Unknown (20 page)

"You're wanting to change venue after telling Jenny you would rather die a hunted man in the place you were born than to always run?" She smiled to give lie to her otherwise admonishing tone. "I knew I'd rub off on you boy." She frowned at the sky. "How long are we giving Jenny?" It hadn't been ten minutes since their companion fell asleep, trusting that they would keep her safe, or wake her if they needed to run.
 

"Give her a couple hours Shelly." He picked up another stone and started smoothing the spots where he had roughly cut branches away from his stick. "Don't give me that look, please. You know doing this is hard on her. We'll leave as soon as she's ready. Boredom never killed anyone." Well not if you weren't some creature out of Greek myth that supposedly heard a story so boring that they died. At least that's how he thought the story went, but it'd been awhile since he took history classes, and he always liked the mythics of the 'new' world better than the old.
 

Well, most anyway. He smiled at Shelly in spite of her continued muttering over being stuck to one place. She was willful, wild, and never ever boring. Sure she would probably tire of him in a few months, but beneath the hyperactive selfish exterior she was loyal to her friends, and he was glad to have decided to work with her on a regular basis.
 

Time passed. A few creatures moved through their field of view. None seemed to pay them much mind, not that they knew to be afraid of them. Jenny made small frightened noises in her sleep. Her companions worried, fretted, fumed, and stalked about in their own ways, but they kept watch. She was their ticket out of here, and her friend besides that.
 

Neither Drake nor Shelly knew much about survival in the wild other than try not to get eaten, and if you can't run, then aim for the face because everything supposedly backs off if might lose an eye. Their lack of knowledge made them jumpy. Their lack of weapons made them if not precisely afraid than at least uneasy at every noise that came from around them. However they never moved away from Jenny, or tried waking her to get them out of there before she woke on her own. By the time she did it had started to grow dark.
 

Shift.
 

Considering the hellride they took getting away, the shift back had been a simple matter. Maybe it had to do with the wards that had been set on them, or the tension and fear in the air. Either way, they found themselves in the apartment they had rented while planning for the job. Police had been there, so everything was either strewn about, gone, or in a few cases, broken.
 

Shelly tsked when she saw the pile her clothes had been thrown in. Her disappointed tsking turned into a low growl of frustration when she discovered her spare tools were missing. Drake shook his head at her, "We're just stopping here for a little rest and a shower. right?" Jenny looked up from where she had fished out a change of clothes for herself. "I don't think orange looks good on any of us."
 

After doing these things they felt less weary than they had before. The change of clothes helped too. It was unfortunate that the place was probably crisscrossed with wards that would alert those looking for them if anyone showed at that apartment. Thankfully Jenny's trick of slipping from one world to another gave them an exit, although it ended up leaving Jenny tired.
 

Drake frowned at this. Jenny had never acted this tired in so short a time before they had been caught. She wasn't working herself overly hard, at least not that he had seen. Of course he had no idea what affected what she could do. Maybe he was somehow hurting her just by being around. He dismissed the thought with a shake of his head while looking at the place they settled on.
 

It was big, it was condemned, and it used to be a Church of Universal Brotherhood. At least it did till the Brotherhood had been found out to be a front group for a group wanting to replace the souls of its members with demon essence. It didn't matter to him or many others that they acted serene and peaceful. Salvation at the cost of even one human life had been viewed as nothing of the sort. He shook his head and laughed. "Good call lady." He patted Jenny on the shoulder before seeing if anyone else had taken the place for shelter. They didn't plan on staying long, but if the resident squatters demanded they leave they would leave. No sense in fighting just yet.
 

There had been one other that called this place home. He wore tattered and stained robes that marked him as a former priest here. Small chance, in Drake's mind, of anyone stealing those. Most of the homeless, if given the choice between wearing those and freezing would take the robes and use them to make a fire. The fallen priest cowered away from Drake, black eyes wide with terror. "Please!" His voice was a fearful wail. "I ain't ever harmed nobody!"
 

The priest's voice was enough to carry from the back room that Drake found him cowering to where Shelly and Jenny were seated on a stone bench by the front doors. They started to move when they saw the demon-priest backing away from Drake, stumbling as often as not over his robes. Shelly moved, wrapping herself bodily around the man. He struggled only as Drake approached, and when Drake backed away he eased up.
 

Shelly loosened, letting the man go. "Nobody wants to hurt you." He glowered at her, "OK. None of us wants to hurt you. We just need to stay here a few hours till we can figure out what to do next. We didn't mean to barge in, and as soon as we can, we're gone. Can we all agree to keep calm and quiet in the meantime?"
 

He drew a deep breath, "I don't care what you or the other woman do, but keep him away from me." The priest's hands clenched and unclenched. "You might want to keep clear of him too, if you value your lives anyway."
 

The three companions exchanged glances, none wanted to ask, but Jenny approached. "What do you mean? He's not violent."
 

The man-demon laughed, "I would have figured you at least might have figured it out Shifter." He smiled at her look of confusion, "You two gather close. You" He pointed at Drake, "Keep where you are. You might not mean anything, but this is something you can't help." He patted Shelly's tail lightly, which caused her to shift slightly to him.
 

Drake shrugged and went to search the rest of the place as they talked. Part of what it he likely knew, but only part. He didn't want to hear the demon-priest talk anyway, it made his skin crawl.
 

"I've heard of his kind, and we had one that had gotten as far as the transfiguration." Shelly glowered at him, it was the word the Brotherhood had used when describing the implanting process to outsiders. "When we finally saw through the glamor woven through him we saw the same sickly non-aura your friend there has." Jenny arched an eyebrow but said nothing. "The..." He looked unsure, "My son died in the process. All that he was drained when he made contact."
 

"He may wear a different face now, but all of us were given his scent and aura in case who or whatever sent him wanted to repeat the trick." The demon-priest took a deep breath and exhaled slow. "I had taken vows to do no harm once I came here. I cannot kill him, not even out of vengeance, or to defend my kind. I cannot even ask you to do what I can't. I just... please... keep him away from me till you go."
 

"We won't bother you." Jenny squeezed the priest's hand gently. "I promise."
 

Drake stayed gone for another hour, popping up only for brief moments after that to assure the rest that everything was fine and they were safe. He didn't like to talk about that job. He had played his part well and survived what none of the other spies had. Even those born of darkness did not deserve to happen to the thing that tried burrowing into him. Still, he meant no harm, and would cause no trouble.
 

When it came time for them to leave the priest embraced Shelly and commended her 'for doing what I cannot allow myself to,' and offered Jenny advice if she were warded again. Her gift for skipping worlds was different, and wholly unique so far as how she did it, but there were certain rules that governed most spells, rules she might be able to exploit in the future.
 

They still had the police looking for them, and they had to keep a low profile, but they were free and they had a job to finish. When they exited the church they sought their bearings and found that they hadn't traveled too far from their employer. Between Shelly and Drake getting transportation hadn't been that much of a problem, it had been far more challenging to find something Shelly could fit in without too much discomfort or embarrassment.
 

With that done Drake took the wheel and promptly shut down the van's link to the global net. Sure there was still the transponder, but that would only be activated after their ride was reported stolen. This gave them a few hours before they would have to ditch, and hopefully in those few hours they would have what they needed.
 

"Cop sitting behind us." Jenny watched Drake's hands clench and unclench on the wheel. "Lights aren't on." She saw him relax visibly.
 

When they started moving again Drake grimaced, "I can't punch through government chatter or the local nets without leaving a blazing beacon anyone could see from orbit, sorry."
 

Jenny laughed while arranging her hair. "Guess we go about it the old fashioned way hm?"
 

"Guess so." Shelly agreed, though with a touch of resentment. "I liked being able to get in or out anywhere at a whim though."
 

While he continued driving Drake smirked, "I thought you liked a challenge. Using me to sledgehammer my way through security doesn't seem that hard. Just think of this as a feather in your cap. If they've pegged us as something to keep an eye out for that means they think you're too good at what you do to be left alone."
 

"Well when you put it that way.." Shelly trailed off, but seemed a little happier for the exchange.
 

From:
Col. Starbride, Elly
 

To:
Pvt. Kamio, Sara
 

Subject:
Smokescreen
 

Your intelligence and probable movements concerning Subject #45100R since his escape has proven accurate so far. I am having you transferred to my command where your experience with this man will prove better use than the think tanks have. Unfortunately after his escape from local forces by as-yetunknown means he hasn't resurfaced. Under advice that you had given on the subject's habits I have taken a look at the case file they had opened on him concerning stolen items from a local museum. On a hunch I had my own teams search the place and discovered several fakes, all having been placed there the night that our target was caught.
 

 
The items we found forgeries of are:
 

A Mk II Holocube reportedly containing a copy of Chun Lau’s mind.
 

The last surviving node of the Deep Six super-cluster.
 

An A34 Centurion interface.
 

Other than their possible worth on the black market I personally cannot see any connections, however you have proven, repeatedly, your ability at guessing motives and direction. We're running leads to see who might have contracted persons matching our target and the other two suspects. Hopefully, if this is just a way of scarring up money instead of something deeper, we might be able to outflank him.
 

 
They had a time getting everything together, but thankfully when they had been caught it had been during the tail end of the run, after the important pieces had been swapped out. Actually they had been caught because of personal greed on Drake's part. Granted Shelly could be considered to have egged him into it she always wanted that extra little bit if she thought they could get away with it.
 

He didn't blame her for it really, that's just part of how she was wired. Jenny, possibly, could have been the voice of reason, but she was always the one to want to try new things. So that left him as the voice of reason and caution in this little trio. Drake wondered which of the Gods were laughing hardest at that joke. Not that it mattered in the end, not really.
 

From:
Col. Starbride, Elly
 

To:
Gen. Picard, David Stern
 

Subject:
Regarding Project Shifter
 

 
I understand your concern, Sir, about my command's ability to keep track of any further experiments done in light of Subject #45100R. I can only stress that had
 

 
we been better equipped during the retrieval phase of Mana Burn we would not be in our current situation. Also given that I have been assigned several officers to observe and record as well as several security teams that specialize in containing singular individuals I feel that leaving Project Shifter under my command would not pose any undue risks.
 

 
For the record I will point out that other than #45100R my team has produced or enhanced roughly 83% of the armed service's specialist beings, so I have experience in dealing not only with their creation and training, but how to handle instances where they may eventually become a danger, either by mental instability or aggression.
 

 
In this light I ask that any and all files concerning the multidimensional being, referred to in civilian police reports forwarded to your desk as 'Jenny'. While the samples we had acquired will provide both a physical and astral duplicate of the subject I feel that the picture my command has of her capabilities is incomplete, and thus continuing with the duplication process could result in another rouge that will need to be neutralized rather than a viable asset.