Book of madness, p.10
Book of Madness, page 10
“Yeah, well reading stuff on the Internet doesn’t endanger your sanity or soul.” She sighed. “All right, you’ve got a magic book, and you’ve been reading it. What have you learned that’ll help Mama?”
Randal smiled. “How to make a new drug, one much stronger than DarkGaze, that will give me the power to rescue Mama. I just need two things from you.”
“What?”
“A place to work and some of Mama’s venom. I know you keep a supply here.”
Della looked suddenly uncomfortable. “That’s ridiculous, why would—”
“Because in its raw state, it loosens a person’s ties to this reality and opens their mind to others. By adding my blood to Mama’s venom, I was able to create DarkGaze, allowing anyone to see into Shadow just like I do. For a short time, anyway.”
“And with some fucking awful side effects.”
Randal ignored that. “But a few drops of venom can give someone a temporary feeling of intense euphoria.”
“Are you implying that I use Mama’s venom as a drug?”
“For yourself? Maybe every now and again. But for your customers? You can charge a hell of a lot more selling that kind of experience than you can for just cutting hair. Or shaving dead skin off a customer’s head.”
Della didn’t say anything for several moments, but then she gave him a sly smile.
“How much do you need?”
Gina opened her eyes and tried to sit up, but someone was pressing her shoulders and holding her down.
“It’s okay! You’re in a Med Bay. You’re going to be all right.”
Gina’s eyes were still dazed from the intensity of Rachel’s flames and the light shining down on her didn’t help. All she could see was a silhouette of someone hovering over her, trying to keep her from sitting up.
Fuck that.
Gina got her hands underneath the silhouette and shoved as hard as she could. The silhouette staggered backward and struck a wall.
“Damn, Sis! When did you get so strong?”
Sis?
Gina realized then that the voice belonged to a woman, and not just any woman, but her sister, Juliana.
Gina sat up, blinking to try and clear her vision.
“God, I’m so sorry, Jules! I didn’t know it was you.”
Juliana stepped back to the side of the bed.
“No harm done. It’s no wonder you reacted the way you did, what with me holding you down like that. But you started thrashing in your sleep, and I was afraid you might hurt yourself.”
“I had a bad dream.”
Her vision began to return to normal, and she was able to make out the blurry image of her sister. Juliana had dark hair like their father and, although she was several years older than Gina, she was shorter, which was why Gina always joked that, technically, she was the bigger sister.
Juliana wore an open-front long-sleeved casual white blazer over a white blouse. A brown belt, dark jeans, and brown boots completed her outfit. No smart glasses, though. Gina assumed they were in one of the blazer’s pockets. The Sandovals were more . . . relaxed about following Maintenance’s dress code than most agents. The family believed that while it was important to slow Entropy as much as possible, life was short and you should enjoy it.
Plus, agents had to deal with so much darkness in their work that it was a constant battle not to give in to depression and despair. The Sandovals believed that living well helped balance out the darkness they encountered in their professional lives. Gina understood. How could she not? That was how she’d been raised. But as she’d gotten older she’d become increasingly uncomfortable with her family’s live-well philosophy, especially when they emphasized the material aspects of such a life.
Gina looked around. She was in a small recovery room, presumably in the Medical Bay at the Ash Creek facility. There were no Med Techs around and she wasn’t hooked up to any monitors, so she figured she must be doing all right.
“Is Neal okay? Did he get hurt too?”
Juliana smiled. “He’s fine. The Med Techs told me that he stayed in the waiting room the entire time you were being treated. Your supervisor called him away to meet with an Inspector from Control.”
An Inspector! And one making an unannounced visit? That wasn’t good.
“Eleanor, are you there? Do you know what’s going on with this Inspector?”
Silence.
“You’re not wearing your glasses, Gi,” Juliana said.
Gina reached up to touch her face and found that her sister was right. She looked down and saw that someone had tucked her glasses into her shirt pocket. She started to reach for them, but Juliana reached out and touched her hand, stopping her.
“I think it’s best if we talk in private for now.”
Gina lowered her hand. Agents weren’t required to wear their glasses all the time. They took them off during meals and restroom breaks, and of course they didn’t wear them when they were off duty. Gina was technically still on the clock, but no one had come in to tell her that she was cleared to return to work. And someone had removed her glasses and put them in her shirt pocket. It wasn’t as if she’d taken them off herself. Still, she found Juliana’s insistence that they speak privately to be worrisome, and this made her realize that she didn’t fully trust her family. How sad was that?
“All right,” she said. “What do you want to talk about?”
“How are you feeling?”
“Headachy and a bit weak, but otherwise, I’m okay.”
“Good. You had a close call today. Do you remember what happened?”
“I remember Neal and me checking out a house that had a strong E-energy reading. We went inside and found that the place was suffused with Corruption, and when we went into the backyard . . .” She shook her head. “That’s all I’ve got.”
“You were attacked by an Aberrant. The thing possessed stingers, and it injected you with its venom. You passed out before backup could arrive to deal with the creature, and you were brought here. The medical team worked frantically to clear the venom from your system before it could cause any significant damage.”
So that’s what had happened to her. She still didn’t remember the details, but she did have a mental image of a pale creature with multiple eyes and tentacles in place of arms—and a sharp hook on the end of each tentacle. The Witch Lady, she thought recalling Neal’s childhood name for the thing.
A thought occurred to her.
“What are you doing here? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see you. But I thought you were in San Francisco.”
Their parents were stationed in D.C.—which was where the Sandoval children had grown up—but Juliana now worked on the west coast, while their brother worked in NYC.
“I had some business in D.C., so I was staying with Mom and Dad. When I learned what had happened to you, I came straightaway. D.C. isn’t that far away from Ash Creek.”
Especially when you have access to private jets, Gina thought. Aloud, she said, “I’m surprised Mom and Dad didn’t come.”
“They would have, but they’re in Europe right now on assignment and Emigdio is in Australia.”
Were they working for Maintenance, or were they doing business with the Black Trust for their own profit? She hated being suspicious of her family, but rumors about the Sandovals being corrupt with a lowercase c had circulated among agents for years.
Gina had assumed they were the product of envy. Her family were among the top agents Maintenance had, and she assumed that Control was aware of the rumors about them, had investigated them, and had determined that her family was clean. So, let people be jealous, what did she care?
Then she had come to Ash Creek—her first posting after graduating from the Homestead—and had become Neal’s partner. When Neal had been a new agent, he’d been partnered with her father for a short time, and Neal had considered him a mentor. But Neal had his suspicions about where Amador’s true allegiance lay, and she’d come to believe those suspicions had a strong foundation in reality.
Since then, she hadn’t taken anything her family told her at face value, had always looked for an ulterior motive behind their words. It hurt her to view her family like this, but she’d rather know the truth and deal with it than continue to believe comforting lies.
“How did you find out what happened?” Gina asked. “Wait—do Mom and Dad have people spying on me?”
Gina laughed. “Of course, they do! They have connections in every Maintenance office around the world. If anything important happens anywhere, the Sandovals know about it. Mom and Dad learned of the incident shortly after it happened. They called to tell me, and I called Neal to get the details. After that, I hauled ass for the airport.”
Gina was furious. She was a grown woman and a fully trained and experienced Maintenance agent. She didn’t need anyone to babysit her, especially secretly and from afar.
“I’ve seen that look before,” Juliana said. “It’s your Mom-and-Dad-Quit-Interfering-in-My-Life look. You’ve always been the most independent of us.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“When independence becomes stubbornness, it can be bad. You can’t blame Mom and Dad for wanting to keep an eye on you, though. During your first few days in Ash Creek, you ended up tangling with two of the fucking Multitude! You’re lucky to still be alive and sane.”
Gina had to admit, if only to herself, that luck had played a role during their encounter with Rachel Blackburn and Brother Nothing, but she and Neal had busted their asses and risked their lives to defeat the two evil beings, managing to save the world in the bargain. In no way did luck account for all of that.
“Mom and Dad had hoped that the rest of your time in Ash Creek would go smoothly, but it hasn’t.”
“It’s been eight months since Rachel tried to build and activate the Atrocity Engine.”
“And how many time during those months did Neal put you into dangerous situations?”
Gina hesitated. “I don’t know if I’d call them dangerous exactly.”
“What about the time when you and Neal discovered a civilization of Corruption-worshipping rats in the town’s sewer system? Or when the two of you became lost in the Oversea for four days? Or—”
Gina held up a hand to stop her sister.
“I get the point, but Dad —”
“Yes, Dad likes Neal and thinks he’s a good agent. He also thinks he takes too many chances, and that he’s a danger to his partners. Look what happened to the one before you. Pam, right? She died because Neal couldn’t just do his job and observe and report. He had to act.”
“That’s not exactly—”
“Mom and Dad think it’s a good idea for you to transfer out of Ash Creek. Emigdio and I do, too. Not just for your own safety, although that is a big part of it. But because you’re being wasted here. Ash Creek is a Podunk little town, and it can only do so much for your career. Dad knew that, which is why he left after . . . what? A year-and-a-half? Frankly, he waited too long.
It’s too easy to get trapped in a place like this. After a while, Control starts to view you as a small-town agent and they stop seeing you as someone with the potential to move up the ladder. You need to make your move sooner rather than later, before Neal gets you killed. And you need to let Mom and Dad help you. They’ve worked hard to develop relationships with people at the highest levels of Control. They can get you posted just about anywhere you want—especially since you’ve dealt with members of the Multitude. That officially makes you a bad-ass!”
“I didn’t do it alone,” Gina said.
Juliana waved her hand dismissively, as if that detail scarcely mattered.
“You belong to an important family, and you’ve established a solid reputation for yourself. It’s time for you to take advantage of both.”
“It doesn’t seem right.”
“People who are born tall have an advantage over people who are born short. Is it wrong for tall people to use their height in their profession and to better their lives? Being born a Sandoval is no different, and there’s nothing wrong with using it to your advantage—so long as you have the talent and skills to go with it. And you do.”
Exploiting her family name for personal benefit still seemed wrong to Gina, but she didn’t know how to communicate this to Juliana in a way that her sister could understand.
“And does being a Sandoval mean that I have to work with the Black Trust too?”
Juliana’s expression hardened. “What are you trying to say?”
“Dad told me that he, Mom, you, and Emigdio deal with the Black Trust as undercover agents for Maintenance.”
“Oh.” Juliana was silent for several seconds, as if she was choosing her next words carefully. “Yes, it’s true. Not that any of us like it, but it’s important work. You could be involved in it if you wanted, but there’s no reason you’d have to be. It would be entirely your choice.”
There was something in Juliana’s voice that told Gina that, while her sister was telling the truth, she wasn’t telling all of it. Maybe it was finally time for Gina to confront her family directly about the issue and not give up until she believed she’d gotten the full truth from them.
“Jules, I . . .”
She trailed off as her memories fighting the Witch Lady and her experience with Rachel on the Nightway came back in a rush. Images, sounds, thoughts, and feelings overwhelmed her, and for a moment she couldn’t speak. She remembered Rachel driving on the Nightway in her skeletal vehicle, with Gina riding in the passenger seat. Remembered stopping near a large building that looked like an ancient Greek temple that glowed with baleful green light. Remembered what Rachel had told her.
One of the books isn’t in the Athenaeum where it should be. It’s in Ash Creek.
“I have to find Neal!”
She jumped off the bed, so panicked and full of adrenaline that she no longer felt weak.
“Gina, what the hell is wrong with you?” Juliana said. “Do I need to call the doctor?”
But Gina was barely aware of her sister’s presence now. Assuming Rachel hadn’t lied to her—and Gina had sensed no deception on the woman’s part—one of the Libri Tenebrarum, the darkest, deadliest books in all of history, was right here in Ash Creek at this very moment. Neal needed to know, everyone did. And they had to find the book and bring it back here safely—or as safely as was humanly possible.
Gina shoved open the door, ran into the hallway, and kept running. A moment later, her sister followed, calling out her name.
“Gina! Gina, stop!”
Gina’s only response was to run faster.
“It’s certainly an interesting specimen,” Donnie said.
“She,” Neal corrected.
Donnie looked at him and smiled. “Yes, of course. She.” He turned back to the holding cell containing the Witch Lady.
Neal wasn’t sure why Donnie’s misgendering of the Witch Lady had bothered him so much, but it had. Maybe it was just a symptom of how off-balance he felt right now. Seeing Donnie for the first time since they’d graduated from the Homestead had been a real shock, especially after Gina’s getting hurt by the Witch Lady.
The holding cells were located near the building’s back entrance—the easier for drop-off and later pickup. Maintenance’s Ash Creek HQ was in the Hawthorne Office Park on the Eastside, in a one-level, dark-red brick building with a dozen white vans parked in front. There were other businesses in the office park—a dentist, a lawyer, a real estate agent, a veterinarian—so all prisoners were brought around to the back of the building, especially those like the Witch Lady, whose appearance might draw too much attention.
The cell’s walls and floor were constructed from gray stone overlaid with silver wire mesh, as were the iron bars on the front of the cage. A low electronic hum filled the air. The mesh employed the same technology as Maintenance’s Null weapons and Suppression Cuffs. Energy that countered Corruption flowed through the mesh, sapping a prisoner’s strength and making it impossible for them to use any special abilities they might possess. Nikole and Kenton—the Interventionists who’d brought in the Witch Lady—had left her Suppression Cuffs on as an extra precaution, and Neal approved.
The Witch Lady sat cross-legged on the floor, seemingly relaxed, but her uncuffed tentacles and long tail lashed the air in irritation. She fixed her small, black bug eyes on them and spoke.
“Don’t talk about me as if I wasn’t here.”
Donnie ignored her and turned to Neal.
“Her mutation is far more severe than the usual Aberrant.”
Neal didn’t like that word—Aberrant—and he never used it himself. It sounded too much like a slur to him.
“Yeah. The interior of the house she lives in was pretty far gone. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s a good thing you detected it. It sounds like the Corruption was on the verge of breaking free of the house’s confines, and that would’ve been a disaster. How have you been, Neal?”
The abrupt change of subject took Neal by surprise.
“Uh, good, I guess. Just working, you know. Doing the whole slowing Entropy thing. How about you? When you graduated from training, you were going to work in . . . I think it was Portland?”
“That’s right. I started as a Debriefer and eventually worked my way up to Administration until I became a Supervisor. After that, I transferred from Portland to Phoenix and started working as a local Inspector.”
“Quite a change—from green, cool, and rainy to dry, hot, and . . . What color is the ground in Phoenix? Tan? Brown? Gray?”
Donnie smiled. “It’s a mix. And yes, it was a big change. I did a good job as an Inspector. Broke up a Black Trust smuggling ring at the Tucson HQ and caught the Supervisor at the Scottsdale office selling Maintenance tech in the Stygian Market. Stuff like that. Control took notice and moved me to D.C. Now I go wherever they send me, mostly in America, but sometimes in Canada.”
