Crystal Core Read online

“Right. We need to investigate this and have any needed charges brought up. Hold him for now. We’ll need to turn him over to local authorities. Unless he’s Infected? That or abused an Infected child. Anything on that Cin?”

  Holding her right hand out, dramatically, she pretended to be doing something. Reading the man in front of her, as if that kind of physical action was important. Which it was. To the people watching on camera. Some of them were seeing things at that moment, it seemed, off in their own homes. Hence the overly dramatic acting being used. All of this came from Cindy, almost as if she was inside Will’s brain, thinking along with him.

  “He’s… or at least something, is blocking me. We should get the rest of the press out of here. Just in case. This is obviously an Infected power at work. Are you… No, it isn’t him… The people that he’s working for… The ones that have the dirt on him…”

  The man tried to speak, but couldn’t, it seemed. No one was choking him, but from the way his mouth worked, something was happening. Suddenly, being held by the now standing Team Two lady, he cried out.

  “I have a right to have sex with anyone I please. If those harlots hadn’t been wearing those clothes, I wouldn’t have had to do it. They made me rape them! It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t my fault!”

  The fellow kept going on, as the other news crews took pictures on their large and probably powerful, devices. From the feeling coming from Cindy that was the point. Also, from the words that suddenly appeared, in Standard, floating in front of him, she didn’t want him to speak about it. What was being done, was, after all, illegal.

  You weren’t allowed to use Infected powers to force people to incriminate themselves like the man was doing. Including listing off names of girls that he’d supposedly raped. Cindy wasn’t doing that part though. Willum was certain of that. It was someone else there.

  Or, he realized, someone not even in the room. One of the other telepaths was doing that for them. Willum took Cin’s hand then.

  “Is this common here? In my world we’d… remove the man.” Which was true, as long as the person doing it wasn’t too powerful to be touched. In that case, well, he didn’t really know what would happen. Having grown up a commoner, Willum had never heard of that kind of thing taking place. An adult having sex with children. Not in Pine Creek or even anyplace around that general area. Nobles did that kind of thing, from time to time and city people might do it, but not the country folk.

  Which meant he didn’t really know what they were planning for the man. He’d confessed, after all. To the public, since the images would be played on television. Over and over again.

  It took a very long time to get the man out of the space, with Will holding on to Cindy’s right hand the whole time. No one spoke about that, until the people with cameras and sound capture devices all left. Then Bridget looked at their joined hands and crossed her arms. It was adorable.

  “What’s this now? I’m pretty certain Will is my partner.”

  The words got a snicker. From Cindy.

  “True. I’m dating him, though. If you want to get in on this one, you’ll have to step up your game. I really figured that Olga was going to get him, but I won. Me… Me…” She gave the tiny girl a very funny look, which earned her a sigh.

  “Sure… I get stuck alone, again and you get all the cool guys. If you weren’t my friend… Well, you are, so at least we can share. You’re all about the sharing, right Cin?”

  It was playful banter, not a real bargain being made. Which was good. There was nothing wrong with Bridget, since she was of age and attractive enough, in a pale way. She had her own boyfriend now, anyway. Plus, he just wasn’t ready for that many women in his life. May and Cindy both needed to be seen to. True, the first one only needed him to sell the lie that they were married in her world, so no one would abuse her, but that meant he needed to show up and do the work, at least part of the time.

  A thing that would probably have to keep being done even if the war ended. It was unrelated to that kind of thing. At least as far as he knew. May wasn’t a horrible person, but there had never been a real ceremony or papers being filed. They hadn’t signed the local register even. They’d just told people it had happened. Which, for all he knew was fine with her people. The Aelfric. Their world was decently far away, along the string of realities. It was odd, but his own world was only a little way away from the IPB reality. It seemed rather different, but that had to do with the flow of time, he was willing to bet. His home was thousands of years ahead of the others he regularly visited. That didn’t mean that the IPB world, or some of the others, weren’t very similar to how things had been in the far past.

  Even at that, the time frames didn’t really match up. Willum didn’t worry about that though. He kind of knew that it had to do with different rules operating in different realities. Some places even felt different. Thankfully his ability to go to a place didn’t allow him to end up in a world where line walking didn’t work. There were realities that he couldn’t go. Most places, to be honest.

  That still left more places than could be counted.

  Most of which were just different worlds. Filled with people and beings that didn’t want to bother with problems. Realities that he was going to have to help sell out, at least possibly. Pushing their problems off on others. Innocent people that might not have had such things going on at all, if not for him and the others on his side.

  There had to be a way to get around that. What it was, he didn’t know.

  Not with the rules that he’d been given to work by. Everything that could happen, did. Which meant that, unless he could throw whole realities into the sun, or the equivalent, then there would always be a way out for the people who wanted everyone to die. If there was a clever way around that, well, he needed there to be. Otherwise the best he could do was probably going to end up hurting other people.

  It was a bit like dealing with a robber on the road. A person could just run away, in fear or to protect their belongings. Then the robber would move on and try again, perhaps with someone weaker or not as lucky. Which meant that anyone that could, needed to stand and fight, each and every time. Even if it meant being hurt or killed. Because, if everyone did that kind of thing, it wouldn’t be worth trying to take things from other people.

  That meant working on the idea, and trying to protect everyone he could. Just not at the moment.

  Not knowing what to do, he sat back down, only to be pulled up almost instantly by Cin. She smiled at him as she moved him around, easily. No one looked at them, even if the room was half full of diners still.

  “Come on. We need to get to the office and cover things with Marcia. Otherwise that poor man will probably end up buried in the desert. Without us being there to help dig. We don’t want that, do we? That would be inconsiderate of us, to not do our part.”

  The words sounded playful and like a jest. It wasn’t. The woman was actually very into killing people. Not everyone, thankfully. It wasn’t a thing she shied away from at all, at the very least. Not even if the man accused of a given crime was innocent.

  The thought got her to pull him along, not saying much until they were outside, in the rain.

  “I’m not really that bad about it. The hard part is going to be coming up with a reason that we let him go, if he’s supposed to be guilty. I suppose we could get Trivia to make up a video, showing him doing some kids. She does great work that way. You wouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t real.”

  He had to shake his head then.

  “Is that… We probably shouldn’t do that. He isn’t actually guilty, is he? And those cameras will show him confessing, in public. It seemed real. That will destroy his reputation. That… I don’t know, but in my world, people would kill over things like that. Even if they didn’t have a legal right to do it at the time. The nobles would go to war over it. Someone using magic to make them seem guilty like that.”

  Cin just smiled, at first. Then, after a few moments shook her head and si
ghed.

  “Yeah. I probably wouldn’t love it if it happened to me. This guy has been a pain in the IPBs collective ass for years though. I mean that. About half our problems have him being very near the center of it. For real. Taking him out will save us a lot of problems, later.”

  She had more to say, but the rain was coming down so hard that neither of them spoke as they moved along. Will wasn’t getting damp though, turning his shield on. Halfway there, Cin noticed that and gave him a look that seemed a bit annoyed. She didn’t say anything until they jogged into the front of the command building however.

  “Sure, you have a magical umbrella, but leave your girlfriend uncovered totally… Man…” She grinned though, even if her hair was damp, as well as her blue dress. That wasn’t real of course, which got him to wave at her.

  His voice was unrepentant.

  “You should have put on a rain slick. The amulet will make things like that. Hoods and hats as well. Really, you should cycle your clothing to dry out, at the very least.”

  That meant taking a trip back outside, and his friend coming back dressed in a tan uniform, with her family name over her left breast pocket. The arm informed the world that she was with the IPB. There was a blue, white and red flag emblem as well, on the other side.

  “I actually knew to do that, I swear. What can I say, I’m just not used to using magic for things. Anyway, I think we need… Marcia’s office.”

  It didn’t take super powers to find out that was the right space. The yelling from the room was kind of giving it away. That was mainly from the sour faced man, naturally. Willum could see that one as valid.

  “You… Things, used Infected powers on me. I demand… I demand…”

  The fellow slowed in his speaking as Will walked into the room, pushing the door hard enough that it hit the wall behind it at the end of its swing. He hadn’t meant to do that, just having forgotten his strength for a moment. Instead of apologizing to Director Turner, he moved over to the annoying fellow, took him by the shirt front and lifted him out of his chair with one arm. It took stabilizing himself with his flight unit, which made it harder to keep hold of the man. He tried to push away with a slapping sound, Willum not letting him go.

  “Silence!” Dropping the man had him sink into his chair with a thunk.

  Turner looked at him, dressed identically to Ambassador Mableton. Cindy. His new girlfriend. Really, the only real one that he’d ever had. Which was a good enough reason for him to back her play with this news reporter. Besides that, half of his training had been about making certain he could blend into different worlds. Part of that meant doing what was required of him, even if he didn’t agree with the idea, totally. To him it seemed they should kill the man, rather than destroy his good name. Clearly, this current plan would work just as well. At least if they did it correctly.

  The Director looked wise and calm then.

  “You have something, Baker?”

  He didn’t, but nodded, tersely. On purpose.

  “We found proof. Those names he gave? They’re all real.”

  Moving in behind him, Cin touched his back, as if calming him. Preventing him from killing the putative rapist in their midst.

  Then she nodded, seeming a bit worked up, herself.

  “It’s true. We need to contact them to get their stories, but it really seems like Mike here has done some pretty bad things. More than enough for us to turn him over to the police. I…” She seemed pretty genuine then. Her face was a little blank, but internally she felt baffled.

  Picking that up got Willum to feel the same thing.

  She went on, her voice passive.

  “I don’t know why he started saying all of that. I mean, I’d gotten enough to hassle him a little bit, but the data is actually there. I mean for real. No games, Marcia. As in, we really need to record all of this for the cops. Possibly the FBI. He travels. The women are in different places.”

  The man tried to protest again, his words very pointed.

  “I don’t hurt children. Or anyone. This is preposterous!”

  Willum didn’t strike him, to shut him up, since that was illegal in the world he was in. Prisoners had to be treated kindly, for the most part.

  “I said, silence. Don’t make me tell you again.” He growled the words, feeling edgy and like he really wanted to hurt the man, even knowing the whole thing was kind of a game.

  That got him to shake his head. The feelings were out of place. Probably from the changes that had been made to him. The last set, most likely. The ones Timon did for him, to make it harder for the enemy to find him. That or the lack of sleep. Regardless, it wasn’t normal for him.

  Which Turner suggested, pointing at him, with a single finger. Which was very rude of her. That got him to glare a bit, which had her tilting her head.

  “You’re glowing. Is that a thing, or…”

  He closed his eyes then.

  “Combat rage. I need to leave the room. That, or kill this man.” He stormed out, but carefully, barely restraining himself enough to protect the furnishings as he moved outside. Then he stood, shield on, and eyes closed, in front of the building. In the rain. When he opened his eyes again, there was a camera in his face.

  Luckily, he was calm again already. Being a line walker had its benefits. The main one was the intense focus he was capable of. That meant the new person didn’t catch a fist to the lens or anything disruptive like that.

  “Sorry. I didn’t see you there. People harming others makes me very upset. Can I help you with anything?”

  The man standing there, soaked through his clothing, kept the camera he held in place.

  “Brent Spivak, Fox Seven… I was wondering if I could get some information about this Noram world? Is that the name of the planet? I was a bit unclear on that one.”

  Still feeling out of sorts, with an actual headache, though it was fading as he stood there, instead of lingering, he smiled. It was fake and probably seemed strained, but was about right, he didn’t doubt. No one did that well with a sudden camera in their face. At least from what he’d seen. Even those who did it for a living needed to set themselves first.

  “Oh, no… We call it Earth. Well, Earta, but it’s the same place. We speak Standard there, instead of English. Several other languages as well. Noram is essentially the North American continent. We have seven lands, one for each land mass. Noram is just one of them. A kingdom.”

  The man, Brent Spivak, kept talking, seeming to understand well enough.

  “Interesting. So, you have knights and fight with swords and all that?”

  “Well, we do have those things. Nobles and all that. The other lands don’t. Afrak is basically a giant garden, balanced using genetic engineering. Tellerand is a religious state. Similar, I think, to the Catholics, here? A bit less impressive in their clothing choices. The Tellerand, I mean. They wear lots of black. I don’t know that much about them. I kind of grew up in a tiny forest village, myself.”

  “But you have space ships? That doesn’t seem to fit, does it?”

  “With a place like Pine Creek? No, it really doesn’t. I’d never even used indoor plumbing until about a year ago. Outhouses. Not the best, but common where I come from. We have the ships though. Magical ones. Space stations and colonies on other worlds, as well. I promise though, we don’t have an invasion fleet at all. Invading any other reality would be pretty much impossible.”

  The man kept asking him things, just standing in the rain, getting even more wet, if that was possible.

  Finally, he turned the camera off, or at least made the red light on the front shut off. Willum wasn’t going to trust it, personally. That meant holding himself, and his words, closely, just in case they were being captured.

  “Good interview! Great, actually. I don’t suppose that you’d be willing to sit down with me and do that again? It would make my career. Plus, you know, I need to work out how to make it seem like you’re an evil invader. It doesn’t really sound much like
that, so it will take some work.” There was a sly look then, the man not really smiling.

  As if Willum wouldn’t understand what he was doing.

  “You know, that makes sense. I have a few days off. Or more time than that, if you want to do it in Noram? Get with… I think Penny Cooper, at the front desk. She’ll set that up for you.” Or not.

  Picking her name was only due to the fact that it wasn’t followed by either the line walker, like Lydia’s was now, or the Traitor, like Sinclair. Interestingly, the fellow blinked several times and went flat.

  “Cellophane? I’ve seen the new makeup job… That’s pretty good, but a bit freaky, isn’t it? Her mouth is empty. Just black.” He didn’t shudder, but it was clear from his body language that he was suppressing the idea.

  It was part of the woman, so he nodded.

  “Right. I need to get her a makeup amulet for that. Thank you for reminding me. I should go do that now. I kind of walked out. I’m really not…”

  Both of them turned, since two blue and white vehicles, both with pretty blue and red lights on the top pulled up in front of the building. Parking right on the tan focus stone walkway. When the men climbed out, four of them, dressed in blue uniforms he understood they were the local guard. The police.

  Each of the men was armed, but only with side arms. The one he saw seemed to be a forty-four Desert Eagle. Not that he was certain of it. Nothing they had could touch him at all. Even without his shield being on. His new friend, Brent, wasn’t protected that way, being a regular man, as far as Willum knew.

  “You should go, in case violence starts. Call the front desk here and talk to Penny. She’s very sweet. Single, I think.” He winced a bit, the man, who looked to be in his late twenties, grinning.

  “I bet my girlfriend will love to know that part. I get you though. I’m out, for now. I’ll make that call, as soon as I get back to the office.”

  Then the man actually walked away, as the armed men moved forward. Toward him, instead of going inside.

  One of them, looking stern, nodded at him.

  “Is this the command center?”