Polished Read online

  It meant that the last person, who was just inside her cell door, was just standing there, shaking, when it opened. The lady was old enough to be well wrinkled across her face and so skinny that she seemed almost frail. Like someone needed to be feeding her better.

  She whispered, after swallowing so hard it was visible.

  “I can’t make it over the wall. Go without me.” She didn’t seem happy to be saying the words. She also didn’t start yelling about it to give them away. Even thinking that she was stuck there.

  Shaking or not, it was brave of her.

  Also a thing he had a plan for.

  “Not a problem, miss. We have that taken care of. Can you make a run to the wall?” She knew she was weak but even a quick walk would be enough. Really, they probably had time left for a stroll, if all went well.

  Blinking, she smiled, seeming more than a little freaked out.

  “I can do that. I think so, anyway.”

  “Good enough. Come on. Right this way, miss.”

  They moved easily enough to the end of the hallway, the people there letting him pass them, to get to the door.

  “Glow-girl, up to the front. You’re our light source. Everyone else follow along. Head straight to the wall as quietly as possible. At the end you’ll lift into the air, one at a time. Don’t freak out when it happens. If you have to, cover your mouth with both hands, like this man.” He waved, since the fellow that had tried to talk too loudly was still holding his hands over his face. Brilliantly.

  It worked, which got about half of them to nod at him. The others just seemed too scared to be bothered with that kind of thing. That was fine, as long as no one froze for too long.

  Gillian moved up, her green glow brightening a bit.

  “Okay. Straight to the wall?”

  Richard nodded and repeated himself, since that was how you helped people not make mistakes.

  “Right to the wall. In a straight line. Everyone ready?”

  A few spoke then, whispering. The rest nodded or moved forward half a step to indicate they were prepared.

  “One, two… Go.” His voice was soft, but held enough urgency that everyone moved when the door opened. Creaking a bit. Enough to set his nerves on edge. He hadn’t even thought to bring oil for the hinges. Not that it was needed. At least no alarms went off to report their unauthorized absence.

  Then, very slowly for most of them, they jogged across the lawn. That was well cared for and short. Smooth and without any holes or traps to trip anyone up. That didn't keep two of them from falling, or trying to. The man with his hands over his face went down first, catching himself with both hands.

  He yelled as soon as that happened, clearly trying to moderate his noise level, making it barely a whisper when it burst out. Thankfully.

  “Fuck!” As soon as possible he covered his face again, to prevent speaking.

  The other person to go down was right next to him, being his thin friend from the last room. At least she started to do that. Richard caught her by the arm about halfway down, and helped her to keep going without face planting. It was a little noisy, due to the gasping and single cry of pain from the woman.

  As a group they weren’t subtle at all. Gillian was glowing even brighter, her color having shifted to a nice golden flashing, with a steady green undertone. It came from her skin and was so obvious that anyone seeing it would know that it wasn’t exactly normal. Thankfully, the guards and cameras weren’t paying attention at the moment.

  Thanks to Kate.

  The wall was about an eighth of a mile away from the building which meant that it took a few minutes to get to. There were some trees outside of it, but only lawn on the inside. Grass that was cared for enough to be mainly even and free of major pot holes.

  As soon as they were there a black form, dressed exactly like he was, landed on the top of the stone wall. Floating into place from a few hundred feet above. Gillian lifted off first, with a soft yelp.

  Richard rolled his eyes.

  “Obviously, do it without the yelling like an amateur. Who’s next?”

  That turned out to be the man trying not to yell, who did it perfectly. He kept his hands in place the whole time and whatever his problem was, there wasn’t even muffled talking or yelling now at all. The last five were harder, since two of them were terrified of heights. Not as their first modes, thankfully, though it was real enough fear that they didn’t know if they could make it or not.

  The other three were just starting to have issues with the whole thing. One of them tried to yell about it, making a tough seeming quiet woman hit him several times. Hard enough that the sound could well have carried. It worked, so Richard didn’t correct her, though it was all a bit annoying for him.

  No one screamed as they were lifted over and the black form on the wall, Kerry managed four people per minute. That was the same speed that they’d practiced doing it at the day before. The whole mission had come up as something to try without a lot of time to practice but he’d insisted they do what they could anyway. It was enough, for once.

  Then, nothing they were doing was all that hard. Not for the crew he was working with.

  Inside the van, Brian and Denis got people settled efficiently. They were dressed like Ninjas as well, though Denis cleverly had a latex face mask on rather than a piece of black cloth over his mouth like the rest of them did. That was so he could drive the vehicle they were in, which was almost too small for the numbers they had. The thing had seats inside, with seatbelts for eight people. They had fourteen crammed into it. Four of them were actually sitting in the back section, not in a seat at all.

  Richard was the last one in, so got to close the doors behind them. Kerry hadn’t been saved a seat, so was right across from him, in the very back. As soon as the doors were shut, gently, Richard called out.

  “Go, G.” That was Denis. Why his code name was G. Richard didn’t really know. It was probably the first letter of his fancy IPB code name. Brian was P. at least. Kerry was just K. though and Richard was M. That could mean they were randomly assigned.

  If so, that was better than anything else they could have come up with. It probably wasn’t important but the truth was that the people they wanted to take down were so powerful and good at their jobs that leaving anything that would link to the team breaking people out would be uncovered. So far they’d only used the one letter, G. on a mission before.

  Richard still felt uneasy about it.

  They pulled away from the bushes they were parked near, pulling away slowly and under control. Then, with no one speaking at all, they drove into the night, the quiet roads not even holding police cars as of yet. If all went well, no one would notice that people weren’t in their beds for at least another fifteen minutes.

  After ten minutes of rather sedate driving, Kerry’s leg pressed against his own, the interior of the vehicle dark, to help hide who was there, Brian spoke from the front passenger seat. His voice was low, deep and a bit raspy. That was down to tension, since he’d been doing a better job in the last weeks of faking a lighter tone and learning to smile like a human being instead of a killing machine.

  “We’re going to pull over in a minute, under some trees. Don’t get out. We’re going to teleport to a second location first. I’ll do the whole group at once, along with the vehicle. Once there, we have transport for all of you. Everything will be explained on the other side of that. Try not to speak, since we’re probably going to be monitored once we get to the next location. Here we go.”

  As soon as Denis pulled over, under those promised trees, even if it was night time, the world flared blue. It wasn’t automatic, but as soon as that happened, with Gillian matching the color of light almost instantly, which showed that she was being hidden under a heavy blanket in closer to the front, the engine stopped.

  Richard opened the door instantly, knowing the plan like he did. Really, it had been his to begin with.

  “This way or out the side.” Kerry climbed out w
ith him but jogged around to open the sliding door. That was her job for the moment.

  Dressed as much like a ninja as the rest of his crew was a new person. Standing next to the red hut that was on the side of the IPB headquarters building. Nearly a thousand miles away from The Depot, on a government reservation that was supposed to be unmonitored. No one there thought that was actually the case at all.

  That was why Brian had parked right next to the transport hut. So close that the van was nearly touching the blue door on the front of the thing, near the sliding door on the van. So close that they couldn’t get into the thing, except from inside the van. Seeing that, Richard nodded.

  “Over the seat. Um… Transport, come through the back here.” They hadn’t given Lydia a clever letter based code name, since she wasn’t actually in the field.

  Thankfully she was smart, so figured out that he meant her. It was a bit of a scramble to help their new friends go over the seat in front of them. That job was his, though Kerry helped him with it, when they got to Lydia. The small girl was kind of important, since she was the one actually taking people to the other reality.

  Brian Yi could have done it, but he was needed to return the van. It was stolen, from a very long way off. Besides, if they needed to be able to prove to Gillian that they were the IPB, later, stopping at the IPB base might well help with that.

  Lydia had to be passed over several people, since there was only room for five or six inside the red box in front of them at one time. Then she’d need about a minute per person to take everyone in. Richard had to do his own climbing first though, since he was the one going in as their front man.

  It was his job, after all, in the other world.

  Inside the box, which glowed a nice red, Lydia took his arm almost instantly. He cleared his throat though, first.

  “This is Transport. She’ll take your arm and then remove you to the safe location. It doesn’t hurt or anything. On the other side you’ll get more information. I’ll go first. When you get there… I won’t have a mask on. Don’t be shocked, it’s just my face.” Not that his youthful looks were all that bad. About average, or a little above. His nose was smaller than it used to be, and his ears didn’t stick out any longer. That had been the case for close to a hundred years, but had changed almost three weeks before.

  No one even chuckled at his words. They were probably all too nervous, not getting what was going on at all. If they were thinking about it at all, they probably thought they were about to be killed. Except that wasn’t the case at all.

  Lydia pulsed her hand on his arm, right before the world changed. The difference as far as he could tell, was that the box around him was suddenly empty. Which meant he was in the other world now. The girl next to him spoke, finally.

  “Here we go. Wait right outside?”

  That was the plan, so he nodded and made his voice pleasant. It really never hurt to go over the plan, after all. Given how he’d been hammering everyone else with that over the last day, he had to feel good about her doing it now.

  “Right. Get the glowing girl next. She’s the target. Not that we’re telling her that yet. We need to introduce things slowly and be willing to beg, if needed.” It wasn’t anything bad, they just couldn’t afford to have a half hour long conversation about her role in things yet. Really, the time to do that would be after her first mode was removed.

  At least that was the thought. None of them actually knew what that was. If it made her incredibly trusting, then getting her in place first would be the better idea. Possibly. The truth was that they wanted the young woman to risk her life, a thing that even the IPB might not be able to protect, in order to take down a lot of horrible people. Her best plan would be doing almost anything else.

  Reaching forward, Richard hit the little star in front of him, on the left side of the blue door. It was a softly glowing blue on the red wall. Opening it showed that it was daylight outside. In the right place as well. In the distance, half a mile away or more, was a tall stone wall. One that wrapped around a city. Most of the rooves inside didn’t show over the top. Some did, though nothing inside was exactly a skyscraper. Stepping out allowed him to see a rather nice palace behind him.

  The red hut had been put in place directly next to the front door of the place, so that the others coming wouldn’t have to walk far at all.

  A rather tall young man stood near the box, straightening as the door reappeared on the box, his very good-looking face putting a smile on. The only issue was that the man wasn’t anyone that Richard knew at all. Clearly, given his looks and polite expression, he belonged there. It still left Rich feeling a little uneasy for a moment.

  Richard bowed, since that was what you did in Noram, if you were a polite person or wanted to trick people into thinking you were. As he did it, he spoke. Using one of the six words in Standard that he knew. That, not having the language yet, was starting to annoy him. There simply hadn’t been time for extended lessons that way, yet.

  “Hala!” That meant hello. The rest of the conversation was probably going to involve him pointing to the palace and asking after the man who was supposed to be meeting them there.

  The young man in front of him, looking about the same age he did, which was about seventeen or so, bowed slightly lower than he had. Richard had gone about halfway down, which was considered pretty humble. That the man went lower than that either meant he was low status and knew it, that he was higher and didn’t know where Richard stood in things or that something was wrong.

  When they both stood, the other man nodded a few times.

  “Hello. I’m Dareg Canton. Tor meant to meet you all here himself, but something came up. A man he knows was kidnapped. We have the students here to do the work as planned, but only Master Erath to oversee them.” The man stopped speaking then and bowed again. Humbly, meaning it was all about things being wrong at the moment, not politics.

  That was returned by Richard, and matched, even if it was a bit low.

  “That should work. Erath is one of the best life-shapers after all. He, personally, did the work on me, turning me into a Ysidril. No one coming in will be anywhere near that hard to work on, I don’t think. We…” He stopped, then went on, even if he hadn’t been asked to.

  After all, Tor Baker was crew. The man that had helped get hundreds of Infected changed so they didn’t have their first modes driving them insane any longer. If the fellow had a friend in trouble, then it made sense to help him as much as they could.

  So he nodded.

  “We, my people, can help in a kidnapping like this. Possibly at least. I won’t be needed here. Not if Erath is in charge. Someone will have to stay with the kids here. I’ll let Lydia know as soon as she comes back. Um, I should change.” He was still standing there, his face covered and in what seemed to be black cotton.

  He still had the tools with him as well. Those were taken out of his pockets, along with the key to the cells. Then he changed into a business suit. In gray, since the man next to him, Dareg, was in all black.

  That was rather plain, for standing around outside of a palace like they were doing. Especially when it was clearly magical clothing, which meant the fellow could have been dressed in anything he wanted at the moment. That meant the simple clothing meant something in particular. Probably that the man was ready to go and fight, himself.

  The door opened, which got him to wave, before Lydia could take off.

  “Transport! We have an emergency. There’s been a kidnapping here. We need the appropriate people for that. The Ambassador and whoever she thinks will be required.” That was Cin Mableton. Her powers allowed her to read people’s minds like they were books.

  Instead of using any names, Lydia nodded. Then she pushed Gillian forward a little.

  “Are we still passing everyone else through?”

  Richard thought for a second, before speaking.

  “Yes. We have the needed people here for the work. Mr. Canton and I will stand by here, for th
e first bit, if possible. Then we’ll need you, or someone, to come and monitor things on this end. I might be needed for planning and even if not, I have to at least make a showing.”

  That got a nod and the door shut, the girl in black, her face covered still, leaning forward a bit to make that happen.

  Gillian looked baffled and was glowing nicely. She was back to green again for it, which wasn’t that bright, under the direct sunlight.

  “Um… so, what’s going on? We were broken out of that hellhole, so that was fun… but why?”

  Dareg looked at him, which meant glancing down a good way, since he was over seven feet tall. He didn’t comment on the girl being in a white night dress or anything rude like that. There was no mention of her choosing to glow either. Just a polite glance at Richard, to make certain attention went to the correct person.

  “This is Noram. A different reality. Where we send people to have their first modes removed? They can also make some small changes to people physically at times, as well. Normally the powers have to stay similar, but the modes can be taken out totally. You all have an appointment with some students here that are learning to do that. I’m Richard Drake, by the way. From the IPB. The Depot didn’t want to let some of you out for this, for some reason. We’re the Infected Protection Bureau though, so we came for you anyway. We’re going to get the rest, as well.” Which was, more or less, the truth.

  The glowing girl grinned at him then.

  “Really? The IPB? That’s different! Neat. Are we waiting for everyone else first?”

  “Of course. Otherwise it would just be rude.”