Wilderness hannah, p.2
Wilderness Hannah, page 2
part #3 of Damsel Series
Finally, possibly understanding that she was really going to just sit there, not breaking and blabbing her secrets, which she honestly didn’t have, or talk about crimes that she also hadn’t been out committing, Goering came back.
Looking mildly bemused, instead of annoyed that she hadn’t bothered to say anything.
“You are, of course, free to go. Not that you haven’t been. We don’t tend to hassle crime victims. Even if they’re up to weird shit. Especially when they save lives. We’ll call if anything comes up?”
She was about to ask for her things back, if it was allowed. Surprisingly, the man just passed her a piece of paper and opened the door, waiting for them to exit.
Lionel took the receipt from her, a small pink slip, and walked to a desk, two floors down, gesturing for her to follow. There, the supply clerk didn’t say a lot, other than asking her to sign that she’d gotten everything. Her phone, gun and knife were all there, as well as her purse, which had been dropped before she’d even started to fight. Her I.D. and cards were all in it, though her cash was gone. She didn’t bring it up.
Given she’d figured that the whole thing had been stolen, she was pretty pleased. Now she didn’t have to cancel half of her life. An idea that annoyed her, but she realized she was going to have to, anyway. After all, her cards had been out of her presence in an uncontrolled manner. If she didn’t take care of that kind of thing, she could end up with her identity being stolen.
Which would be more annoying than doing the extra work in the first place.
She was waiting to get home first. She had other cards, and all that, thankfully. It was a perk of being rich. She had backups for things, so even if it took a week to get a new card, she could purchase a latte without having to blow the barista.
Lionel didn’t speak at all, until they were out of the building. She still had the gray blanket on, which would need to come back, she thought. No-one had said anything, but she was certain that there would be a bill in the mail, if she didn’t take care of that. Worse, there might not be, and she didn’t need to make public services cost more than they had to.
Her lawyer got on his own cell phone, which was black and very simple seeming, and dialed a number, without looking up.
“In front. We’re standing by.”
That had, not a limo, but a rather sedate seeming blue economy car pulling up. It had primer spots and a cracked window on the side. Burgess waved at it.
“I know this isn’t normal, but...”
Hannah, for the first time, glared at the man.
“I’ll need more than that. I learned, a long time ago, not to get into strange cars. This doesn’t look normal, so... Why?”
The man nodded, made a face that spoke of annoyance, then spoke, his voice calm.
“To throw off the press. We need to go, quickly. A double will be coming out, in a few moments, to ride in the limo. That one, if I have it right. I was asked to do this, by your father.”
Hannah thought for a moment, and nodded. Then, standing there in a blanket, not really caring if the press wanted to hound her a little, she called her dad up. After remembering the code to unlock her phone.
“Richard de Peyser.”
“Hey Dad... Lionel Burgess, little blue car to hide who I am from the press... Was that your suggestion?”
There was a pause.
“Hiding you for a bit, yes. The specifics weren’t my plan.”
“Got it. I’ll call shortly.”
“Do that. You’re all right?”
“Banged up a little. I’ll live.” She hung up. Not trying to be rude, even if it was.
They just had a time schedule to keep, if they didn’t want to meet the double. Both of them climbed in the back of the little blue car, which smelled of urine, cigarettes, and, if she had any knowledge of alcohol, a very cheap beer of some kind. She didn’t drink that kind of thing, or anything, any longer. It was better than the piss scented seats.
Lionel wrinkled his nose, and growled a bit.
“This was the best you could do?”
The driver, not sounding cowed at all, grunted. He didn’t speak, until they were at the light, however. Then, as he turned sideways, she realized that she’d met him before. Not that she had a name for him. Just that, when she’d needed help, a friend of hers had been able to hire him and several other men, who all had come rather quickly, with some very large weapons.
Now she even knew what some of those were called. Only from VR video games, but she could, in a pinch, use some of them. At least that was the point of her doing that kind of thing. That and being able to pull the trigger, against a moving target, without flinching.
“One of you even looks right to not be who you are, Chief. The other is in a suit. I saw you going up against that supe earlier, de Peyser. Not bad work.”
She snorted.
“In that I lived long enough to be bailed out? It was close.”
“Sure, it was almost a loss. You nearly died. Nearly. You also kept that thing tied up for nearly a full minute. Head to head, with an obvious supe, and it barely scratched you. I wouldn’t have done any better. Maybe not even as well. I counted every shot you took, each stab, as a clean hit. Under stress. It’s kind of hot, I have to admit.”
The man grinned, and looked back at the road. You did that in New York traffic, or hit things. Hannah refused to even try to drive in it. She didn’t have a license for it, even. Some lessons in making a car work, in case it came up in an emergency, but that was all. It probably wasn’t enough, really.
Lionel looked ready to yell at the driver, until Hannah grinned.
“Thanks. Good job, propping me up there, emotionally. Now, Lionel, any word about why my dad wants to hide where I’m going?”
The older man looked over at Hannah, his face set again.
“Oh, certainly.” The man smiled at her, managing a grandfatherly air about the whole thing.
Then didn’t speak again. She understood the idea, of course. The man was testing her, for some reason. It was the kind of thing that people had started doing with her, in the last months. Mainly that was about magic, of course. This time, she had to doubt that was the case.
There had been a time when, out of impatience, or even fear, Hannah would have insisted on knowing the reason behind things. She would have asked. Possibly even complained over not being told immediately. Now she thought first. Requesting information wasn’t a bad idea, but her father had asked a lawyer to do something specific for him. He’d hired a mercenary, instead of getting the man who delivers sandwiches to his office to drive them around, which indicated that he figured there as being a real threat of some sort.
There weren’t ten cars behind them, however, or even two. Not that she could see, looking out the window. That indicated the threat wasn’t something that anyone figured was imminent. Or at least, not a physical thing. Still, it needed someone discrete, at least in potential. Which left her with almost nothing to go on. The press had been mentioned.
She actually did well with them, most of the time. Even if they were coming after her for something she’d done, and there were a few things they could, nothing was all that dark or bad, really. They could have hit on a lie then, of course. Something bad sounding.
Looking at Lionel, Hannah shook her head, then wrinkled her nose.
“My amazing rack so impressed the masses that they...” She had no clue, of course. Their driver snorted. It sounded amused.
“No shit, right? Not that. I can see thinking that, but everyplace running the fight blurred that part out for you. It’s almost like they have morals or something.”
Lionel clearly wasn’t that happy with their driver running his face, but Hannah cleared her throat.
“That can’t be good. The best thing about the media is their lack of that kind of thing.” She didn’t mean it, but Lionel responded, doing his own throat clearing. It sounded stuffy and pretentious when he did it.
“Rather. Truly, I think that your father is merely seeking to protect you from unwanted celebrity, instead of anything too negative coming down on you. Several of his sources mentioned to him that your name has been suddenly trending on three of the major social media sites.”
“Because of the wolfman thing? That’s quick.”
Lionel didn’t answer for a moment, then he coughed.
“No. It’s that television program you’re on? Life of... Kate, isn’t it? Apparently, it’s doing rather well in the ratings, which has been credited to you, in particular. The feeling is that this latest thing on top of that might be, a bit much, actually.”
“Ah... Well, I’ll, I don’t know, lie low for a while? Thanks for the ride.”
They didn’t speak again, until they were at her front door. The car swerved over, allowing her to bail out, moving toward Lewis, the doorman, as quickly as she could. That wasn’t really enough, since six men ran at her then. She nearly drew down on them.
She only avoided that, because she didn’t have any bullets. Waving a weapon that didn’t work was tempting, but not part of her life plan.
Thankfully. Otherwise, a lot of photographers would have died that day. Paparazzi, at the very least.
The older man at the front, who was in a dark red long-coat and matching hat, physically moved then, to grab the door, as she jogged up the steps. Not even bothering with the fourth gait, since she didn’t know how that would play on camera. Or if anyone was getting video of her going home.
Having been busy, working on a cure for the Tri-D magical contagion, Hannah hadn’t really been paying any attention to things like television. She’d barely even hit the regular news channels, most days. No-one had mentioned the show to her at all, even her friend, Kate, hadn’t.
Given the show was called Life of Kate, that kind of showed that they really had other things to worry about. They’d been meeting almost every day, as well. At least when Hannah wasn’t off in the Never, trying to come up with a way to fight demon magic in her own world.
Thinking about that as she got inside, with Lewis glaring at anyone trying to move closer to her, doing a good enough job no-one wanted to risk closing with them, Hannah felt a surge of pride. Sure, beast man had pretty much kicked her ass that day, but Tri-D, a magical weapon that had hit the whole world, had been fought back. Because of her friends.
A thing that, for once, she’d had a bit of a hand in. Technically, the magic that had been used, the three million silver medallions that were being used in hospitals around the world to subvert the dark magic inside those infected, were her doing. She’d come up with it, all on her own.
The real work hadn’t been that part, of course.
No, the hard part had been in actually getting the medical system to use a magical component in their practice. It worked, but the real issue had been denial and distrust, not the lack of a cure. It wasn’t perfect, the magical contagion having really done a lot of damage to anyone who had been infected. Her magic amulets only prevented them from getting worse, or from spreading it. That had been the best Hannah could manage, unfortunately.
Hannah used the biometrics on the elevator, which took her directly to her floor. The ninth one. She didn’t have the whole thing to herself, but her place was a quarter of it. Leaning over for the eye scan pulled at her back. That burned a bit, but she was also feeling the side of her head throbbing. The headache which was going on was mild, but real enough.
Her building was actually nicely secure, most of the time. For instance, as she left the elevator, no-one was waiting outside of her door with a camera. She didn’t need a key to get in, either, since her friend, Tyler, had put a complex code lock on it. That part was annoying, since she had to enter a seven-digit password, made up of random integers, every time she wanted in. The idea was that, unlike with her elevator, no-one would be tempted to pry an eye out of her head just to get into her place.
Plus, anyone getting that code from her would have already had her, which should pretty much prevent them from waiting for her inside, to ambush her. Having her brother there helped prevent that as well, of course.
That had been put in the day after Alistair had left, to go back home.
She still had to try the code twice before she got it right.
Then, as she moved inside the place, she scanned it as if there were going to be people inside anyway. Waiting for her. To do something. Instead, the place was just empty. Deathly quiet. Hannah sighed, then checked every room, including looking in the shower and the large cupboard in the kitchen, just in case. She made certain her forty-four was reloaded, and that her knife was still working smoothly and not dull, before getting into clean clothing.
Then, taking a few deep breaths, she forced her mind away from the pain and got on her computer. Looking to see what was going on. In her own life.
As if that made any sense.
Chapter two
Kate Sinclair came into her place through the front door. That meant calling up first, Lewis doing that for her, and Hannah letting her in, personally. Even if Kate was actually allowed into her place without those steps, being keyed into the whole system. She even had the new door code and everything. The curly dark-haired woman had several large bags of food with her, which was interesting to see. Takeout Italian. Enough for five or six people, even if they each ate a lot. Neither of them needed all that much, which meant something was going on that Hannah didn’t know about.
One of the large paper bags was passed over to her at the door, instead of her getting a hug. Kate grinned at her at the same time. It was a rather charming thing, to be honest. She was good that way, really.
“My part in making sure you don’t die from anorexia. That’s the fourth highest thing trending on Twit-box today, in case you missed it? Hashtag: StarvingHannah. In case you ever think people don’t love you, I just saw an epic battle, with about a thousand people fighting fifty trolls, with the winning side being those who think you need to eat more. Names were called and most of them weren’t even directed at you.”
Making a face, Hannah sighed. In the last several months she’d nearly kept her weight steady, she thought, but her efforts to gain a few pounds really hadn’t happened. She was eating more and everything, so it was just down to the fact that she was also using way more calories constantly. A lot of that was due to her playing in VR daily, to be honest.
That didn’t sound like a big deal, but the things she’d been doing for training actually got her heart beating, for some reason. That and her increased exercise were keeping her thin. A thing that had, obviously, been noticed when she’d gone topless in public that day.
She nodded.
“That’s great. I finally have a public nipple slip and everyone goes on about how skinny I am? Not in a good way, either? Geesh.” She smiled, but it wasn’t really that great to hear about. Then, you really could count all of her ribs when her shirt was off. Her abs were great looking.
Kate, brushing at her slightly curly brown hair, smiled. That was charming and didn’t seem to be condemning her for mental illness, exactly. Hannah didn’t eat a lot, because her entire life had informed her that she needed to be thin. She wasn’t pathologically afraid of being fat, so it was just habit and conditioning for her that way. Oddly enough, giving up drinking and drugs had made it harder to keep her weight up, rather than the other way around.
Booze had calories, and not drinking had cut about five hundred a day from her diet. After all, she liked sugary girl drinks. A thing that had to be made up somewhere else. She was working on it.
They moved to the dining room, and Hannah moved off to get plates and drinking glasses from the kitchen. They had actual food there, now, since Nate bothered to shop for that kind of thing. Hannah had only been in a food store four times in her entire life, herself. Before that she’d ordered things brought in, or ate out, but had always made a point of not keeping much on hand.
Fearing that she’d eat it, if she had it there. It turned out that wasn’t a big problem. Not even after learning a bit about how to cook.
Her best friend nodded.
“On the good side, the top trending phrase was actually WildernessHannah. That...” She shrugged and started to load up plates. Making up four of them, not just two.
Hannah didn’t ask about why that was, simply pointing at the dishware.
Giving her a more forced smile, Katie shrugged.
“Pleny and Carl are coming over. Training related things. If anyone asks, I met them on the show and hired them for a consultation.”
That was weak, and while the men had both been at her place, they hadn’t been there as themselves, just to visit, at all. Only in their superhero identities. Luther and Zip. Having them over as real people made some sense to her, but could give some things away, if she were being watched. Which she was.
“Are you getting them? We don’t want them being seen. Or do we? If we’re faking relationships, I call dibs on Pleny.” That was snarky enough that it could have been taken as mean. Still, it was possibly the reason they were coming.
She didn’t honestly get that bit, but Kate was better with the whole celebrity part of life than Hannah was. Enough that she had her own reality show and had favorable press, pretty much when she wanted it. Hannah tended to be in the media when someone attacked her. That or when Kate arranged for her to be seen. A few times when she’d been standing too close to cooler party girls, back when she’d done things like that herself.
Now, having stopped with the drugs and drinking, which had nearly killed her sex life at the same time, even if she wasn’t planning to give that part up, she didn’t think anyone would be talking about her much at all. There had been that attack, sure, but the truth was, when she’d finally glanced at her name on the computer earlier, she’d found that people had been talking about her a lot.
Mainly about how she and the studio had faked making her look like she wasn’t a whining heiress on a television show. Most of that hadn’t been flattering. Even though the ratings were pretty sweet, she had to admit.
