Courageous Read online

  “Afraid I’m going to turn into a nine-foot-tall yellow monster with delusions of grandeur, Vinnie?”

  “I figured you’d only make it to seven feet, but yeah, a little.”

  Gears shook his head. “They tried. But my genome wasn’t something they knew how to alter. Did you know they actually write log files as they alter an organism’s DNA? It’s pretty cool, actually, and clever. Those logs get used by other members of Anatiel’s race to learn about what’s been assimilated, to see if they want to send more conversion units to whatever planet they’re on. I’ve read my logs. It’s just the word ‘Error’ over and over again. The cyberium can’t change me, but I’ve got full control over them.”

  That was a relief, and I said as much. I had too much on my plate to worry about Gears turning into a Borg-like alien monstrosity. “Okay, and what about Mrs. Rita and Doc? Where are they?”

  “Doc’s still on vacation with Panacea, remember? As for Mrs. Rita… Honestly, I don’t know, Vinnie. She wasn’t imprisoned with the rest of us.”

  “Well, we need to get a message out to Dublin, alert the Care Taker that Treggen’s taken over the office and get him to send help.”

  Gears pulled a face. “That’s not going to be easy, Vinnie. Xavier’s been reporting to the Care Taker several times a day.”

  “Gears, Xavier’s dead. I watched Treggen blow a hole through his head.”

  Gears grimaced. “Yeah, and that hole got patched. And then Treggen animated Xavier and has been using him like a puppet to make encrypted phone calls and provide status reports. Treggen, through Xavier, convinced the Care Taker that Cynthia had been possessed and Jake wasn’t listening to reason about how to care for her. That’s why they were okayed to be imprisoned. Treggen told Dublin that you’d gone AWOL, and I was imprisoned because they ‘suspected I’d assisted you.’ I was to be interrogated until I gave up your whereabouts.”

  “How do you know all this?” I asked.

  Gears tapped his ears. “The cyberium let me eavesdrop on the communications in the building, and have this handy library for decrypting encoded messages. They ripped through cipher 41 like it wasn’t even there.”

  “Seriously? They can cut through that level of security?”

  “Yep. And the Care Taker believed everything Treggen fed him through Xavier. It wasn’t that much of a stretch. Especially because Megan, who the Care Taker views as the only competent agent in our office now that Kristin’s dead, attested to everything Xavier said.”

  Ah, shit. I knew the celestial phylactery that Treggen inhabited could create and compel undead, so I’d figured he’d use Megan as an undead assassin. I hadn’t expected him to use her to validate things were hunky-dory in the office.

  “Do you think there’s a chance we can convince Dublin that Xavier’s a fake?”

  Gears rested his chin on his hands. “‘We’ as in you and me? Probably not. It’s not too far of a stretch for Dublin to believe that we did those things, because, let’s face it, we did. Galahad would’ve handled things internally, but Treggen’s stayed true to Xavier’s M.O. and reports everything. Megan, though... She might be able to convince them that Xavier’s not all he seems.”

  “All right. Let’s work on getting her free of Treggen’s influence. What do we need to do?”

  “I think a better question is who do we need to do that? Are you any good with breaking mental compulsions? I know I’m not. Maybe if we knew where Mrs. Rita was, she could help.”

  “No idea on Mrs. Rita, but Herb can help. I’m sure of it,” I said. “He wanted to rescue Megan more than anything, and I told him we’d get Megan back. Let’s go pick him up.” We portaled to a store in the Undercity called Oddities, which was run by Herb’s father.

  The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” greeted us as we opened the door. Oddities was a sort of paranormal junk shop, made up of one part treasure, thirty parts trash, and it was anyone’s guess on which items were which. Row upon row of floor-to-ceiling shelves were stuffed with arcane trinkets, books, shrunken heads, unlabeled vials of crimson liquid; you name it. I think I even saw the skull from the Scooby Doo intro sequence.

  Just ahead, Albert was dusting the cash register. The undead shopkeeper had receding hair and a pudgy middle. The pinpricks of red light in his eyes brightened when he saw us. “Why Agent Corinthos, and Gearstripper,” he said with a wide grin. “How lovely to see you again.”

  “I need to speak with Herb, Albert. How can I get a hold of him?”

  “Well, you’re in luck. Herbert is in the back, doing some research,” Albert gestured over his shoulder with his thumb.

  I thanked the shopkeeper and pushed through the door into the back room. Not too long ago, I’d fought the Black Flash here, amidst shelf upon shelf of arcane junk. Now many of the shelves had been pushed to the sides of the room, and a series of folding tables dominated the space. Dozens of books and a couple of scrolls covered these tables, and the air was filled with the furious scratching of a pen as Herb Wallenby, benevolent necromancer, frantically made notes on a legal pad.

  Herb didn’t look like much of a magic user. He was a little shorter than me, pudgy, and his brown hair was a mess. He didn’t look up as we came in. “Dad,” he said, “do you know where we can get a copy of The Book of St. Cyprian, preferably in the original Portuguese? I’m finding some references to it here, and I think it might be useful.”

  “I might be able to find a copy in the Athenaeum,” I said.

  Herb jolted as his head snapped up. “Vincent. It’s about time you showed up. Where have you been?”

  “Sorry, Herb, it took me a little longer to get out of Hell than I thought, and then I got waylaid at Caulborn HQ.” I filled him in on what had happened since we last parted company.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here,” Herb said as I finished. “Now you can help me find Megan. I’ve been working on that since I got back. I’ve found some possibilities on how Treggen might be controlling her, and I think I’ve got a way to break his hold.”

  “There’s a ‘but’ coming, isn’t there?” I said.

  Herb nodded. “There isn’t much documented in the way of this sort of compulsion. I’m having to piece together a whole bunch of magical theories to try and come up with a way to do it. I’m sure that I can come up with an effective ritual, but my best guess says that breaking the hold won’t be an instantaneous process; it’ll probably take a few minutes.”

  “That doesn’t sound so bad,” Gears said.

  Herb grimaced. “Getting a mentally dominated strigoi mort to sit still for that long will be difficult, if not impossible.”

  “Ah, I see what you mean,” Gears said. “Does Megan need to be conscious for this?”

  Herb nodded.

  “Rats,” Gears said.

  “Let’s focus on what we can do,” I said. “What would you need for this sort of ritual?” I looked around at the shelves. “Stuff like what your dad has here?”

  “Sadly, no. And keep in mind, this is all completely theoretical. Even if we manage to pull together all the necessary ingredients, it might not work.” Herb rubbed his pudgy face and leaned back in his chair then, and it struck me just how tired he looked.

  “Herb, have you slept at all?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Not really. Since we got back from the tunnel, I’ve been focused on figuring this out.”

  “Jesus, Herb. You—”

  Herb jabbed a finger at me. “Don’t you dare tell me what to do, Vincent. We’re getting Megan back, and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

  I walked forward and put my hand on the necromancer’s shoulder. Herb felt coiled tighter than a spring. “Herb, I am with you one hundred percent on that. But, to really help Megan you need to be at the top of your game. You go too long without rest
or food, and invariably you’ll make a mistake that might get her, or all of us, killed.”

  Herb’s shoulders slumped and he rubbed at his eyes.

  “You’re right,” he sighed.

  I clapped him on the shoulder. “Okay, step one, gather up all your stuff and let’s take it back to Courage Point. I’ll configure Alexis to help you do some arcane modeling of how your ritual will work based on what we know so far. Gears can work with you too, and see if we have a digitized copy of that book you mentioned in the Caulborn archives.” I looked at Gears. “You can still access the archives, right?”

  He snorted. “Does Commander Data have a positronic matrix?”

  “Right. So, Herb, is it okay if I create a portal right here and we just push the tables through, or are there any weird energy signatures going on here in your dad’s shop that would cause problems with that?”

  Herb opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment Albert pushed open the door to the room. “Yes, agents, he’s just back here. Agent Corinthos, some of the other Caulborn are here looking for you.”

  Eva and her team stepped into the room.

  Chapter 5

  I’ll give Eva and her team credit, they didn’t screw around. There was no banter, no gloating at having tracked Gears and me down, they just went right into action. Once the first of them was through the door, they drew their weapons and fired at us. Time slowed down around me reflexively. I saw the bullets, nearly frozen in the air, just barely inching forward toward their targets. One was going to hit me right between the eyes. Another would take Gears in the chest, and Herb was going to take a few rounds as well. But with how slowly the bullets were moving, I had all the time in the world to snap portals out in front of them, and send them shooting harmlessly into the waters of the Quabbin Reservoir.

  That done, I conjured a second series of portals and affixed these to the ends of their guns, so any subsequent shots would be taken care of. Time snapped back to its normal pace. “You know, Eva, we really need to stop meeting like this,” I said. “You really should leave town. Things are not going to end well for Treggen when this is over.”

  She didn’t reply. With one quick hand gesture, her team hurled themselves forward, in what would have been an impressive display of martial arts prowess, had they all not been portaled into the sewers beneath our old HQ. I waited until Eva raised her head, sewage dripping from her hair and face, before giving her a little smile.

  “Check it out, Gears, the evil Caulborn agent in her native habitat.” Eva snarled and rushed toward the portal, but I waved my hand and dismissed it. “You know, I don’t think she likes me.”

  “If she had heat vision, you’d be a pile of ash right now,” Gears replied.

  “Okay,” I said, clapping my hands together. “We need to get out of here. Right now. Albert, since I was able to use portals here and no one got their face burned off, I’m guessing it’s safe to Open a portal that leads outside this dimension?”

  He nodded. “Agent Corinthos, I’m so sorry, I had no idea—”

  “Nothing to worry about,” I said, waving a hand and conjuring a portal at the far end of the room. “Grab the end of this table, will you?” Albert, Herb and I began sliding the tables through to Courage Point, while Gearstripper scrambled along behind us, picking up the odd scroll or book that fell off. Once we were done, I turned to the undead shopkeeper. “Albert, it would probably be a good idea if you stayed out of your shop for a little while. Eva and company aren’t going to stay down for long, and I don’t want them trying to use you as leverage against us. Courage Point, where we are now, has everything you need.”

  “That sounds good to me, Agent Corinthos. I’d rather be here assisting Herbert, anyway.”

  “Great. Speaking of potential hostages, there’s one other person I need to pick up.”

  I left the group of them in the main room at Courage Point while I portaled to my apartment and found Petra lounging in the living room, reading a copy of the latest Sue London novel. She was dressed in an oversized Wonder Woman t-shirt and a pair of pink sweats, and her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “Hey, love,” she said, smiling at me. “Done with work early today?”

  “Afraid not,” I said. “C’mon, we need to get to Courage Point. I’ll fill you in there.” I snapped my fingers. “Actually, one more thing.” I pulled out my phone and dialed Thad. I wouldn’t put it past Treggen to try and use my oldest friend as leverage against me, either. I was starting to get nervous when he hadn’t picked up on the third ring, but then his voice came through.

  “Hello, Sweetie,” he said.

  “Thad, where are you? There’s a ton of background noise.” Clanging and rattling made me think of chains at first, but then I realized I was hearing coins falling.

  “Sorry, hon, but I’m in Vegas.”

  “Vegas?”

  “I know, right? James surprised me with a trip for our anniversary. We’re doing all the touristy things.”

  I couldn’t help but grin. “You two aren’t going to get married by an Elvis impersonator, are you?”

  “Vincent, don’t even joke about that. You know full well that when we get married it will be by a minister cosplaying as Elrond. And you and Petra will be there.”

  “So long as I don’t have to dress like Frodo, you’re on. But Thad, there are some bad things happening in Boston right now. Lay low while you’re out there, all right? Don’t go reenacting Ocean’s Eleven or anything like that.”

  “Pff. Do you think that if I was hanging out with George Clooney and Brad Pitt that I’d have answered the phone? But don’t worry, Sweetie. We’re staying with some friends who are in the know, if you know what I mean. We’re safe out here, no matter what vampiric, undead, or evil monster weirdness you’re mixed up in now.” There was a pause. “Wait, do you need my help?”

  “Not now. If that changes I’ll let you know.”

  “Sounds good, Vincent. You be careful.”

  “Hey, it’s me.”

  “Can you feel me giving you the look that Luke Skywalker gave Han Solo when he said that?”

  “Right. I’ll be extra careful, then. And don’t worry, Petra’s with me.”

  “In that case, you’ll be fine. Toodles.”

  We hung up, and I created a portal to Courage Point. “Wow,” Petra said as we stepped from our living room to the main hall of the Defenders’ Society. “The gang’s all here.”

  “Most of us,” I said. “We need to get Megan back. I’ll give you the details in just a sec.” I slapped my hand to my head. “I’m an idiot. Herb, Albert, can you help me move the tables one more time?” I conjured another portal, and we pushed the tables through into a room that Commander Courageous had lent out to his friend Professor Brymstone, a talented alchemist/scientist who could create formulae that altered the laws of nature in ways no other superhero could. “I think this might be better suited for what you need to do.”

  Herb’s tired eyes were bright as he looked around, and a nearly identical expression of delight shone on Albert’s face as well. “This will be perfect,” Herb grinned.

  “Great, I’ll be back to talk some more in a bit. I’ve got a few other things to take care of.”

  I grinned and stepped back through the portal to the main chamber, but Gears and Petra were gone. That wasn’t a surprise. I’d left pizzas and other junk food in the kitchen, and that gave me a pretty good idea where they’d be headed. Sure enough, I found them splitting the last slice of pepperoni as I walked in. “Jeez, there must’ve been a whole pie left when Gears and I left earlier,” I said. “How do you two eat so fast?”

  Gears dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. “One of the oldest rules of adventuring, Vinnie,” he said. “Always eat when you can, because you don’t know when your next meal will be.”

  “You
got that from Rescue Rangers,” I said.

  “Are you really questioning the sage wisdom of Monterey Jack?” Gears asked, his voice taking on an edge.

  I put up my hands. “Fine. It’s not like we’re going to run out of food.” And another pizza appeared on the table, brought about by my own force of will. I settled into a chair and caught Petra up on everything that had happened since I’d gone into work today.

  “Our top priority now is rescuing Megan.” I shook my head. “If I’d been faster, I might have been able to stop Treggen from killing her in the first place, but we’ll get her back. Also, if we can break Treggen’s hold on Megan, she might be able to convince the Care Taker that Xavier isn’t all he seems.”

  “Why can’t you just contact them directly?” Petra asked.

  “Well, for one, Dublin doesn’t trust Vinnie,” Gears said. “They had a special contingency plan in place on how to kill him if he went rogue. It was enacted a few weeks ago, but I’m not—”

  “Hang on,” I cut in. “It was enacted? On whose authority?”

  “Three guesses,” Gears said flatly.

  “For Christ’s sake,” I said. “Maxwell Roberts was outed as Treggen. And they kept the project going?”

  “Afraid so,” Gears said sadly. “Let’s face it, Vinnie, you’re not exactly the poster boy for the perfect Caulborn agent. You run off on unsanctioned missions, and it’s not a very big leap from doing that to going full rogue. Plus, they still think you represent a threat at some level, because you’re not human. They’re afraid that you being a god means you might not be totally loyal to the Caulborn, because you might amass enough power through paranormal followers to decide one day that you should be in charge.”

  “That is complete and utter horse shit,” I said.