“If he doesn’t know about me already, he soon will. There’s little point in avoiding it at this stage.”
Jason took in a cleansing breath of winter night air, only to find it not so cleansing. His bronze-rank senses picked out the trace pollution in the air, not present in the other world. The astral space in which he had spent the last year was filled with the rich, natural aromas of the jungle. In Greenstone, the magic carried downstream by the Mistrun River left even bog water smelling oddly fresh and clean. Compared to that, taking a deep breath of city air was like coating his tongue in old motor oil.
“You alright, Jason?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “Where I’ve been, it’s hard to get in or out. There’s no internet, phone, television, radio. No communication of any kind. My chance to leave came unexpectedly and I don’t know how things ended up after I was gone. My friends might think I’m dead.”
“Why would they think that?”
“Things got hectic at the end, but let’s put that aside for the moment.”
“What happened to you while you were away?”
“While I was gone, I became part of… let’s call it a community. I never realised it existed here, and in secret, until I joined it myself, over there. I haven’t even confirmed that it’s here, but everything you told me points very strongly in that direction. It’ll be different here, I’m certain, but there will be commonalities.”
“And this community, they teach you to do what you did to Ari’s dogs? And to Ari? Is it like pheromones or something? Did the CIA MK-Ultra you with designer drugs until your body odour triggers a fear response?”
“That sounds more plausible than the reality,” Jason said with a chuckle. “Although barely. But no; it’s something else. As for what, that would be crossing the informational Rubicon. If you want to know…”
“No,” Hiro said firmly. “One of the reasons I’ve been successful doing what I do is knowing when not to go deeper. And these waters are getting very deep.”
“That’s wise,” Jason said with relief. “I hope. It could be that I’ve already implicated you, just by coming back. The whole family, in fact. There’s a chance that some will see my return as a threat or an opportunity. Or both. Those with poor intentions and few scruples may try pulling you in as leverage.”
“You worry that not telling us what you’re involved in might get us blindsided?”
“Yes,” Jason said. “Ultimately, though, knowing won’t help you. You aren’t equipped for what’s out there and I can’t get you ready in any kind of practical timeframe. All I can do is protect you if someone comes knocking.”
“I have Taika and Growl,” Hiro said. “Taika isn’t just big; he’s smart and observant.”
“So I noticed,” Jason said. “He’s not enough, though. Not even close.”
“So what are you doing about it?”
“I’ve made a move already, to draw people out. For the moment, I’m keeping an eye on you and another out for them. If trouble comes while I’m in the city, I’ll know and be there faster than you can imagine.”
“Are you having me watched?”
“Yes.”
“They must be good,” Hiro said. “My security hasn’t caught so much as a whiff of them.”
Jason chuckled again.
“They won’t. Suffice to say that I’ll be informed immediately if anything outside of your security’s purview comes along. I’ve already done something eye-catching that will hopefully tease some of the players out where I can get a look at them. That will hopefully give me a glimpse of the bigger picture.”
Anna walked into the conference room, where an investigation team was waiting to update her. It was a six-person team, specifically put together to investigate the children’s hospital event in Sydney. Also present was Ketevan, who was leading the other hospital investigation, up the coast. Anna took the position at the head of the table.
The lead investigator of the Sydney incident was a rugged-looking man named Aram, who had a bushy beard and a large frame. He looked like he would be more at home in faded overalls than a suit and tie. Like those of the other people in the room, Aram’s outfit was a suit of mid-range quality, designed to evoke the feel of a faceless government agent.
In Aram’s case, it didn’t work well, but despite his appearance, he was a consummate professional. After making sure everyone was on the same page with the basics of the investigation, he detailed their progress to Anna.
“We’ve vetted the families and other connections of the people in the hospital,” he explained. “There were a couple of hits, but we looked into it and ruled them out as instigators of the event.”
“But that is only our Network personnel, right?” Anna asked.
“That’s correct,” he confirmed. “That’s allowed us to rule out any of our people, but we don’t have membership rosters for the Engineers of Ascension. As for the Cabal and the smaller collectives, there’s no telling.”
“But you are looking into that, yes?” Anna prompted.
“Yes, Director. We’ve made it very clear that we will be finding the responsible parties and the other groups seem to be cooperating. A lot of them don’t like it, but they know that this kind of overt action crosses our bottom line. None of them want us coming down on their heads.”
“What’s your take on their responses?” Anna asked.
“My instincts tell me that this isn’t coming from an established group. They may be capitulating, but they aren’t hiding their displeasure at our heavy-handedness. No one’s stepping on eggshells. That’s not to say we aren’t continuing to be thorough. My instincts have been wrong before.”
“Good,” Anna said. She glanced at Ketevan before turning her gaze back to Aram. “You think this is related to the other incident?”
“I’d say more likely than not, at this stage,” Aram said. “The timing suggests it’s not a coincidence, although everything is still on the table until proven otherwise. Ketevan does have one theory. Keti, if you would?”
Ketevan nodded.
“I had this idea about the event in the hospital,” she said. “I’ve been looking into it, but we have limited information. It hasn’t happened in centuries, that we know of. In what records we do have, I haven’t found anything to contradict this idea in what we’ve seen.”
Anna frowned, guessing Ketevan’s theory.
“I won’t say the idea didn’t occur to me,” she said. “What about the simultaneous event in France? Isn’t that contradictory?”
“Not if two of them came at once,” Ketevan said. “We don’t know that isn’t possible.”
“I’m sorry,” one of the junior investigators broke in. “I’m missing something, and I don’t think I’m alone.”
The other junior investigators nodded their agreement. Anna panned a gaze over them.
“We’re talking about outworlders.”
9
I SUGGEST YOU BE VERY POLITE