Getting rid of the bodies sent his thoughts drifting to his own corpse, left behind in the astral space. It probably did dissolve into rainbow smoke, at least partially. He had known for a long time that he was no longer a human, but thinking about his body dissolving like a monster brought it home in a fresh way.
Jason opened his map ability to check his destination. He could get back to Sydney in a couple of portal jumps, as he had visited places in his range in the past. He was even within range of his uncle’s farm, where his mother grew up. He could use some time to think, to consider what he’d learned and weigh his options. He had Shade take a car form and take off back towards Sydney.
His demolition of the biker gang and what he did to his attackers, even the one that most likely survived, demonstrated the kind of threat he presented. Now was the time to show that he wasn’t just a mad dog and could be reasoned with. He’d shown plenty of big stick and it was time for some juicy carrot. He needed to test the waters with the local Network branch and, if possible, ask Sebastian some pointed questions. It was time for a meeting with Annabeth Tilden.
As he sat in thought, Shade driving, Gordon manifested in the seat next to him. Unlike normal vehicles, Shade was able to contain Gordon’s incorporeal form without him passing right through. Gordon’s floating eyes looked at Jason expectantly and Jason nodded, pulling out his phone.
He had used a precious droplet of crystal wash to prevent his phone from picking up a corpse smell. He loaded up a movie, which Shade, in the form of a high-tech car, was able to project onto the windscreen.
“This one’s called Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” Jason told Gordon. “It’s a good one.”
21
UNCONTROLLED FACTOR
Anna’s eyes snapped open. As a category one, her senses were only slightly heightened, but something had triggered an instinctive reaction and awakened her. Straining her aura senses, she couldn’t detect anything that might have set them off.
Next to her, Susan remained in blissful slumber. Anna silently slipped out of bed, taking a pistol and a flask from her nightstand. She took a swig of the flask, the stamina potion kicking her senses fully awake. She would have preferred a spirit coin, but the Network insisted on using the whole stockpile to make bullets or use in rituals. Her pistol was loaded with exactly those magical bullets, as well as being enchanted itself.
In only her underwear, she slunk downstairs, spotting a light from the kitchen. Moving into it without a sound, she found someone peering into the fridge, the source of light.
“You broke into the wrong house, mate.” she said, levelling her gun.
“Tell me about it,” Jason complained, turning to the kitchen island and putting down a plate holding a sandwich. “Your condiment selection is terrible. Susan clearly didn’t marry you for your culinary skills.”
He looked over at her, standing in her underwear with a gun pointed at him.
“Still, I can see the appeal,” he acknowledged. “I mean, a beautiful woman in her underwear pointing her gun at me?”
He took a big bite of his sandwich.
“I love my life,” he mumbled through the food.
“You’re Jason Asano.”
“Yep. Have been for a while, which makes it easy to remember.”
He frowned at the sandwich in his hand.
“With what you had in the fridge,” he said, “I could barely assemble an adequate sandwich and I do not appreciate being reduced to mid-tier sandwiches. I’ll add it to the list of things the Network needs to answer for. Did you get this bread from a supermarket?”
“What are you doing here?” Anna asked. “How are you here? You were kidnapped, drugged and collared.”
“Silver-rankers kidnap me from time to time. It’s kind of my thing. You should just go to a bakery. You’ll be supporting local business and you won’t get bread that tastes like sadness.”
“Silver-rankers?”
“Right, uh, tier three? Category three? Is that what you call it? If I hadn’t spent the last six months in a pocket universe fighting evil, I’d at least have a decent sauce on hand.”
“What about the people that took you?”
“The three French guys? You don’t need to worry about local authorities stumbling into them. I’m more interested in the fourth one, Sebastian. You do have him, right? He and I never got the chance to talk.”
“What do you want with him?”
“My needs are many and varied; he’s just a part of it. Craig Vermillion seems to think that you and I can help each other. I’m hoping that he’s right.”
“So you broke into my house?”
“I wanted a meeting on my terms. If I wandered into your headquarters, you might start thinking like your counterparts from Lyon.”
“You know about that?”
“I had a little chat with the blokes who took me for a drive. If you’re looking to dig deeper, these might help.”
He took out two mobile phones and placed them on the counter.
“One of these belongs to Sebastian, the other to one of his flunkies. I reset the unlock codes to zero-zero-zero-zero.”
“You can hack phones?”
“I know a few simple unlocking rituals. One of the more esoteric ones got the job done. One of the cheaper ones, which was nice, although I don’t have any shortage of iron-rank spirit coins. That’s category one, I guess. Like you. And that gun. I see magic guns are a thing. You do have spirit coins, here, right?”
“Yeah. What’s with the iron-rank, silver-rank thing? Is that what they call the categories in the other world?”
“Yep. They named the ranks after the colours of spirit coins. They’re all crystal, but the category ones look like iron, twos like bronze, and so on. It’s the same colour that shines out of you when your attributes advance or you get a gift evolution. You do understand these concepts, right?”
“We call it minor threshold advancement.”
“See? We’re learning from each other already. That gun isn’t conjured, right?”
“No.”
“One of the French blokes kept conjuring guns. Is there a gun essence?”
“There is.”
“No kidding. I have this mate who theorised that different worlds had different essences.”
“You really were over there, weren’t you?” she asked, finally lowering the pistol she had been holding on him the whole time. “What was that you said about a pocket universe?”
“Oh, I spent about a year in the other world, then another six months in a small side-reality. To be honest, I was only fighting evil at the end. Mostly, it was just monsters.”
“I can’t imagine the kind of experiences you must have had.”
She looked down at his t-shirt, emblazoned with the text I WENT TO A MAGICAL ALTERNATE UNIVERSE AND ALL I GOT WAS VAST COSMIC POWER.
“I’m not entirely sure that I want to,” she added as Jason flashed her an impish grin.
“Look,” Jason said. “I have a lot to offer your organisation. Knowledge, insight. Smouldering sensuality. You know it; the French certainly know it. I’m sure you recognise the potential of someone who’s been where I’ve been. On paper, your Network and I are a good fit, but the relationship has started out very poorly.”