Broken Angels (32 page)

“Sprat. The one who consumed you so you could assume its necessary qualities.”

The other chimera, Darryl thought.

“The other pole-pet,” the creature said. “Only the specially chosen are gifted with the assistance of a pole-pet in XynKroma. I am Van-Jill, the pole-pet of The Beautiful One, whose soul you must free if Creation has a hope of being saved.

“Come.”

SIXTEEN

“Come on,” Ava said, “are you going to tell me your great idea or not?”

“I told you twice in the car,” Robert said as they stepped out of the elevator. “I need to make a call.”

“Sure, and that’s all you said. Your friend Sonya was right about you needing a burner.”

Maybe. Up until recently, Robert felt he’d no reason to own a cell phone. His watches worked just fine for instant communication to Darryl and to Adam—the Institution’s heart and lifeline—and his apartment’s landline was used mostly for ordering pizzas and cursing at telemarketers. Normally he would’ve made the call from home, but it was impossible when his new self-proclaimed partner refused to leave his side.

“No burner is more secure, or
private,
than what we have here,” he said.

“Aren’t you at least going to tell me who you’re going to talk to?” Ava asked.

Robert felt a sensation on his right wrist. He put two fingertips to the face of his watch.

“Right now,” he said, “we’re going to talk to Adam.”

The two rushed through The Burrow’s halls toward the chairman’s office. Adam wasn’t waiting for them in reception room. To Robert’s surprise, he and Ava were allowed to enter Adam’s main office. This wouldn’t be good.

“Sit down, Mister Goldner, Miss Darden.”

Both did as instructed. Neither said a word.

“What I am about to show you is extremely disturbing. But it is necessary for you both to see this. It was posted on the Internet sometime within the past hour, and probably recorded only a short time before that.”

When Robert and Ava had entered the room, all of the monitor screens in Adam’s office were scrambled, as was normal. But after warning them, Adam picked up a remote control with one hand and typed something on his desk’s keyboard with the other. In a few seconds, one of the larger screens gradually gave a clear picture.

Darryl was in a dark room. A dark room with splashes and flashes of colors. A dark room with a group of five women. Robert sat in a cushioned chair, removed from it all, watching the colors, watching the women, watching them all gracefully and mercilessly thrash, beat, humiliate, and torture his partner.

He’d known something like this was coming. He’d hoped he was wrong. Robert hated being right about things going wrong. But here he was, staring at a violent action flick, a movie clip featuring an adventure in meaninglessness. Brutality for the sake of brutality.

Ava gasped, mumbled, and made other vocal noises as she watched, but Robert mostly tuned her out. After getting over the initial shock of seeing Darryl in such a predicament, he took in the entire presentation of the film. There was sound and there were voices, but none of them were produced by the people on the screen. What they were watching had been recorded and the soundtrack added later. Music and dialogue that was both spoken and sung; it was like a snippet from a movie musical. Robert recognized some of the words. They were from
The Blackbook of Autumn Numbers
. He was watching a scene snatched from the book and dramatized for others’ enjoyment. He was also watching two sickeningly familiar faces. Among all the shifting faces on the screen, theirs were the most recognizable. Another MC3 Production, just as he feared. He hated being so right about things going so wrong. Robert itched even more to make his delayed phone call.

“Mister Smith,” he said, “those women, in the white and black, they’re the same two who attacked Ava. They’re the two who beat her up before we found her.”

“Mister Smith,” Ava asked, “who are they? Do you know?”

Robert could hear it in her voice. She was struggling to suppress her anger. Maybe it was anger at the fact she’d been taken out by the pair, or maybe it was anger that Robert hadn’t even bothered to describe the women to her earlier. He hadn’t given her descriptions because he hadn’t felt it was necessary, and he knew it’d lead to questions about how he knew. But he wasn’t ready to discuss those videos with her just yet. First things first.

Adam paused the film on a shot where both women could be seen on the screen at the same time.

“The blonde one is Veronica Blake. The dark-haired woman goes by the name Vanessa Blight. Both names are most likely pseudonyms. What is certain is that, together, they once comprised the pair of Infinite-Definite terrorists classified as ‘Initials V.V.’ They left these initials written at the scenes of their assaults, usually using the blood of their victims to write them. We stopped hearing reports of their activities about a year ago. Some figured they had been captured or killed, but apparently they were somehow recruited and initiated into a new and far more dangerous sect of angels.”

“More dangerous than what?” Robert asked.

“Than anything with which you are probably familiar, Mister Goldner. They are Sprytes, very unique angels who can somehow hide their status from the eyes and senses of other angels. Sprytes seem to be very skilled in the practices of a highly advanced form of Light Magick. For instance, they do not need to use the eyes to gain access to the soul of a victim. Skin-on-blood contact works just as well. In addition, they can read minds like one reads a Braille book, simply by placing their fingers on or near the pulse of their subject. They are very few in number, and all of them, to my knowledge, are female. Together, those two have been making a name for themselves as ‘Blink & Blank.’”

“I suppose Blink is one-eyed blondie.” Ava spoke slowly as her fingers slowly curled, straightened, and curled—making fists and relaxing them—over and over again.

“Yes,” Adam said.

“Why haven’t I heard of these two before?” Robert asked. “Or anything about these Sprytes?” Or anything about rare types of Virus-carriers like Ava?

“I only divulge information to Watcher agents on a need-to-know basis,” Adam said, “when they need to know it.”

Robert fought hard to keep his facial expression respectful, as blank as Adam’s mask, though he was becoming more and more bothered by Adam’s manner.

“Anyway, Mister Goldner, what I know is very little. My file on them is minimal. Perhaps they are adept at other arts of which I am unaware.”

“That’s all we need to know right now, huh?” Ava said, almost under her breath. Robert was starting to find her manners a bit refreshing.

“That is all I can tell you, Miss Darden.”

“We also know another thing,” Robert said. “They have Darryl. Right?” He wanted to know how the film ended but didn’t want to ask outright. And he didn’t want to have to watch it. He knew how the scene from
The Blackbook
ended, but how faithful were the filmmakers in adapting it?

“As far as we know,” Adam said, “yes. He is most likely still alive. We do not know where, and can only guess at why.”

“I don’t want to know why,” Robert said. “I want him back.”

“I have contacted the proper authorities on this matter,” Adam said.

“Fine. They can back us up.”

“Mister Goldner, you should know the Heartland Security Agency is becoming increasingly concerned some of our agents are overstepping their bounds. It may be wiser to allow them and other law enforcement agencies a period of doing without us, just to see how well it works for them.”

“Finding Darryl is well within my bounds, sir.” He found adopting the same tone with the chairman as Ava even more refreshing than hearing her do it.

It was impossible to know by sight alone if Adam was taking offense, annoyed, or on the verge of rebuking him, but out of respect, Robert put a damper on his manner. He didn’t waver on anything else.

“Mister Smith, you know he’s not just an associate or acquaintance to me. Darryl’s…He’s more than just my partner. In Sterling, in those woods years ago, he
saved
me. And if after I get him, the HSA wants to play alone in what they probably think is just a game, well, that’s their business. And yours, too, I suppose. But I’m going out there to bring him home.”

“I cannot stop you,” Adam said.

“But you won’t be able to help me,” Robert said, “you or anyone else at the Institution.”

Adam nodded. Robert wished he could see behind the mask, read a facial expression, take a shot at determining what Adam was really thinking.

“I understand,” Robert said.

“Good luck.”

Robert knew that was the cue for him to get out of Adam’s office. He’d almost forgotten about Ava. He didn’t notice she was right behind him until he was more than halfway down the hall.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“I’m going to make my call,” he said. “May I have a little privacy please?”

Ava looked ready to snipe back at him, but her expression quickly changed, as if a better idea had popped into her mind.

“Okay.” She used an index finger to push her glasses higher on nose. “I’m going to see if Mister Bernard’s around.”

Robert watched her walk down the hall. The moment she turned a corner and was out of sight, he rushed into one of the little rooms with the most secure phones. He dialed. After ten rings, a sleepy voice finally answered.

“Rob?”

“Yeah, Kurtis, it’s me.”

“What’s up? It’s the middle of the night.”

“I know,” Robert said. “Sorry. It’s an emergency. My laptop’s still broken, and I need someone I can trust to do some super-quick sleuthing for me. Only people who’d be willing to do it for me here are out or asleep.”

“Yeah, it’s the middle of the night.” Repeating himself, Kurtis sounded less groggy and much more irritated.

“Yeah, I’ve heard. I—” Robert hesitated, rethinking his strategy. “You know, never mind. I just remembered that Anika could probably do it twice as fast anyway. I’ll give her a call.”

“Hold it,” Kurtis said. “I’m turning on my laptop now.”

Robert smiled. He knew just how to push his old friend’s buttons; just imply his girlfriend was much more talented. In all honesty, he knew both Kurtis and Anika were equally adept, but Anika would’ve been harder to reach. She kept her cell in her purse, stuffed in a drawer. Kurtis slept with his phone next to his pillow.

“Remember our meeting yesterday?” Robert asked. “That outfit, MC
³
Productions?”

“Yeah, okay?”

“Do they have any kind of roots in the metro area? Like a production studio, or a local distributor, or anything?”

“You know we tried to find out about them the other day,” Kurtis said, “and didn’t have much luck. It’s not like they’re registered with the SEC. With the type of stuff they’re putting out there, they’re not exactly operating like a public company.”

“I know,” Robert said, “but you guys said they wanted their name out there. Can’t you pull up something they posted and backtrack it or something?”

Kurtis didn’t respond, but Robert could hear him tapping away on his keyboard and whispering to himself. After five minutes of listening to this, Robert was about to ask another question. Then Kurtis shouted.

“What’s the matter?” Robert asked.

“My laptop just died!”

“What? How?”

“I don’t know
how—
the screen just went red, then black! I’m pushing the reset button, and not a damn thing’s happening!”

“Kurtis—”

“Damn it!”

“Kurtis, please,” Robert said, “what’s the last thing you saw on the screen?”

“Before the red fucking screen of death? Just some code. Symbols…”

“Nothing intelligible?”

“Yeah,” Kurtis said. “Reston.”

“Reston, Virginia?” Robert asked.

“Maybe. Or maybe it was just a man’s name.”

“Thanks, Kurtis. Listen, can you run over to Anika’s and ask her to see what she can find?”

Kurtis responded with a long string of curses. Robert hung up and rushed out of the room. Ava was waiting for him.

“Get all that you needed?” she asked.

“No,” he said as he hurried past her. “But I’m about to get one thing I need.”

“I’m right behind you.”

“Ava,” he said over his shoulder, “I don’t need your help. Why don’t you go take a nap and refresh yourself so you can be ready to go shopping in the morning?”

“Ha ha, jerk.”

Robert didn’t mean it the way it sounded. She’d said she needed clothes, and he wanted her to stay out of this. But she could take his comment however she wanted, as long as she backed off.

“I want to help,” Ava said, “and I’m going to. I have a stake in this too, you know. Those two bimbo-tarts beat me up pretty badly too, remember?”

Robert stopped and looked at her. He did remember. She’d been in the same situation as Darryl, and she’d come out of it okay. They could’ve killed her, but didn’t. And she’d recovered physically, if not psychologically. There was hope for Darryl. But time was still their chief enemy.

“You want to help?” Robert asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Tell me then, is Zel in his office?”

“Yes.”