Contractor (32 page)

having Rachel at her beck and call. If he kept

taking up Rachel’s time, Eleanor might try to

do something about it.

No. He should assume she was
going
to

do something about it. He’d have to be ready

for that.

"Well, whatever," Daniel said. "Never

fear, Danny’s here. Let’s do the next

section."

The clock kept ticking. With a little

direction, Rachel started making measurable

progress. They took frequent study breaks in

the form of make-out sessions.

He managed to get commitments for two

more dates, but she could never stay out very

late. Another thing that had to do with

Eleanor. It sort of worked out in his favor,

though; he had a lot of hunting to do. He

wasn’t sure when the extractors would show

up in Boston, but it was only a matter of

time.

The entrance to the dorm opened. They

both looked to the end of the common room.

"Ah," Daniel said. "Lieutenant. You’re needed on the bridge."

"Right away, captain commander." Jack

paused at the edge of the couch. He gave

Rachel a weird look, scratched his buzz-cut,

then walked down the hall behind them. "See

you."

Rachel waited until he was out of

earshot. "I don’t think he likes me."

"He’s just shy."

"If you say so." She flipped her pen in

her fingers. "Is the captain thing some kind of

inside joke?"

"It’s from a video game." Daniel looked

down the hall after Jack. "He usually gets

home early. Maybe he’s finally coming out of

the shell a bit."

"More than a bit," Rachel said. "We saw him earlier."

"You did?"

She nodded. "He was bragging to some

girls from another dorm about his car. They

were dumb as rocks, and that’s an insult to

rocks, but he was doing just fine for

himself." Daniel frowned. Rachel caught his

expression. "Aww. Wittle Jacky leaving the

bird’s nest?" Daniel gave her a half-smile.

She stuck her tongue out at him, then set back

to work.

Daniel played with the lock of hair on

his forehead. He didn’t know Jack had a car.

In fact, Jack had just told him the other day

that he was here mostly on scholarship. He

didn’t have that much spending money. Why

would he be bragging about a car?

After they’d gotten through a solid

chapter, Daniel decided to let Rachel go. She

gave him a very long, very steamy goodnight

kiss. She broke away, but kept a hand on his

shirt collar. "Hey Daniel?"

"Hey Rachel."

She traced a finger up to his neck and

along his chin. "Maybe we can study in my

room next time?"

"Um…sure. Whatever works."

Rachel giggled and stepped back from

him. "You are so easy. See you tomorrow!"

Daniel watched her sway down to the

stairwell, then walked back to his room,

running a hand along the drywall. How far

was he going to push things with her?

Running a victory lap with a girl while

dealing with the Vorid was dangerous.

She was beautiful. Sweet. Playful. Too

good for him to risk because for his own

petty selfishness. But she was addicting.

He brushed his hair back over his ears.

He’d made his decision back in the park. If

he second-guessed himself on everything,

he’d never get anywhere. He had as much a

right to be happy as anyone.

He just wished he had as much a right to

be as normal as anyone.

He went into the room. Jack was busy

playing a shooter on his PC. "Yo J-dog,"

Daniel said. "What’s kickin’ in the hood?"

"Just fraggin’ some mofo’s." Jack

pounded at his keyboard. "Shitshitshit!" An RPG connected at Jack’s feet. His character

was blown to pieces. He slapped the mouse

down on the desk. "Goddamn lag!"

"Sure, blame it on the lag." Daniel took

his shoes off. "What were you up to?"

"When I was out?" Jack said. He kept

his eyes on the screen. "Nothing interesting.

Extra help session for my test."

"I heard from Rachel you went out with

some girls."

"Yeah, that was before."

"I didn’t know you had a car."

Jack finally looked at him. "Huh?"

"She said you were bragging about a

car. Would have made the grocery shopping

a bit easier."

Jack smiled sheepishly. "I don’t, but a

friend of mine does, so I was talking it up a

bit. He was drunk at the time, but he offered

to let me borrow it. Maybe you know him?

His name’s Richard. Real huge guy. He’s the

one that got his finger broken by duchess."

"…yeah, I know him." Daniel sighed.

He didn’t want to rain on his friend’s parade,

but maybe he should say something about

Richard. Jack might not know how he was.

Jack frowned. "Hey, Daniel, can I tell

you something? Bro to bro?"

"Sure."

"Rachel?" He shook his head. "I get bad vibes, man. All the guys say she’s a total

bitch. There’s a rumor going around that

they’re lesbians. Her and duchess."

Daniel laughed. "She’s bi at worst.

Anyway, that’s because they’re constantly

hitting on her and getting rejected. Or they’re

spreading propaganda to get me out of the

way."

"You think so?"

"I’ve seen people do worse for less."

"You guys official, or what?"

He thought back to that kiss. And her

sultry invitation. "Yeah, it’s pretty official."

"Just keep your guard tight." Jack said.

"I mean, you seemed pretty friendly on that

couch, but you just met her. She was

duchess’s lapdog first. Trust me. I’ve had

some bad experiences with women."

"I’ll keep my eyes open, ok?" Daniel

said. Jack nodded, then swiveled back to his

game.

Daniel sat on his bed. Jack was just

trying to look out for him, and maybe he had

a point. He didn’t know everything about her,

did he? Was the Rachel he saw just her

public face? It was just a little extra worry

piling onto a swiftly growing mound.

He sighed and leaned back on his

pillow. He’d sort it out the next morning.

****

The next morning was not the soothing

period of introspection Daniel hoped it

would be. When he went for breakfast, he

found a group of people clustered in front of

the common room TV—Rachel and Eleanor

included. He walked up to them. "What’s

going on?"

"There’s been another murder," Rachel

said. "This one broke on the news, and they

dug up the other two stories." She said the

next words through gritted teeth. "He’s being

called the Boston Smasher. Because of the

way he does it."

"That’s messed up." Daniel poked his

head between the shoulders of the onlookers.

Sure enough, there were fly-by shots of a

crime scene. He read text at the bottom of the

screen.

Boston Smasher Strikes Again: Police

Attempt to Cover Up Third Attack

Daniel wrapped Rachel around the

waist. "Don’t go out alone, alright?" She

nodded and hugged him back.

Daniel didn’t miss Eleanor’s eyes. She

did not approve of their growing closeness.

He noted it, and filed it away.

As the day went on, the news spread.

Two of the three girls were from

Northeastern. Campus security was on high

alert. Everyone was traveling in packs of

four or five people. Daniel had a feeling that,

from the way the killer operated, having

more people might not help.

Two weeks passed. The calculus test

came and went, and Rachel earned a B+, her

best so far. It was plenty enough to pull her

up from borderline failing.

They saw each other after class every

day. When they could, they ate meals

together. Rachel tried to balance her time

between him and Eleanor. Daniel could hear

the tension in her voice when Rachel

excused herself on that account. The problem

wasn’t going away.

Daniel had yet to see the inside of her

room. She was outgoing enough to be

forward about that sort of thing, but he

wanted to take things slow.

He really liked her. He knew that. He

hadn’t felt so strongly about someone

since…ever. He could feel the infatuation

corrupting his judgement as sure as purple

haze. He kept rationalizing why it was fine

for him to continue seeing her. He was an

idiot.

Just being associated with him was a

dangerous thing. But he knew why he kept

going back. For the first time in a very long

time, Daniel was honestly, truly happy with

his personal life. He was at college, learning

about what he wanted to do. He had friends

he could actually talk to. And for some crazy

reason, a beautiful redhead wanted to date

him. Trying to stop himself from bathing in

his relationships was the equivalent of a

druggie turning up his nose at three million

dollars of cocaine.

One thing for sure, though—he was

convinced Jack’s worries were baseless.

Either the Rachel he knew was the real

Rachel, or she was the best actor he’d ever

known. For now, that was enough.

He’d made the decision. He was seeing

her, for better or worse. His heart sung that it

was for the better, but the sense of

responsibility was clear. If he wanted a life,

he had to grow strong enough to protect it.

Five weeks had passed since the start of

school, and still the Vorid extractor dome

didn’t come. He kept checking and adding to

his gear. Without much else to do, his armor

was a growing mess of plates and loops.

After surviving another two rounds of

extractors in Aplington, and all around the

suburbs surrounding his hometown, he was a

lot stronger, but the Vorid might use a

different strategy on a city this big. He

wasn’t sure what to expect.

He spent a night sprinting back to

Aplington to meet the extractor threat. His

hometown was still on its normal schedule.

Now he was strong enough to take on three at

once without much effort. If he came in

quick, he could hit them before they could

react.

He had to range far away to find prey

back in the city. The magicians watching

over Boston had erased the Vorid spawn

presence. He was happy for that, but the long

wait for an attack was oppressive.

****

It was just past midnight. Daniel was

reading a book on his bed when he felt the

dark crack in the sky tear open. He rolled

over and looked out the window.

The dome fell as a gray curtain, silent

cloth draped over half the city. It was at least

four or five times the size of the ones he’d

seen in Cleveland and Aplington. The border

wasn’t more than a hundred yards away. He

shut his book, got up, and pushed his feet into

his shoes.

Jack was sitting at his computer. He

looked back. "Going for a walk?"

"Yeah."

"Stay in brightly lit areas, you know? I

don’t want to see you on the news."

"Don’t worry, I’ll haunt you if I die."

Jack took a slurp of his soda. "I’ll keep

my pastor on speed dial."

Daniel snorted, then left the room. It was

past the new curfew for on-campus students,

so he briefly scryed to make sure no one was

around before slipping out the common room

door. He poured on the speed and zipped

into the parking garage.

At the top of the stairwell was a small

door that lead into a closet. Inside were a

few dust-coated bottles of cleaning supplies,

a rusty breaker box, and a lot of cobwebs.

And on the top shelf, in the back, was a

cardboard box holding his armor.

The design was still as ugly as ever, but

it was much more complete than before,

including shoulder pads, a neck guard, and

ankle plates, all made of his triple-layer

concoction of plexiglass, steel, and rubber.

He strapped each piece on with practiced

movements, then donned his helmet, securing

it under his chin with an adjustable strap. A

metal plate clicked into place over his face,

giving him a fat eye slit through which to see.

He withdrew his new weapon. He’d

been inspired by the medieval morning star,

which was basically a stick with a spiky

metal ball at the end. He made his own

version out of solid steel he stole from a

scrapyard in the port. It had a shaft about

three feet long, widening at the tip into a fat

metal cap. The cap was a jagged and twisted

collection of metal bits; he’d used his power

to sink them right into the steel. He felt a lot

safer with the nasty club between himself

and the extractors he was fighting, and he

could put a lot of power into a fully extended

swing.

From the parking garage, travel was

easy. Tons of buildings in downtown were

connected. Weaving between nests of brick