A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1)

A Despair of Demons

Travelers: Book 1

By

Cassy Campbell

Cover art and text copyright
2013 by Cassy Campbell.

This book is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual incidents,
locations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form, by any means, without express written permission from the author.

Author’s caveat:

Because of the famous and near-mythical nature of Area 51,
the Ranch, Groom Lake, and Rachel, Nevada, I have used their names and rough
locations. However, I’ve taken wild liberties with the geography of those
places in the interest of storytelling. I hope the few citizens and many Area
51 aficionados will forgive me and enjoy the story as it’s told. If it helps,
consider this: Liv’s Home World may be set up slightly differently than the one
you live in. Or perhaps the government has kept secrets better than you think,
and the next time you head to Las Vegas, you’ll encounter her and Jordan out
for a night on the town. You’ll never know her actual occupation, of
course.
 
Travelers are a secretive
bunch.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Epilogue

Don’t let
this be the end!

About the
author

April, present day. Previously unexplored
parallel world, DEPOT designation L-634S, corresponding California.

Where are all the people?
Dr. Olivia
Greenwood asked herself. It was far from an idle question, and her brain picked
at it, puzzling over possible answers as she followed Jordan down the street.

They walked
through a city that had once been similar to many in Home World. Skyscrapers
loomed above them, but their broken empty windows stared like dead eyes. Weeds
flourished between cracks in the pavement, the road was littered with
burned-out heaps of melted plastic that had once been cars, and she suspected
that the small mountain of rubble to their left had started life as a bridge.

The only things
that broke the eerie silence were the wind hooting through empty windows and
her boots crunching on the gritty street.

She glanced at
Jordan as he stepped silently along without appearing to try. With his DEPOT
uniform blending into his surroundings and the silence of his movement, he
could have been a ghost. His tense shoulders, pinched mouth, eyes in constant
motion, and sidearm held pointed at the ground told her the creepy emptiness
was getting to him too.

She shivered,
wishing she carried a machine gun instead of her Sentinel Premier and the
backup P238 on her ankle, but nothing bigger than a handgun would come with
them when they Traveled. As a cognitive neuroscientist and the DEPOT’s top
Travel expert, it was one of the mysteries of Travel she hoped to one day
solve.

She was glad
when a rock popped under her boot with a sound like a gunshot. At least it
proved they weren’t ghosts.

Jordan turned
toward her, his blue eyes glowing like gas flames in the gray light. He flashed
a quick smile. “Feels like we’re about to be attacked.”

“I know. Let’s
hope one of the others finds something soon.” T36, their Department of Parallel
and Otherdimensional Travel team, had drawn this mission. Commander Connor
Bryant, team leader, had ordered them to split up on arrival. She and Jordan
had headed west while Connor and his partner Petty Officer Trent Nagano had
gone east, and Lieutenant Ben Farthing and his partner Gin Karelli headed
north. They were looking for anything of scientific, military, or medical
value.

So far they’d
found only dust and silence.

“It’s weird,”
Jordan said. “Not a single bird or squirrel. You’d think the place would be
crawling with wildlife.” He peered through a broken shop window at the wares
sitting inside as if still for sale.

Liv hadn’t
thought of that, but now she realized it was unusual. “Yeah. It’s just this
sprawling Necropolis.”

His eyes
flashed to hers and returned to scanning their blasted surroundings. “That’s
the perfect description.”

She skirted a
car blocking the road while Jordan glanced into the empty front seat. “Where is
everybody? I mean, if they’re dead, where are the bodies?”

“I can’t
imagine. What do you think could have done this?”

“Who knows?
There’s plenty of damage, but nothing’s looted. It’s like something happened to
everyone, all at once.”

“And then they
disappeared.”

Jordan stopped
at a newspaper kiosk and grabbed a paper. His expression turned grim as he
studied the front page.

“Look at this.”

She couldn’t
read the language, but the pictures were unmistakable: dead bodies and sick
people overflowing hospital corridors.

“Can you read
it?” she asked. One of Jordan’s areas of expertise was languages and he was
fluent in about thirty of them, so if anyone could read it, he could.

Jordan studied
the paper for a minute. “No. It’s similar to Old English in form, but some of
the letters are Greek, some are Latin, and the language itself isn’t Old
English, Greek, or Latin.”

He set the
paper down on the sidewalk and snapped pictures with the camera he carried in a
vest pocket. Jordan generally took a lot of pictures, since absolutely nothing
could be brought back Home from another world—another mystery of Travel
Liv wished she could explain.

When Jordan had
chronicled every page he returned the paper to the kiosk and they continued
down the street away from the center of the city. Skyscrapers gave way to
three- and four-story buildings, then to townhouses and free-standing homes.

Jordan stopped
in front of a stone wall with an arched entrance. Whatever was beyond the arch
was hidden in shrubbery. A stone rhinoceros stood on a pedestal at each side of
the overgrown pathway, guarding the entry.

Liv stopped
next to him, trying to see what he was staring at. “What?”

“We have to go
in here,” Jordan said.

“Why?”

“Because this
is the library. I can find a reference to read their language. I might be able
to tell what happened.”

Liv peered
through the foliage at the barely-visible building. “What makes you think this
is the library?”

“The
rhinoceroses.”

She fought down
a laugh and his eyebrows drew down in a don’t-do-it expression. She couldn’t
resist. “And hippopotamus-usses?”

He shook his
head, ignoring her broad grin. “No. Rhinoceros isn’t Latin. ‘Rhinoceroses’ is
the correct plural form. And they’re known in some cultures as animals
associated with wisdom and learning.”

Liv raised her
eyebrow, but when Jordan said crazy things like this he was always right.

“Let’s go,
Doubting Debbie.”

She held up her
hands, her attempt at an innocent expression possibly ruined by the large handgun
she still held. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You thought
it.”

Liv grinned
again, but nodded for him to go on. He pushed through the leafy path as she
took a last sweep of the deserted street and followed.

A carved oak
door swam out of the shrubbery, the entrance to a stone cottage buried in the
overgrowth. “This isn’t a library. It looks like my Gram’s.”

“We’ll see.”

Jordan stopped
at the right side of the door and Liv stepped to the left. They stood with
sidearms pointed at the ground, ready to sweep up as they went in. He gave her
a nod, another, and on the third, pushed the door open. Liv darted through,
Jordan on her heels. She went high and left, he went low and right, as usual.

“Clear.”

“Clear.”

She dropped her
shooter’s stance and looked around. They stood in a foyer with a wooden
stairway directly in front of her and a sitting room to the right through an
arch. Gangrenous light barely filtered through the leaves outside, and several
tables covered in lace tablecloths glowed like poisonous mushrooms in the
gloom.

The smell of
old paper reminded her of every library she’d ever walked into. Looked like
Jordan was right again.

Liv followed as
he passed through the foyer to a sitting room. A few books lay scattered on
tables as if they’d just been set down. Several doors opened off the sitting
room, giving glimpses of rooms lined floor to ceiling with books. She saw other
doors in those rooms leading to still others, and wondered how big the building
was.

Jordan turned
to her with a raised eyebrow and her mouth quirked into a smile. “You were
right, as usual.”

They searched
the rest of the building. When they found nothing alive or dead, they headed
back to the biggest book room.

Jordan clicked
his radio on. “Connor, come in.”

A crack of
static was immediately followed by Connor’s voice. “Go ahead.”

“I found a
library. I think I can read their language if I can just find some references.”

“You’re at 74
south by 186 east?”

They each wore
a locator that they synched to their arrival point in every parallel world. It
tracked its position from that arrival point and communicated with the others
to map the area. Jordan checked his. “Yes.”

“Ben and Gin?”
Connor asked.

Ben replied
immediately. “Still searching. Still nothing.”

“Keep at it,”
Connor said. There was a brief pause. “Jordan, Trent wants a look at the tech
stuff. We’ll be there in ten.”

Jordan
immediately turned to the nearest rack of books and started pulling them down,
finally giving in to the curiosity Liv knew he’d been suppressing since they’d
entered the building. Although he was the DEPOT’s linguist and expert on the
evolution of worlds, his chosen field was history. He loved nothing more than
learning the history of a new culture, unless it was cracking a new language.

Liv leaned
against a table but kept her sidearm ready as he dumped his finds on the other
table, raising a cloud of dust, and took a chair.

A scuffle at
the door made her whirl, gun leveled at the intruder.

Connor’s voice
called out, “It’s us.”

Liv relaxed and
glanced back at Jordan. He was already deep into three books, flipping between
the one in his lap and the two on the table, and didn’t look up.

Connor ghosted
into the room, nearly as silent as Jordan. Liv didn’t know where Jordan had
learned his stealth, but Connor’s came from military training; before joining
the DEPOT, he had been Commander Connor Bryant, leader of his SEAL platoon.

Right now he
looked a lot messier than usual: his tall, lean form was liberally coated in
gray dust, from his black hair to his tanned, weathered face. His
uniform—gray camo short-sleeved-shirt, matching camo utility vest with
bulletproof Kevlar panels and plenty of pockets, gray camo fatigue pants with
plenty more pockets, and gray sage boots, hid the dust perfectly. She’d been
told there was some sort of light-reflecting technology in the fabric that made
it blend into any background color.

Trent followed
Connor through the door like a shadow. He was half a foot shorter than Connor
but just as lean, his black hair longer and currently cleaner than Connor’s. He’d
served as a Petty Officer in Connor’s SEAL platoon, where they’d discovered
their mutual ability to Travel. They’d joined the DEPOT when their tours ended
rather than renewing their enlistments. Now they were partners.

Liv wondered
what they had been doing. She raised her eyebrows, but Trent shook his head.
Don’t ask.

Connor gave Liv
a nod as he walked up and leaned next to her on the table. He stared as Jordan
referenced yet another book—now there were three open on the table. Then
he walked over and put a hand on the page Jordan was reading. “How long will
this take?”

Jordan looked
up. “Oh, hey Con.” He shrugged. “I don’t know how long. So far, I can read four
words.”

“All right.” He
turned his gaze on Trent, the team’s engineer and industrial expert. “You two
stay here. Determine their level of industrial, medical, and weapons
technology, decide if there’s anything we might be interested in. The usual.
Jordan, do what you do. Liv, you’re with me.”

Liv glanced at
Jordan, who was already buried in his books again.

Trent rubbed
his hands together. “Excellent! Let’s see what we have here.” He found a shelf
full of instruction manuals, pulled one down and instantly immersed himself as
deeply as Jordan. Liv glanced at the incomprehensible diagrams, glad she didn’t
have to decipher that stuff, especially when it wasn’t in English. Neither
Trent nor Jordan looked up as she and Connor left.

Connor and Liv
headed east until the road ended abruptly at a man-made bay lined by loading
docks. There was no water to the east in Home World’s California, but parallel
worlds didn’t necessarily have parallel geography. She held up a scanner, and
when Connor nodded and stopped to wait, dipped it into the water. “No salt. It’s
an inland lake.”

“Let’s check
out the storage units.” He pointed to the warehouses lining the shore, each
metal building accompanied by its own metal pier and loading area. They
searched the first warehouse, which was empty, and the second, which was also
empty.

At the third
warehouse, Liv followed Connor through the door as she had twice before. “Clear.”

“Clear.”

She looked
around at the sheet metal hallway and glanced up through the open space above
them to the warehouse roof stories above.

She glanced at
Connor. “This is new.”

He raised his
eyebrows. “Maybe there’s something here.”

He signaled her
left and turned to go right. Liv’s hallway ended at a door that opened into the
warehouse itself. She glanced back and saw Connor pass through a similar door
into the room beyond. She turned and went through her door fast, sidearm
leveled.

Stacks of
wooden boxes loomed all around, throwing odd shadows. A row of clerestory
windows floated high in the gloom of the far wall, but they didn’t throw much
light to the ground. At least the floor was clean so she could step silently.

She opened one
box, and saw it held yellowish bricks. Another revealed the same contents.

Well that’s boring.

She slipped
around a stack of boxes three times her height and caught movement out of the
corner of her eye. She swung toward it and caught a shadow darting behind a
lopsided stack of broken crates in the corner.

“Freeze! Come
out where I can see you.” Scuffing noises came from the corner, and she hoped
she hadn’t discovered whatever was responsible for the emptiness of this world.
“Come out with your hands in the air.”

Out shuffled an
ordinary-looking man with pale skin and black-and-blue streaked hair. His hands
were up as ordered, and empty. Since Jordan wasn’t here, she was glad he
appeared to understand English. Surprisingly, denizens of disparate worlds
often did, but divergent evolution caused strange inconsistencies even in
worlds similar to Home World.

She held her
gun on him with one hand and reached for her radio with the other, but barely
got her finger on the button when he said, “Stop.”

She put her
hand back on her gun and took a few steps forward, keeping it aimed at him.
Protocol in this situation dictated that any potential witness be immobilized
and apprehended immediately.