Demon Accords 05.5: Executable (28 page)

Caeco was wrong.  We didn’t have a test the next day.  Or rather we did, but we both missed it.  Our guardians kept us home.  The first I knew of it was when I woke to crows calling to each other in the branches of the Rowan.  The sun was streaming into my container and my clock told me it was past ten
a.m.  I threw on sweatpants and a hoody, stuffed my feet into moccasins, and shuffled inside, noting the silver Buick parked outside.

Darci, Levi, Aunt Ash, Dr. Jensen, and Caeco were all sitting around our kitchen table, sipping coffee or eating breakfast.  My aunt came right over to hug me, then pushed me in the general direction of the only open chair.  The place was set with a fork and plate, leaving it up to me to shovel in a couple of over-easy eggs, hash browns, and some crunchy maple bacon. 

Darci set a glass of milk in front of me and I took a long sip after a grateful nod, then looked around the table.  “What’s going on?” I mumbled.

“Debrief,” Caeco said, giving me a smirk as she snagged another two strips of bacon.  Her plate looked well used.

I ever so slightly raised one eyebrow at her choice of terms, and her grin widened. 

“Good, so you’ve heard the whole thing?” I asked.

“Nope, haven’t started yet.  Ashling thought you’d be in right about now,” Darci said.

“No dear, I said, he’ll be in just as soon as the crows have done their jobs.  But I had to call a whole murder of the noisy buggers,” my aunt said with a smile.  “We thought it would be best if you both only told it once.  Caeco, dear, why don’t you start while Declan breaks his fast?  If we don’t get started soon, poor Levi’s like to bust a sprocket.”

So Caeco started her story, beginning with the football game and Miseri.  She didn’t tell the story so much as report it like a soldier or cop would, complete with approximate times, distances in meters, and troop counts.  I saw both Levi and Darci’s eyes widen as they heard her very professional recap.    Caeco’s mom just looked thoughtful, and Aunt Ash nodded.  Darci stopped her at the point where Miseri tranquilized both of us, then turned to me and had me tell my part up till the same.

I didn’t even attempt to sound official, instead opting for the full-on storyteller mode complete with sound effects.  Dr. Jensen frowned at me, but Levi looked amused.  My aunt and surrogate aunt were used to my theatrics and just listened.

Once I caught up to the point where I was drugged unconscious, the adults asked us both some questions. 

“Miseri has an embedded command phrase programmed into your nano tech?” Dr. Jensen asked. 

“
Had
, Mother.  She
had
a command,” Caeco clarified.

“But that would be jumping ahead, Dr. Jensen,” I said, in between bites of hash browns.  She looked at me like I was a strange bug to be dissected. 

“So that explains the DEA report that we heard about on the radio.  I was on road patrol in the northern part of the county, so I couldn’t respond.  But it was never DEA, was it?”Darci asked.

“AIR uses other agencies for cover stories,” Dr. Jensen explained.  “They have so strongly infiltrated the federal government over the decades that they can get away with almost anything.”

“Didn’t get away with kidnapping Toni!” I said, pouring more milk.  When I looked up, everyone was staring at me.  “Well, they didn’t!  That Gordon guy and his people pounded them into dust.”

“Caeco, dear, why don’t you continue?” Aunt Ash suggested.

Caeco’s story—or incident report, as it were—picked up from when she woke at the base.  She covered her conversations with Miseri and my arrival in the cell two down from hers.  She told them about the werewolf and the vampire, both of which she’d scented as soon as she woke up.  Then I told my story up till I became her jail neighbor and right to the point where Toni arrived.  My dramatic storytelling became a bit stilted when I told how I learned that my real last name was Irwin and not O’Carroll.  My aunt’s eyes glimmered with tears, but she said nothing as I talked. She moved to the stove and rattled some pans around, but her pinched shoulders and bent head told me it was all a cover. 

Levi glanced her way and cleared his throat.  “So there was a big difference between the first cell and the second?” he asked.

“Huge.  The first one was custom made to contain witches and could be easily modified depending on which elemental affiliations you were trying to contain.  The circle platform had a silver rim with inscribed runes and wards.  Someone spent a lot of time making that place.  But they decided they needed it so the witch, Krista, prepared the other cell.  Did a really good job, too.”
 

“Not that good,” Dr. Jensen interjected.  When we all looked at her
, she continued, “Well, you broke out of it, didn’t you?  So it was weak.”

“It was
weaker.
But I wouldn’t call it weak.  I would have eventually broke out of the other one, but it would have taken awhile.  Only so much magic in the air.”

“What does that mean?” Caeco asked.

“It means—” my aunt said, turning from the stove and brushing one check as she did, “—that the cell was meant to isolate a witch from the elements that they draw their power from.  In Declan’s case, Earth and Fire.  So they surround him with water and float him on it.  But he has a tiny affinity for Air, which is supposed to be impossible.  But Declan is quite impossible to begin with.”

“I’ll say!” Darci added. 

“Given time, Declan would have recharged enough just from the small air flow into the cell to do something.  However, it wasn’t necessary since he was moved.  Now, what happened after the young girl was brought in?” Aunt Ash asked.

Caeco retold the conversations with Hasta and Guillotine word for word, then the one with Miseri before explaining how she’d overheard the orders Hasta had given Miseri once the base was under attack.  How I had broken the circle, used Earth to unlock my cell and race across to reach through the bars to touch her arm.  How she felt energy flow from that contact through her whole body and how my touch had reprogrammed her nannites.

“I opened the command file and altered it so that the nannites wouldn’t freeze up.  I also removed the backdoor password so they can’t be programed by anyone but Caeco herself,” I added.

“How can Caeco program them?” Dr. Jensen asked.

“How do any of us program ourselves?  We train a habit or behavior consciously until it becomes engrained.  Visualization, repetition, physical training—all will work.  The nannites are bonded to her nervous system. In effect, just extensions.”

“What next?” Levi asked, wanting more of the story.  I told them how Miseri had come into the cell block and how we had fought her.  How she had died.  Caeco was quiet, looking at her hands on the table in front of her.  My aunt patted her on the back .  Caeco looked up, surprised, then took note of Aunt Ash’s sympathetic expression and sharp nod of approval.  My friend nodded once back, acknowledging the silent message, then looked my way.  I decided it was a fine time to continue the story and shuffle on past that painful memory.  Levi interrupted just after I described Chris Gordon’s entrance.

“What do you mean he tore open the doors?  Are you telling me he bent the locks enough to open the door? Hardened steel?”

“No Levi,” Caeco jumped in.  “He literally ripped the entire doorframe clear of the cinderblock walls, then pulled the steel of the barricade apart till it tore.  Like stretching a caramel or taffy.”

“That can’t be right, Caeco.  The physics are rather impossible,” Caeco’s mom said.

“That was kinda my thought as well, Dr. Jensen.  But he did it with a flick of his hand, without moving his body hardly at all.”

“I have read accounts of extremely old vampires accomplishing similar feats.  Maybe not
that
drastic, but along the same lines.  Some of the authors conjectured that vampires have an ability to harness energy and use it to accomplish physical feats such as clinging to a bare wall or ceiling.  The old ones can do more,” Levi said.  “But he wasn’t a vampire, was he?”

“No, Toni was clear on that, although his hottie girlfriend is some kind of uber-vampire princess or something.  Toni just said that he was her Guardian Angel.”

“I’m thinking that Mr. Gordon was that he ‘tis truly unique among supernaturals, and my suspicion is that young Toni is more accurate than we’re knowing,” Aunt Ash said.

“Like he’s actually her Guardian Angel?” I asked.

“Or at least part of that,” Aunt Ash said with a small smile.

“You mean the Angel part?” Levi blurted.

She held both hands palm up and shrugged, still smiling.  “Just an impression, dear.”

“How could an Angel be here on Earth, in flesh?  It isn’t allowed, is it?” Levi asked.

“I don’t know, dear, but he admitted to dropping a big space rock onto that facility, now didn’t he?” Aunt Ash replied.

“What do you mean?  Not allowed?” Darci asked, looking as confused as I felt.

“There are… agreements, of sorts, between Heaven and Hell, about this sort of thing,” Levi explained.  “They’ve been in place for, well, a really long time.”

“He didn’t act angelic.  More like Liam Neeson from
Taken
crossed with the Hulk, but less green,” I said.

“You’re thinking that Angels are all wings and halos, but they be nasty blighters if you cross them.  The Bible is full of stories of Angels being terrifically violent,” Aunt Ash said.

“A witch that reads the bible?” Dr. Jensen asked.

“Yes dear, and I went to church every Sunday growing up, too,” my aunt said.

“Back to Gordon.  Ash, what have you heard about a book?” Levi asked, waving away their religious comments.

“There’s been some chatter about an old grimoire being found.  A rather famous tome… German,” she answered.

“You’re not talking about
Sorrow
are you?” he asked, almost holding his breath.

“That would be the name being bandied about,” she said.

“What’s
Sorrow
?” Darci asked.

“There was a famous German witch hundreds of years ago.  Very dark magic. Roswitha Maier. Her grimoire was rumored to be unequalled for the number and power of its spells.  She titled it
das Buch der Dunkelsten Trauer.
  The Book of Darkest Sorrow.  No one ever found it.  If that’s what he has, it’s a monumental find. Unbelievably valuable,” Levi explained.

“But he’s not a witch, right?  Why would he want you to read the book?” Darci asked, glancing at Levi, who shrugged and raised his own eyebrows at Caeco and me.

An idea had been forming in the back of my head, maybe more of a feeling.  Caeco didn’t volunteer any ideas, so I went ahead and spoke my thoughts.  “I think he’s really, really upset with himself that Toni got kidnapped.  I think he wants to do something about that,” I said, then had to explain what I had heard the blonde, Stacia, say and what Caeco had overheard Chris saying to Toni’s parents.

“Well, we’ll see if anything comes of it,” Darci said.

We went over it a few more times before the grilling finally ended. Darci left for work and the other three grownups conferred among themselves, excusing Caeco and I to get out of there.  I offered to show her my ultra-cool guy lair and we slipped out before anyone else could ask any more questions.

Caeco really liked my metal
man cave, but the first thing she wondered was why I lived outside the main building.

“Remember the night Miseri snagged us?  The lightning storm?  Well, when I hit puberty, I didn’t have very good control in my sleep.  Storms coming through at night were a… problem.  I kinda almost burned down the restaurant.  Levi installed a bunch of lightning rods, but when this container got rebuilt into the pimped-out crib that you now see, it made sense to move me into it.  If we climbed up top, I could show you the char marks.  The class did a really solid job of grounding it, too.”

She raised both eyebrows and grinned.  “Gives new meaning to the term
wet dreams
, doesn’t it?” she asked, then laughed at my shocked expression.  I honestly didn’t have an answer for that one and before I could think of one, she stopped her inspection of the room to stand in front of my mom’s photo.  Picking it up, she looked from the picture to me and back again. 

“Definitely got your mother’s eyes,” she noted.  “She looks… kind of fierce?”

“I don’t remember a lot.  But my aunt has told me stories.  She was a force to be reckoned with.”

“Like her son,” she said, smiling.

“I got a long ways to go till I’m in her class,” I answered truthfully.

“Your aunt said you were stronger than your mom?”

“Yeah, in raw strength, but Mom had much more skill and experience by the time she was my age.  She didn’t have to hide as much as I do.  She traveled about Ireland, learning and practicing with all the best and brightest.  They thought of her as kind of a national treasure, so they were all eager to teach her.  Me, I can only learn from my aunt and, as gifted and knowledgeable as she is, it isn’t the same.  Plus, I’m not allowed to do much with my Craft.  I’ll draw attention from any witches in the area, like a lighthouse or something,” I explained. “But after the last few days, I know I gotta change that.  Get better prepared with my spellcraft, shit like that.”

“Carve yourself a super wand or something?” she asked, curious.

“Nah, I don’t use a wand.  Some do, as a focus, but I’ve never needed one.  Mom didn’t, either, and Aunt Ash hardly ever needs to.  Part of the family gift.  But I need an arsenal of offensive and defensive spells that’ll be at my fingertips.”

“Where will you find them?”

I walked across the room, brushing past her, till I got to the big mirror on the end wall.  It was framed, about five feet tall and maybe a foot and a half wide, mounted right to the barnwood paneling.  My dresser stood just to the left of it, and I reached into the little silver change bowl I keep on top.  Mixed in with the pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters was a little black ring.  I held that up to the upper righthand corner of the mirror frame and waved it till I heard a click.  I pushed the mounted mirror smoothly to the left, revealing a hidden compartment about six inches deep.  The old bound book I took from the upper shelf had Gaelic writing all across the cover.

“My mom’s grimoire.”

“Cool compartment, Mr. Bond,” she said with an approving nod.  “What’s that?” She pointed at the remaining book.

“My grimoire.”

“And that?  Is that your magic wand?” she asked, pointing down at the larger main compartment.

“About as close as I get,” I admitted, picking up the short Remington pump shotgun that was racked in the space.  Pumping the chamber open and leaving it open, I handed it to her.

“My kind of wand,” she said, pumping the action then inspecting the shells attached to the sidesaddle ammo holder mounted on the receiver.  She nodded to herself at the double ought buckshot loads, mounted the gun to her shoulder, and aimed it out the window.

“Nice.  Simple and hard to fuck up,” she commented before handing it back to me.

“The gun and the compartment were Christmas gifts from Levi.  He respects magic, but he insists on backup plans.”

“I like his way of thinking.”

I put everything away, closed and locked the compartment.  Then I grabbed her hand and pulled her after me, out the door, and into the yard.

“Where are we going?”

“I want to introduce you to a friend.”

Still holding her hand, which she didn’t seem to mind, I led her across the yard to the Rowan tree.  On the far side of the tree was a big, flat rock, most of its bulk buried deep in the ground, but the exposed top was big enough for two to sit. The Rowan had grown right alongside it, its thigh-thick trunk making a good back rest.

I sat in my favorite spot and patted the rock next to me.  Caeco was looking a bit confused, but suddenly, light dawned in her eyes.

“The tree?”

“Yup.  Rowans are special to witches, and this one has supported and protected us for my whole life.  I missed Mabon, but I’m sure my aunt, Darci, and Levi didn’t.  Every important Solstice or Equinox, we gather here and renew the tree’s protection.  Kind of giving thanks.  It makes the tree happy.”

“Happy?  You’re kidding with me, right?”

“Ever seen a happy dog or satisfied-looking cat?” 

She nodded, disbelief still plain on her face. “Like Talon when I put food in her bowl.”

“So animals can be happy or sad. Why not plants?”

“You may have been right the other day,” she said.  I arched my eyebrows and made a rolling
go on
gesture with my hand.  “When you said I was upset at meeting a bigger freak than I am.  You might just qualify after all!”

“Oh?  You’re gonna go there, huh?  Too good to hang out with the freaky Irish warlock kid?”  I said, levitating a triplet of fist-sized granite rocks and floating them over to her. “Sorry, but it’s already been done.”

She watched the rocks floating toward her, giving me a mildly impressed look. Her eyes suddenly widened.  “Oh, it has!  Jessica Connors!  You used to be friends, or better friends!”

The rocks clattered to the ground around my stretched-out feet.  I hadn’t meant to give that away; didn’t realize she would intuit that.

Flicking a hand, I sent the rocks back to the pile they had come from, using my left hand to brush off my shoes.  Then I looked at her and nodded.

“Trey, Jessica, and I were all friends back in the day.  Hung out thick as thieves.  Then the pedophile incident occurred and I was shunned.  Her parents wouldn’t let her hang out with me anymore, and Trey half-convinced her I was a maniac.  But I don’t think she ever really believed I was bad.  She gradually started to talk to me, then became my best customer, even when she didn’t need my skills.  Trey tried to stop her a couple of times, but she must have set him straight ‘cause suddenly, he just ignored it when she spoke to me or asked me to do something. She goes out with Trey and is the de facto leader of the social scene, but refuses to ignore me.  It doesn’t mean I get invited to parties or that her friends aren’t terrified of me, but it’s something.”

“I wondered why the most popular girl in school went out of her way to talk to you.  It didn’t fit the parameters of standard school social dynamics that I was taught about,” Caeco said.  “You know, if anything, it probably elevates her position even more.  Think about it, she’s the only popular kid who doesn’t fear you… actually interacts with you.  That must give her a certain cachet.”

“Ouch!  Here I thought it was because deep down, she still had a shred of decency left that hadn’t been crushed by the pressures of social expectation.”

“Oh, I think she does.  Despite her position, I haven’t observed her being mean to really anyone.  I’m just saying that her relationship with you is sort of self-reinforcing.  Normally, she’d be pressured to ignore you, but the other kids respect her bravery in talking to you.”

“Can we stop the psycho crap?  It’s hard enough to deal with school without tearing apart the few decent parts of my life that’re left.”

“Sorry; just my training acting up.  So… you like her, don’t you?”

I glanced her way.  She was facing the forest but watching me out of the corner of her eye

“I have always liked Jessica as a friend.  Is she pretty?  Yeah.  But like-like.  Maybe once, but I quickly realized it was never going to happen. We’re strictly friend zone, at least as much as we can be.”

“It must be an interesting thing to have such long-term history with a friend,” she noted quietly.

“I’m guessing there weren’t a lot of friends in the lab?”

“Not so much.  When I was younger, there was an instructor who wasn’t too hard on me.  But she got transferred.  I think the lab director suspected she was sympathetic to me.  But I always had my mother.”

And she’s such a warm, fuzzy person—not!
I thought to myself.  But what I said was, “Well, that had to be a comfort.”   I must not have been convincing because she looked over at me before picking up a rock, inspecting its color.

“She’s not like your aunt.  She is, after all, a scientist, but I have no doubt that she is devoted to me.  She risked her life many times before and during our escape.  If they had caught her, she would likely have been killed.  Even raising me, she had to keep a distance, but we had our own code.  Regular words that meant something different to us.”

“Like what?” I asked, trying to imagine living in a science lab and being watched every second.

“When my mother says
Stay on task,
it means stay safe.  When she asks me if my
functions are nominal
, she’s asking if I’m okay, if anything is bothering me.  If I answered that my
cognition seems suboptimal
, it means I’m confused or disturbed about something.  She would run some simple mental acuity tests but as she asked me the standard questions, there would be a second, more meaningful conversation going on.  For someone as cerebral as she is, my mother is extremely perceptive.”

To me, it seemed like it must have been like living in a spy novel.  Every action, every word, every glance watched, recorded, and evaluated.  Hiding your feelings and thoughts all day, every day.

“Wow, that must have blown!” I said, completely stunned.  My own life was a cakewalk compared to what she’d gone through.

She shrugged.  “It was all I knew, although when they assigned me to watch television content to acquire social context, it made no sense to me at all.  The things that people said to each other was alien.  To just flat-out say that you liked or loved someone didn’t make sense.  That’s when I began to realize just how different my life was.”

“How did your mother tell you that she loved you?” I asked.

“She would get a very stern look on her face and tell me that failure was not an option, that I was her life’s work, that I must succeed.  But I always knew that the frowns and tone were all cover, that her formal words were code.  It is something she has said to me from my earliest years.”

I couldn’t imagine Aunt Ash or Darci not telling me that they loved me, or me them.  But Caeco was only one of seventeen.  All of Dr. Jensen’s children died but her.  Two had made it full term, but one had died in training.  How did a parent deal with that?  Even a cold, emotionless one like Caeco’s mom.  Maybe she wasn’t the walking computer bank she portrayed?

“Caeco, you’re pretty tough, but I think your mom might be the toughest person I’ve ever met,” I said.

She nodded, her expression one of intense, fierce pride. 

“I couldn’t do what she did.  I can’t hide it in code.  I just have to flat-out tell you that I like you,” I said, looking directly at her, then away.  I lay back and looked up at the tree above me. Beside me, she leaned down, popping into my view rather suddenly.  Her brown eyes locked with mine, and she slowly smiled.

“I want more of my nannites back!” she said, and then her lips were on mine.