Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (22 page)

He smiled, nodded, and then
started back through the shortcuts, since it would take a while to get back
home.

That left three envelopes for him
to get to.

It was tempting to just sit for a
while and think about things, but that wasn't going to get the work done.
Luckily the third envelope was easy enough to deliver, since it just had to go
to Zack Hartley, at Hartley and Co. Books. That one didn't even require him
having a conversation with other Zack. On the odd, or really not so strange,
portion of things he did find Chris there, talking to Kaitlyn at the front
desk.

The only big thing there was that
the kid should have probably been asleep. It was still the weekend though, and
he was, regardless of how he looked, an adult now.

"Hey all. Letter for Zack?
This is easier. I've got two more realities to get to still."

They looked at him like that
actually made sense, and Kait waved at him, her face looking much prettier, if
still the same, as the one that Gwen wore. Figuring out how that one had
happened would be interesting he decided. The double shadow thing was
different.

Not impossible however. After
all,
he'd
spent centuries wrapped around and intertwined with the girl
in front of him, after all. That it could happen in a different fashion, in
another part of the infinite whatever you called it, just kind of made sense.

He used the node there, in the
owl room, and got himself back for the second to last letter delivery of the
night. This one was harder, in a lot of ways.

The first part of it was that the
instant he tried to find the man, and stepped through the void, he ended up on
what seemed to be a military base. He was dressed up in work clothes, which
that day had him in a black shirt, slacks, shiny shoes and a slightly old
fashioned button up vest. People looked at him, but also smiled and nodded.

They were all in tan camo gear,
which meant that he really stood out. Also, while it was nighttime in his
world, and had been light outside, but clearly very early where Gwen had been,
it was noon in this place.

He didn't know where to go,
honestly, but Merry, or at least a slightly taller version of her, with short
hair, and a slightly pointed face, waved at him. She was in tan, too.

"Hiya! Are you lost?"
She seemed friendly, but didn't have Merry's accent at all. Or her tentative
nature.

"I truly
am
.
I'm..." He didn't know what to say, but shrugged, and went with the truth,
hoping it wouldn't start a fight. "Actually, I'm from a different reality,
and need to deliver a letter too... Brian Yi? If it makes sense to you, he's
me, from this place?"

The girl, who was fidgeting
madly, stopped, and stared at him. Then after a moment, she nodded.

"Neat! I'm Bridget. Bridget
Chambers. Your granddaughter. So, for Christmas, I'd like a pony. I keep
asking
,
but so far no one has bitten on that one." She was playing, but her inner
self did say that she was being honest about the relationship. Also that it had
been a time travel thing.

"That's because this would
be a bad place for a pony. What's the deal here? I mean, are you in the
military?" It was probably going to seem stupid, but the girl, the tiny
ball of energy that looked a lot like one of his wives, danced in place and
waved toward a tan brick building not that far away.

"This is the IPB base. The
Infected Protection Bureau. Clearly I'm Infected. Do you know what that means?
You're here, but not everyone from other worlds has known about it."

"Nope? What is it? Black
Plague? You look healthy enough."

The girl grinned, and took his
hand, which was almost normal feeling to him.

"This way. Walk with me,
strange man I don't know. I think Brian is off in the main office. Anyway,
about fifty years ago, people started showing up with super powers. Most of
them suck. People glow a little, or smell like pie. Junk that isn't worth much
in real life. Some are more powerful.
All
of us have some kind of mental
problems. We get kind of stuck, on one emotion, thought or concept being the
prime thing we always come back to. Like me. I have a real problem resisting
doing anything that seems like fun to my subconscious mind. Brian is all about
self-sacrifice. Things like that. What about your world?"

He had to think for a moment,
then made a face.

"Not exactly like that. I
was kidnapped as a child, sold into sexual slavery, and ended up in the void
between worlds, where I learned to walk the lines. It's kind of like
teleportation. Time works differently there, so I'm a few hundred thousand
years old, or something, by this point. I don't really know. We have different
groups though. Vampires, shape shifters, and things like that?"

The girl smiled at him and pulsed
her hand in his a bit.

"Wow. Cool. So, no zombie war
there?"

"
Nooo
? Why would you
ask that?"

"Oh, the world there sounds
familiar, if only a little. We have a guy here from a different reality where
there was a zombie war. Jake. He's not you though, since he's Mickey, another
guy here. Still you should meet. He's really sweet. Basically he's Jesus, I
guess? Only the real thing? You should meet."

That made no sense to him, but it
was probably going to end up being linked, so he smiled.

"Sounds good.
First
,
I need to deliver this."

The building they went to was
cool inside, though the outside world was hot. Like it was summer, which it
certainly wasn't back home. There was also a bird woman at the front desk. She
had a yellow beak and blue feathers on her head, but a very nice voice. He'd
seen people like her before, so didn't blink over the idea now.

"Hi, Bridget. Who's your
friend?" The emphasis on the word
friend
was kind of telling, and
hinting at the same time. The woman there clearly thought that her holding his
hand
meant
something.

He smiled, and reassured the
shadow within the bird lady that he wasn't a pedophile, since Bridget was only
sixteen. Not that it wouldn't be legal anyway. Really, after a bit, he just
shrugged.

"Zack Hartley. I need to
deliver a package to Brian Yi?" He didn't explain the rest, but the bird
girl bounced in place a bit, and pointed to the left. Her right.

"Conference room three. We
need to get that man an office some day. He's here all the time, and... Yeah."

Bridget pulled Zack along by the
hand. Her small body, which was taller than Merry's, was a lot more powerful
than it looked. Since Merry was stronger than he was, it made sense to him, so
he just smiled, holding her hand in his left, the envelope in his right. They
walked on close pile mustard colored carpet for a bit, and then he was tugged
through a door to the left.

"Here he is. Brian? Package
for you!" The girl moved so that he was standing there, his hand still in
hers.

Across a large table, which was
flat and black, there sat man who looked to be in his twenties, had brown eyes,
black hair, and a lean, hard aspect to his face. He was also Chinese. That made
sense to Zack, who smiled. Alternate realities and infinite possibilities,
after all. Though honestly, around the edges there was kind of a resemblance.

"Hi! Letter for you? It's
from Riley the Trickster. In a different reality? I'm Zack. Hartley. Um... I'm
basically you? From a different world?" He was about to explain that part,
when the man stood, came around the table and stuck his hand out. It was to
shake, but he got an envelope, since otherwise Zack's hands were full.

Brian looked at him closely, and
then at Bridget.

"You
do
know that
she's your granddaughter, don't you?" The man was being serious, but
didn't seem to get the whole picture yet.

Zack smiled and looked at the
small red headed woman, who looked a bit funny with her short rust colored
hair, but familiar enough that it was clear what the reality was.

"Nope. In
my
world
she's my wife. One of them. I have eight, and before you ask, no I
didn't
get a choice in it. So the relationships are totally different that way. She's,
Merry, is an Elth. Basically an elf, but
never
call them that, if you
meet any. Also, be careful with the information in there. Tricksters are
powerful, but they'll do anything they have to in order to make reality come
out right. Including getting people killed or maimed."

The man opened the envelope
efficiently, and nodded after a while.

"I see. Okay, I might need
to get with you, or this Riley, on parts of this. It's... Different. I can come
visit?" The shadow inside the man wasn't really
asking
, but he was
trying to be polite about it all. Outwardly. Inside he was harder than Zack
was. More like Gwen, really.
If
she were a hardened killer.

"Sure? Well, one more
delivery then. Um... I don't know, but maybe you should bring that zombie war
guy, when you come? I'm guessing, but it sounds right."

Brian looked at him, then
Bridget, who spoke.

"Jake. He's from a different
world too, so I mentioned him."

"Oh. I'll ask?"

That was his clue to leave, it
looked like. Bridget pulled him away then, as he waved and said goodbye, not
wanting to be rude. Brian just stood there for a bit, tossed the envelope down,
and ran at a wall, entering a rift that appeared in the air just before it.

He blinked, but no explanation
came.

Outside, the girl turned, pulled
him down and kissed him.

"So, married? How hot is
that? We should go do it. Only, I have things to do. I'm on tap for a press
conference, after all the deaths. You know. We lost some people. It wasn't
good."

Then she walked away, looking sad
and like she was about to cry. It was abrupt, but Zack found the right
shortcut, and walked through it, heading toward the node he needed.

After a bit of a walking, and
several shortcuts, he ended up back at the basket shop, looking at the last
envelope. It had a picture on it, of a woman. A single name, too. The others
had all had more than that, even if he hadn't been able to read the first one.

Glenda.

Finding that one didn't go well
for him at all. He ended up in a nightmare realm, on a battle field, in a city
he didn't recognize. Running alongside a woman in what seemed to be futuristic
fighting gear, who shot at someone he couldn't see with a weapon that didn't
make any kind of light, just a bang, like a gun, even though it didn't seem to
really do all that much.

She didn't try to kill him, just
hiding behind an old dumpster. When she stopped he understood that her body
wasn't much taller than his own, but she was vastly muscled. Like a bodybuilder.
It wasn't a great look, but he really doubted that she was going to care about
that at the moment. He certainly didn't.

Her face had scars on the right
hand side, and her voice was rasping, and harsh. Calm and focused at the same
time.

"Who are you, and why are
you here?"

"Zack Hartley, delivering a
letter to Glenda? From a different reality? Apparently I should have called
first."

The woman moved, fast enough that
he had to slow time to understand what she was doing. There were things in the
air, about the size of her hand, which she struck with the side of her weapon.
They had mechanical wings, but went down as long as those were damaged enough.
There were sharp, razor like, protrusions on them, and were stopped for good by
the woman next to him, with what seemed to be metal soled boots.

When they were destroyed, the
woman grabbed the package from him, and growled. This time she lost her cool a
bit, if only externally. It was clearly an act, her shadow told him all about
it as it happened. She wanted to reach him, and get him to do what she wanted,
so
faked
being scared.

It had almost nothing to do with
what she was thinking, which was how to move into a better position before the
next salvo came in.

"Fucking run, asshole! Do
you want to die? The swarm is only the first wave and you aren't dressed for
this. I can't protect you and survive, so guess which one
I'm
going to
pick doing?"

Zack got the basic idea, since
there was a rolling, and thunderous, machine army coming down the barren city
street ahead of them. Large buildings stood on either side. He stood, extended
his internal energy in a single black line, and destroyed one of the things,
then managed another tank like robot, before ducking down again. If it was that
at all. They looked machine like, but held shadows, like people. Some of them
did. The ones in what seemed to be armor.

Glenda smiled at him, laughing a
bit.

"Still, run away. This isn't
your fight. This is mine to deal with.
I'm
the Cymed here." She
seemed worried about saying that, like he'd judge her over it, but that wasn't
his plan for the day.

Zack nodded.