Reality Hack (31 page)

Westminster, December 8
^th
.

Nisa pointed meaningfully at what looked a lot like a scatter-pattern of dots on the screen in Hanson’s office. ‘You see it?’ she asked, and Hanson, Norbery, and Kellog stared at the screen.

‘I see…’ Norbery said.

‘Some dots,’ Hanson added when he seemed like he was not going to finish.

‘That,’ Nisa said, ‘is an indication of a dependent relationship between sightings of the shadow figures and currently unexplained disappearances. The Pearson coefficient is zero-point-six-seven. Spearman’s rank coefficient is zero-point-eight-nine. We’re not exactly talking perfect, but–’

‘But we have no idea what that actually means,’ Kellog interrupted. ‘What is a “Parson coefficient?”’

‘Pearson. It’s a statistical measure of how… linked two apparently random sets of data are. Rank coefficients are the same, but they are less sensitive to linearity… And that’s not the point. The point is that people seem to vanish in places where these shadow sightings occur. More people vanish in those places than would be expected given the general background cases of missing persons. So there is a tendency for missing persons to rise with a rise in shadow sightings. That’s a dependency.’

‘You’re saying that the shadow figures are kidnapping people?’

Nisa sagged a little and blew out air. ‘No. If I’m going to do this, I should do it right. I am
not
saying that. Correspondence does not indicate causality, and even if it does, it doesn’t indicate the direction. Maybe the people are turning into shadows, and so they vanish and we get more sightings. I can only say that there is a mathematically valid connection between the appearance of these things and a rise in missing persons.’

Hanson gave her a nod. ‘Actually, that makes it all sound far more reasonable. You’re not assuming. This is evidence.’

‘Yeah! That’s exactly right.’

‘But we can go further,’ Kellog said. ‘We can give a direction to the… causality, if there is one. Lisa Anne May became a missing person
after
the shadows were sighted near her home. If the two things are causal, it is the shadows causing the vanishing people, not the people causing the shadows.’

Nisa grinned. ‘Yeah, I had thought of that.’

‘You said the dependency was imperfect?’

‘There are areas where we have shadow sightings and no increase in missing persons. I don’t think more than one or two people are taken in an area so there are several random spikes in missing persons in places there have been no sightings.’

‘Of course. It makes sense. They may be seen somewhere and decide their target was unsuitable.’

‘It’s possible they were
not
seen in places where there are spikes in missing persons,’ Hanson said, sounding grudging but interested. ‘So… Let’s assume that we have evidence for causality. I think this on top of the evidence from the May case suggest it. These things are turning up and then kidnapping people. Why? And where are they taking them?’

‘And why did they stop?’ Nisa added.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘The cases around London peter out before Halloween, but there are some others around the country. They spread out in late September. I followed them because Kellog mentioned sightings in Scotland and Wales. Then it all just stops during the second week of November.’

Hanson looked at Kellog. ‘It spread out, and then stopped?’

‘Yeah,’ Nisa confirmed. ‘That’s what the data–’

‘Or spread out further?’ Kellog suggested.

‘I’ll make some calls,’ Hanson growled, reaching for her phone.

December 11
^th
.

‘It’s rather circumstantial,’ Hanson said, peering at her monitor as she spoke, ‘but there have been reports of “unusual, shadowy figures” in the US and Europe recently. They believe it’s a new phenomenon, but they weren’t especially concerned about it. I’ve requested that they check missing persons cases in the areas.’

‘Where and when?’ Nisa asked.

‘We have… The largest concentration seems to be the north-eastern coast of the US, starting around the seventeenth of last month. Those seem to peter off after ten or twelve days and there are a few others. The north-west, but those were put down to vampire fans, New Orleans, also put down to vampire fans, and a burst in California. The European ones are more recent. Berlin and Venice.’

‘I’ll see if I can find a pattern in…’

‘Nisa?’ Kellog frowned at her as she trailed off. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘Uh… You know Alexander Maxim’s out of the country? Alaina’s with him. Some sort of lecture tour.’

‘We noted him leaving the country,’ Hanson replied. ‘He’s not required to tell us why he’s travelling.’

‘I’d have to check, but I’m almost sure that the places he’s been to match up with the places you mentioned. A-and the dates sound right. I mean, I did some checks and the sightings in the UK fall to nothing around the thirteenth of November and you said the sightings in the US start on the seventeenth. I saw Alaina off from Heathrow on the fifteenth.’ When she looked up, Kellog’s eyes were the most animated she had ever seen them.

Hanson broke into his reverie. ‘That’s not enough to do anything major. It’s an extremely circumstantial connection. I’d need far more before I could make any sort of move on the High Grand Master of the Order.’

‘See what the missing persons search comes up with,’ Kellog replied, ‘and we need to do a
thorough
track of his itinerary and the sightings we have.’

Nisa nodded. ‘Send me the locations and dates. Alaina gave me their itinerary before she left. I’ll see what I can match up.’

Tower Hamlets, December 12
^th
.

Nisa glanced at the phone number and did not recognise it, but it looked European and she had a feeling she knew who it was. The voice on the other end was urgent but whispering. ‘Nisa? It’s Alaina. What’s going on? Alexander’s in a real rage.’

‘Uh…’ They had got enough evidence together for Hanson to arrange a watch order that afternoon. Wherever Maxim went, someone would be keeping an eye on him. Officially this was a protective measure since they did not want the head of the Order vanishing. ‘I…’

‘He keeps muttering something about Interpol and “officious bloody coppers.” It has to be something to do with you guys.’

‘Uh… We found evidence that you’re being chased around by kidnappers. We’re worried about his safety. I’m worried about yours.’

‘Kidnappers? Who would want to–’

‘Supernatural kidnappers, Alaina. Ghostly things, maybe some sort of Da’at entity.’

‘Oh… I… I’ll be careful. I have to go. Love you.’

‘Damn it,’ Nisa muttered, hitting the address book and locating Kellog’s number. ‘Come on… come on… Kellog! I just got a call from Alaina. Maxim’s found out about the watch on him.’

‘Fast, I agree,’ Kellog said, sounding calm. ‘I expected he would, though this suggests he was tipped off.’

‘Alaina sounded really worried, Kellog.’

There was a short pause and then, ‘I’ll speak to Hanson. Maybe we can bring him in. Protective custody sounds good. I can’t promise anything.’

‘No, but we could try.’

‘I’ll let you know what happens.’ The line went dead.

Westminster, December 16
^th
.

There had been no more calls from Alaina, no sightings of Maxim, and Hanson was looking almost as grim as Nisa was. ‘We have had three people vanish in areas Maxim visited,’ Hanson said. ‘That wouldn’t be a major matter if it was not for the fact that these shadow things have actually been
seen
around the victims at the time they went missing.’

‘You’re saying they’re getting bolder,’ Kellog said.

‘I’m saying someone claims to have seen… Hang on, let me read… “I saw her shadow just fold into her, like it was being sucked up. And then she just walked away, got in her car, and left. But I swear she had no shadow when she got in her car.”’

‘Some form of possession. That’s how they’re kidnapping them.’

‘That’s what it looks like. Meanwhile, Maxim and Peters have vanished, and I don’t believe they went via possession. Well, him anyway.’ Hanson’s eyes flicked to Nisa, sitting very upright in her seat.

‘If she calls again, I’ll let you know,’ Nisa said. ‘I’ve had no more contact. They were due to get back into the UK tomorrow.’

‘And we have watches on all the ports, air and sea, but…’

‘But he may not come back at all,’ Nisa grumbled. ‘We missed him. If I’d found the connection
before
he flew out–’

‘We
might
have been able to grab him, but we would have been wading through the Order and he would have had plenty of time to make a break.
You
actually spotted the connection. I don’t suppose there’s anything else in that data we should know about?’

‘Huh? Oh… uh… I found some evidence for a slow rise in supernatural activity in the south-west over the course of the last eight months. Barely perceptible and it could be just a random shift.’

‘Any particular part of the south-west?’

‘Mostly coastal areas along the Channel, as far east as Bournemouth. It’s ghostly fog banks, unusual radar echoes, one report of a ghost fishing boat, but the witnesses were so drunk it’s probably nothing.’

‘I’ll call Exeter and mention that we noticed something,’ Hanson said, jotting down a note. ‘Considering what’s happened following your first discovery, I’d rather not take anything else for granted.’

‘Huh. What do these things, or Maxim if he’s behind this, want with these people anyway?’

‘Good question. Thoughts?’ Hanson looked specifically at Kellog and got a shrug.

‘I doubt it’s good. The obvious possibilities are hosts or sacrifices. They may not be able to survive well in their native form. They may need people of a certain type as hosts, or they may need them as sacrifices. Ritual sacrifices often have specific requirements. Either way, I expect we’ll find out soon.’

‘Why?’

‘There’s a correspondence Nisa has missed. It will be the solstice on Sunday. Just after eleven in the evening, to be exact. If Maxim, or anyone else, is planning some form of high-powered, dark ritual, that would be a very auspicious time to conduct it.’

Hanson bit her lip, nodding. ‘Start looking into potential locations for a sacrificial ritual. Maybe we can stake out a few potentials if we don’t spot him sooner.’

‘Difficult without knowing what he plans.’

‘I know. Get Norbery on it too and get me a list. If I have to, I’ll get authorisation to have every potential site in the country watched. I don’t have to be a magician to have a really bad feeling about this.’

December 19
^th
.

Hanson looked a lot like she had had no sleep in the last couple of days, and Nisa could not say she was surprised. Having spent much of the night before sitting up with Faline because sleep just brought weird dreams of dark shapes and voices speaking nonsense, Nisa was not looking rested either.

‘We don’t know how Maxim got into the country,’ Hanson said and then stopped, considering. ‘We don’t know he’s actually here, but we know that we’ve had four people go missing in the last thirty-six hours. Those are the ones that were reported, and before that we got several unexplained disappearances in Germany, Italy, and France.’

‘They’re really bumping up their schedule,’ Nisa said.

‘Quite, and getting less circumspect. There’s a body in autopsy now. Initial suggestion is that he was frozen to death. He was found in bed, covered in a duvet, and the room was at eleven degrees. His wife is missing.’

‘They didn’t kill Lisa May’s husband.’

‘No, but this time they wanted it quick and efficient. Or that’s the assumption.’

‘Regulars handling that?’ Kellog asked.

‘The autopsy. They’ll ship us the body when they’re done and Norbery will check it over.’ Hanson’s gaze flicked to Nisa. ‘You up to trying that spell of yours on the corpse? I know you’re not used to–’

‘I don’t think another body is going to bother me,’ Nisa interrupted. ‘After watching Emily die and then finding Jilly’s parents… I think it’s going to take a while before anything shocks me. I hope anyway.’

‘It’s worth a try. How about that list of potential sites?’

‘We’ve got a few,’ Kellog said. ‘Stonehenge and Avebury are the two most likely. The henge is a little more likely since it’ll be quiet up there by that time. Glastonbury is a possibility. We’ve never established exactly why it’s active and Maxim may know.’

‘I’ll get manpower… Where do you want people distributed?’

‘We’re going to be spread thin. The only advantage we have is that he probably won’t try anything close to home. The Eternal Flame is likely to make it hard to do anything with the energy he can collect from soul sacrifices which makes central London unlikely… But that said, I think I’d prefer it if Nisa stayed here. We should have
one
person ready to head out if something comes up. I’ll take Stonehenge. Norbery can take Avebury. Can we get Tremain over from Exeter to handle Glastonbury?’

‘I can ask.’ Hanson looked to Nisa. ‘Are you all right with being backup on this? I’m thinking we get a helicopter on standby and we can have you just about anywhere we need you in a few minutes, if it’s close to home anyway.’

Nisa glanced at Kellog. He was, she was sure, trying to keep her away from Maxim, and therefore Alaina, in case what they found
was
going to provide that shock she had mentioned. He was not sure of her objectivity, which was fair because she was not sure she had any. And it did sound like a good plan… ‘I’ll spend the night here. Think that helicopter could pick me up from the square?’

‘I think it could pick you up from the top of Nelson’s Column if we need it to. Let’s hope we don’t need it to.’

Tower Hamlets, December 21
^st
.