but… I don’t remember her being that tough before. I think I broke a couple of her ribs before she stayed on the floor. I’ve been hoping to catch you, actually. Might be some of the girls come at you to get to me. Watch yourself. Where’ve you been?’

‘Work outing,’ Nisa lied. ‘Conference thing in Manchester. Seriously boring, but it was on expenses.’

‘This is where my taxes are being spent?’ The gang leader managed a grin.

Nisa grinned back. ‘Oh yes. Been living in luxury in a budget hotel for the last week or so. You sure you’re okay?’

‘You should see the other girl.’

‘Huh. Look, I’d love to chat, but I’m tired. Catch you tomorrow.’

‘Sure. Just… Be careful, yeah? I don’t want you hurt because of me.’

Nisa smiled. ‘I’m tougher than I look, Trina. Don’t worry.’

~~~

‘You do not
look
tougher than you look,’ Faline commented as she walked into the lounge, dressed, and saw Nisa still moping on the couch.

Nisa sighed. ‘I miss Alaina. It’ll go. I still have too many memories from over there telling me I had this wife I loved.’

‘We could…’

‘I thought about it, but it’d feel like I was using you as a surrogate. I don’t think that’s fair.’ She looked up and grinned. ‘Besides, you’ll be climbing the walls next full moon and I should save my strength.’

Faline quickened her pace and curled up on the couch, pulling her knees under her chin. ‘Don’t remind me. It’s only a week away.’

‘You know, there’s no need to be embarrassed about it. I kind of like it. You get really crazy, lose control. You’re always so controlled so it’s kind of nice to see another side of you.’

‘Well… I’m glad you think so, but it’s not quite so nice for me. You’re right. I am controlled. I like to think I’m a lady, even if I’m a cat most of the time. At those times I’m just… just an animal in a human skin.’

Nisa gave her a playful punch in the shoulder. ‘You are magnificent, even when you’re being all animal. It’s just different. It’s… elemental. The passion and… and lust. It’s infectious. To me it is anyway. It’s like… God, I don’t know, but you were all embarrassed about it that first night, for about ten minutes, and once we got going you just let go. I
wish
I could let myself go like that.’

Faline managed a timid giggle. ‘Don’t be silly. You were so into it I could barely keep up. I think there’s something of the animal about you too.’

‘Rowr,’ Nisa replied, making clawing motions in the air. ‘I am Nisa, hear me roar.’

October 6
^th
.

There were three of the gang standing around outside Leopold Tower when Nisa got back from work. It had been a couple of days of getting nowhere, slowly, and the three teenage delinquents were the last thing she needed to see. They were definitely younger members of the Queens. One looked to be just into her twenties, but the other two were teens. Nisa recognised none of them, but they seemed to know who she was.

‘It’s Trina’s bimbo,’ the oldest stated as Nisa walked toward the door.

The world slowed as Nisa closed the distance. She watched them moving, saw the way they shifted their stances. They had been waiting for her; it was not a chance meeting and now they were preparing to do what they had been sent to do. The oldest, the one who had spoken, would go first.

‘Trina’s not here to–’ She stopped, surprised, as Nisa quickened her pace. Her right arm came up to swing at Nisa’s face, but the timing was all wrong, and the delivery lacked force, and Nisa caught the extended limb, locked it, and twisted. ‘Fuck! What the fuck?!’ There was a shriek as Nisa twisted harder and pushed down.

‘If your two friends don’t back up now,’ Nisa said, ‘I am going to snap your arm like a twig.’

‘We ain’t afraid of–’

‘I am just about to book you for assaulting a police officer. Afraid of that?’

‘There is no way you’re a cop, you–’ The speaker, one of the two teens, stopped as Nisa flicked open her warrant card holder.

‘Now get lost before I change my mind.’ Nisa watched the two teens scamper away before looking down at her hostage. ‘I assume Jilly put you up to this? Tell her to leave me alone, or I’ll find an excuse to bust her for something. You better believe I can do it too.’ Stepping around the woman, Nisa moved past before letting go.

It was not until Nisa was walking in through the door of her apartment that her knees tried to buckle under her.

~~~

‘This is exactly the kind of thing I was worried about when Trina decided she liked me,’ Nisa grumbled. She was sitting on the couch with Faline, in human form, curled beside her. Both of them had wine glasses, though Faline’s was barely touched and sitting on the floor beside the couch, while Nisa’s was half empty, and Nisa was playing with the coin again.