“It’s a professional interaction,” Jason insisted.
“And what’s your profession, exactly?” Vermillion asked. “Interdimensional man of mystery? That definitely doesn’t sound like someone that mixes business with pleasure.”
“That sounds sweet,” Taika said. “You should get a theme song, bro. Something funky and sexy. Seventies-style.”
“Can we just go see your mother?” Jason asked. “I brought West Indian lime and coconut squares.”
In the medical department of the Network’s Sydney branch, Kylie Chen sat alone in a dark room. She trembled not from the cold but from the battle in the incursion space playing over and over in her mind. The door opened and someone came in, turning on the light.
“Hello, Miss Chen,” came the visitor’s sympathetic voice. “How are you holding up?”
“Ms Ellis,” Kylie said, standing from the edge of the bed in the presence of a Steering Committee member.
“Please sit,” Miranda said. “After everything you’ve been through, I won’t make you stand on formality.”
Kylie hesitantly lowered herself back onto the edge of the bed and Miranda sat companionably next to her.
“I’m sorry you had to go through what you did,” Miranda said. “I’ve experienced the recording for myself. If we’d had any idea what kind of monster he was, we never would have let you go with him.”
“The recording device doesn’t get everything,” Kylie said in a tremulous voice. “Did you know he doesn’t use cores? Like Section Leader Thornton, but far more powerful.”
“I know.”
“That’s not all, though,” Kylie said. “There’s something in his aura. I don’t know what it is, but it’s more powerful than anything I’ve ever seen.”
“His aura strength is incredible for a category two, yes.”
“It’s more than that!”
Kylie’s voice was frantic, almost panicked, like she was desperate for someone to understand.
“Help me to understand,” Miranda prompted.
“This thing inside him,” she said. “It’s like an echo of power not just above his category but beyond the very concept of categories. It’s almost… godly.”
“You think he possesses some kind of divine power?”
“I don’t know how else to describe it,” Kylie said. “When I was a girl, my grandmother used to take me to church. The priest was one of those sulphur and brimstone types, you know? I think he moved to America and joined one of those fundamentalist denominations. When Asano used that strange, bright power at the end of the fight, I was that little girl again, having nightmares of fire and judgement. It was like the fist of god coming down to punish the wicked. That’s what the thing inside Asano feels like. Old Testament power.”
Miranda nodded. “He’s dangerous. That’s why the committee has decided to act, but we need to be careful.”
“Yes,” Kylie agreed, nodding. “You do.”
“We need to keep our hands clean. The International Committee wants this man, regardless of the threat to us, so we need to do this delicately, and at a remove. This information is at the Steering Committee level only. We’re only bringing in people who understand the threat and that we can trust. We can trust you, right, Kylie?”
“Of course.”
“Good,” Miranda said. “When the time comes, and that will be soon, I’ll deliver you a message with instructions. You need to obey them without hesitation, however startling they may be. Until then, complete discretion. Speak of this only with me. Do you understand?”
“One of the Lyon branch’s members grew a conscience,” Asya said. They were sitting on a bench with the outdoor fitness equipment at Yarranabbe Park. After arriving at the park, they had found one another through their auras.
“His name is Michel,” she said, “and he’s been at a black site the Lyon branch maintains.”
“A black site? Like the CIA?”
“It’s a facility whose existence wasn’t divulged to the International Committee. Even our new informant doesn’t know the location. The personnel, other than the Operations Director and the Steering Committee, aren’t allowed to know its location. Workers are taken in blind.”
“And that’s where they’re holding the outworlder?” Jason asked.
“Yes.”
She took a folder from the briefcase she brought with her and handed it over.
“They’ve been putting her through rendition,” Asya said. “What the Americans call enhanced interrogation, but she hasn’t cracked yet.”
“She?”
“We don’t have a name. Everything we do have is in there. He even managed to sneak out a picture, which isn’t flattering. They don’t exactly have her in the best conditions.”
Jason opened the folder to look at the photograph that was the first thing in the file. Her hair was cut down to stubble and her face was covered with grime, but he still recognised the features.
“Jason?”
He looked like he’d been hit with a taser, his face twitching as the folder slipped between trembling fingers to spill papers onto the ground.
45
MY TURN
In the houseboat, Erika pulled up Jason’s number on her phone.
“I would recommend against calling Mr Asano at this moment.” Shade’s voice came from behind her, making her jump.
“Why not?” Erika asked as she turned to look at the nerve-wracking figure. Jason’s bizarre yet ever-courteous shadow monster friend was very high on the list of bizarre things she needed to adjust to.
“Mr Asano just received some important news.”
“More important than his mother, brother and sister-in-law trying to get their heads around magic being real?”
“Yes,” Shade said. “I have seen Mr Asano walk into battle knowing that death was more likely than not. I’ve seen him walk alone into a town that has been taken over by bandits and kill them all. I’ve seen him fight with thousands of lives on the line and watched him sacrifice his life to save them. I have never seen him as agitated as he is at this moment.”
“That’s all crazy,” Erika said. “You saw him die?”
“I see that you wish to be a good sister,” Shade said. “You see how damaged he is and you want to help, but his experiences are outside of your understanding. I, too, am concerned and would like to help you remedy this shortfall.”
“How so?”
“Mr Asano has vouchsafed certain recordings with me, that your daughter does not see them.”
“He told me. She’s already tried to convince me to let her watch them.”
“I think, perhaps, that you should be the one to watch them,” Shade said. “I hope it will build a bridge between you. Mr Asano has shown you the fantastical and wondrous, while avoiding the suffering he has experienced. I have seen that you want to be good family to him, but what he’s been holding back lies between you. I would like to help you bridge that gap, for his sake.”
Shade held out a hand made of shadow, dark as an arm-shaped void. On the palm rested a small cluster of recording crystals.
“Begin with these,” he said.