House of Ill Repute

“Twenty Pan Dollars for an Espresso!” exclaimed Penny in righteous indignation. She drank some more from her cup. “And it is not even that good!”

“You are making a scene” I warned her as I sipped from my cup. “Besides, you didn’t pay for it, I did”. Technically, the Church paid for it on the debit card they gave me for expenses.

I was already under the disapproving glare of the head waiter in this very fancy cafe. Penny may have met with approval in the fashion stakes, but my leather jacket and denim jeans was not acceptable in the Cafe de Pan.

“Eat another cookie” I suggested to Penny. At thirty Pandas a dozen they tasted pretty good.

Penny picked one up, examined it and looked at me.

“I bet you two cookies they send four Goons for us” she challenged.

I considered what I knew of the Governor’s office staff. “Three Goons and a Lackey” I countered.

“Nope, they won’t send any Lackeys. Maybe four Goons and a Henchman. Bid is now three cookies”

“Five Henchmen” I stated categorically. “You have to raise to four cookies now”

“Where is the Governor going to find that many Henchmen?” demanded Penny. “Anyhow, what is the difference between Goons and Henchmen?”

“I don’t really know. Training? Oh, I know. Loyalty. Goons are only loyal as long as they are being paid. A good Henchman will stand by you even in sickness and poverty”

At that point four fit looking young men in cheap suits turned up at our table, accompanied by an older man in a long coat hanging open over his suit. They were all wearing dark glasses and had a menacing air.

Penny turned to look at the men, clucked her tongue and asked the group “Can you help settle something for us? Are you Goons or Henchmen?” She looked expectantly at them.

“You need to come with us Sisters” the one at the back in the long coat said politely. His men moved to surround our little table.

“Can I just finish my latte?” I asked. There was still half a cup full and at these prices I was not going to waste it.

“I told you to get it in a takeaway cup” Penny hissed to me.

“They don’t do takeaway here” I snarked back. I drained my cup in one go, burped in a very unladylike manner, and stood up. I eyed the remaining cookies with a tinge of sadness. There was no way I was going to be able to carry them with me.

“Please, Sisters, the Governor is waiting” Mr Long Coat said. He gestured in the direction of the elevator cluster near the reception desk. Penny and I followed him as he led us that way, his Goons / Henchmen following us closely.

The reception ladies, Left and Right, made no comment to us as an elevator was summoned and we stepped inside. Penny and I had two men in front of us and two behind. Long Coat used a smart key to access the elevator controls and selected a floor.

It was a very smooth ride in the elevator car, but it was immediately obvious we were descending and not ascending.

“Isn’t the Governor’s office up not down?” I suggested helpfully to the men.

“He is about to leave for the day. He will be waiting for us in the private basement car park” Long Coat said smoothly.

“They work a short day in the Public Service here, don’t they?” observed Penny loudly. I could tell she was really enjoying this. I gave her a nudge to behave. We needed to wait for the right moment to act.

The elevator stopped its descent and the doors slid open. Three more men were waiting just outside, all in the same cheap suits. Beyond was indeed a small basement car park, but there was no sign of Governor Rose.

“Oh dear, Vee” said Penny, “I think we may have walked into a trap”

“Step outside please Sisters” said Long Coat and gestured out into the basement. His men pressed from behind and the ones in front moved back, forming an irregular circle around us as we walked into the large space. The elevator doors closed behind us.

“This looks big enough” said Penny and she blurred into action. Two men fell unconscious before I could even start to move. Long Coat cursed and I saw him draw a pistol from his coat.

“Somnolus” I uttered as my right hand pointed at him, palm open. The Sleep charm pulsed from me as a ball of white light that struck his temple and he fell instantly to the ground.

I felt strong hands grip me from behind and try to force me down. Twisting my body I drew the silvered pin from my hair and poured power into the runic inscription.

“Engorgio” I snapped and it went from a six inch pin to a six foot metal staff, one end tipped with a razor sharp spear point and the other a heavy striking ball of metal. The metal ball slammed into the jaw of my assailant as it elongated and he fell backwards, spitting out teeth.

In moments we had halved our opposition. The other four backed away and looked at us in terror.

“Go easy on them Penny” I said “They are just Goons”

She launched herself forwards as they scrambled to pull their guns from shoulder holsters. Only one got his clear and sent a single shot wildly into the distance before she leaped on his shoulders and flipped him violently into the concrete floor.

“Do you feel better now?” I asked her as I searched the unconscious and broken men, tossing their weapons off to the side.

“Yes, I do” she answered. “I really needed to work off that coffee buzz”

Once we were certain there would be no unexpected surprises, she joined me beside the sleeping form of Long Coat.

“The activation word on your magic staff there is pretty messed up” she observed.

“It needs to be something I would not say accidentally” I explained to her. “I can’t have spells going off randomly in the middle of a conversation”. I poked the aforementioned staff at Long Coat, willing him to wake up. He appeared to be down for a while.

“Well, Plan A was to talk to someone and get answers. It will have to be Plan B now.” I pulled his phone and Ident card from his pockets, as well as the smart key he used on the elevator. “Shall we go find our own answers?”

“Sure” Penny agreed, then reached down and took the pistol from him as well. She turned it over in her hands, checked the magazine and made sure the safety was engaged. It went into the rear waistband of her skirt, hidden by the jacket.

I summoned the elevator and stood there waiting for it, holding my spear staff in my left hand. Penny looked at it and gave me a lifted eyebrow.

“It takes an hour to go down again” I explained.

=====

The Governor’s office was on the ninety sixth floor. I punched the ninety fifth floor, where the administration offices were that supported his office. The smart key worked perfectly and we ascended to some very tasteful music. I could not help but tap out the beat on the floor with the butt of my staff.

It was an express ride to the office level and the doors opened to a very small reception area, with corridors leading off in three directions. A harried young man with a wireless induction port on his temple greeted us as we stepped out.

“Good morning” he said hurriedly, “How can I help you today?” I noted his left eyelid was flickering and he was likely reviewing data files while also talking to us.

“Hi there” I answered. “My colleague and I are here for a meeting with Johann Fields, down in Security” I said smoothly. That was the name on the Ident card for Long Coat, still sleeping peacefully in the basement.

“Is he expecting you?” said the receptionist. He eyed my metal staff and I mentally dared him to make a comment.

“Of course. No need to call ahead, we know the way” I replied and set off purposefully down a corridor. Penny gave him a wave and followed along behind me. She caught up to me and asked me how I knew where his office was.

“I don’t. I am just trusting to fate” I said and opened an office door on a whim. It said Office Procurement and Supply on the outside. There was no one in there so I quickly ushered Penny inside.

As I had hoped, they used a linked datapad network. Any employee could access their own electronic workspace from any datapad in the same system. I used the smart key from Fields to activate his account.

The retinal scanner screen was presented and I turned to Penny. “Your turn now”

“How do you know I can break into his account?” she questioned me. I just stared back at her. She relented but told me I had to look away.

I duly did so and she did something arcanely scientific with her inbuilt processor and artificial eyes. She paid a lot of money for those things and it wasn’t just because they looked nice. I knew she was an expert hacker in her own right. Infiltration to get to a target was not all about stealth and camouflage these days.

“What now?” asked Penny, still seated in front of the datapad. I turned around and looked over her shoulder at the screen.

“This Fields guy must be part of the Governors little entourage. He is not part of the official bodyguard, those guys would all be heavily Enhanced. I think Fields would have accompanied Rose on his own private jaunts”

“So try and track where he has been recently?” said Penny. “OK, hand me his phone”

Penny synched the phone to the datapad, her fingers flying over the keyboard. She pulled up some maps of Pan City and ran a search of all locations he had been to in the last week. These cross matched with listed addresses she got from his contacts, eliminating obvious places like his home and office.

One address caught her attention and she honed in on it. It was a large rented office space in a retail park on the outskirts of Pan City. The area was well away from any of the other haunts that Fields or the Governor would be expected to visit.

“What is listed for that address?” I asked Penny. My intuition was telling me this was the place we needed to find. She searched a couple of information sites and eventually found the details on a particular type of list.

“It’s a business called the House of Ill Repute” she said. “It is a whore house”

“That is our target. Let’s get out of here”

Penny shut down the datapad and phone. We left the phone and Ident card behind, as they were traceable. The smart key was too, but it only needed to get us to the lobby and we would dump it.

We waved to the receptionist as we left. He ignored us, both eyelids flickering as he was lost in a digital trance.

=====

In the vast lobby we moved quickly around to the far side of the pillar, out of sight of the two female receptionists. They only seemed to pay attention to people coming in, not leaving.

Penny eyed off the staff I was still carrying. It was very noticeable and it would be a good half hour or more before it would revert to hair pin size.

“Can’t you just leave it somewhere?” she asked.

“It is very useful and extremely valuable” I told her. “I am not just tossing it like some piece of trash”

“OK, OK, Vee. Calm down. Let me think for a moment” Penny cast her eyes about the lobby and then dashed off, telling me to wait here.

I stood against the wall as casually as I could, hiding the six foot staff behind my six foot frame. Whistling always seems to be the thing to do when acting casual, but I can’t whistle to save my life. I tried a little humming instead.

My thoughts drifted back to our encounter with the goons, or henchmen, or whatever they self identified as. I knew Penny was wondering why I didn’t use my power to see their future paths and locate where the Warlock was.

I had tried. And something was blocking me. It was an uncomfortable feeling to think that there was a power that could circumvent my senses. There were detection blocking spells that can be used. I had employed such magic myself in the past. But this felt different somehow.

Most detection blocks left an emptiness where you would search. A blank space in reality that in its own way was a sign that something could be there. This was something else again. An almost physical block on my power. Only something truly potent from beyond the Boundary could achieve that. I wondered who or what the Warlock had allied himself with.

That was why we had to track the prey the old fashioned way, with good old high tech wizardry. Not for the first time I was glad Penny was with me on this mission.

“I’m back” Penny announced. “Did you miss me?”

“Always” I assured her. She presented me with a long red ribbon that she had acquired. It looked a lot like one of the ribbons that decorated the cafe with the very expensive coffees.

“And this is for....?” I asked her enquiringly.

She took it from me and deftly tied the ribbon around the staff, ending with a big decorative bow. It now looked like a tricked out version of a Christmas Candy Cane. The kind Santa could use to slay wicked Elves with.

“If anyone asks, we tell them it is a present for your niece” she explained. I gave her a look. “It is the best I can come up with” she said in reply to my expression.

Penny and I walked across the lobby, heading towards the shuttle train. The security gates were only for people entering the Tower, so we should be able to get onto the shuttle and back to our parked car without a problem.

I called up my power and reached out with my sight, trying to choose a path that avoided the Guards and Police Auxiliaries on patrol. With so many people here and so many possible paths it was overwhelming. It was too much for me to process. I released my power gratefully. It would have to rely on using our own heightened senses and trusting to our luck.

With relief we made it to the shuttle platform without being accosted. I was wondering how no alarm had been raised, as the goon squad should have been found by now. Considering the circumstances, a general alert would not be possible. They would want to keep the whole thing as under wraps as they could.

We both were on high alert for any tails or someone taking an undue interest in us. I did note a few people checking out my enormous metal candy cane. “It’s a present for my niece” I dutifully told one old lady who was giving me the eye.

When the shuttle arrived, Penny and I gratefully stepped on board the rear of two carriages, along with a half dozen others heading to the same parking complex. We went to stand by ourselves, hoping the short trip would just be over. The shuttle moved smoothly off along its monorail track.

The door at the far end that connected to the front carriage opened. A tall man entered and I felt a strange thrill of power emanate from him. He was dressed in a long black coat, a dark suit visible beneath. His face was shadowed beneath a wide brimmed hat a striking shade of burgundy. His eyes seemed to burn into mine as our gazes met.

“Penny...” I said in warning but she was already reacting. The pistol she had taken from Fields was out from her back and already firing as I spoke.

The other passengers barely had time to register what was happening as two shots blazed across the intervening space and the Adept threw up a defensive Shield spell of dark red light. He smiled and drew out a short bladed sword from his coat and started to walk towards us.

There were six people in here with us. Some had cowered against the walls of the carriage, two were huddled in the centre, looking fearfully back and forth between us and the Adept.

“Is this the Warlock?” Penny demanded and sighted again on the approaching figure. I risked another view of the paths, yet the Adept before me was being actively blocked by the same anomalous power.

“He is not a friend!” I yelled and Penny fired again, her aiming point shifting so the Adept could not keep his Shield spell stationary. As planned her last bullet streaked past the light of his Shield, only for the sword to move with blinding speed and precision. The bullet was deflected aside and hit the carriage wall instead.

“Did his sword just parry a bullet?” said Penny in awe.

“It has an Iron Mare bound within” I told her. This was not just a rogue Adept, this was a Warlock.

“So how do we fight him?” Penny asked. I wondered that myself. If we had our gear it would be a matched fight. Right now we were severely limited.

“We can’t. We need to get out of here. These people are in danger if we keep this up”

The Warlock had stopped halfway down the carriage. His left was extended, ready to cast another Shield. His sword arm hung low to the side, the blade of the sword gleaming a sickly colour in the lights of the carriage. The other travellers were whimpering with fear, their cries reminding me of the danger we were all in.

“I am so glad to meet you at last, Sister Venerae” the Warlock spoke, his voice deep and commanding. He glanced at Penny, her pistol still aimed resolutely at his head. “And Miss Deeds, of the Ordo Excommunicado. I am honoured to have drawn the attention of such admirable foes”

“You wanted to draw me out, so here I am” he continued. “Shall we see whose power is the greater?” He smiled but his eyes held no laughter, only cruelty. This was not a man who ever gave mercy. That was fair, as I was not big on mercy to the wicked either.

“Expulsio!” I screamed and threw all the power I had within me into the runic spell tattoed across my abdomen. It is not something I used very often but was one of the most potent spell foci I had.

The carriage was engulfed in bright blue light, nearly blinding in its brilliance. The power of my master, the Archangel Michael, filled the space. For those of a good heart and faith, the experience was said to be uplifting, like hearing the voice of a blessed angel calling your name.

To the wicked and corrupt it was torment. To beings summoned from beyond the Boundary it was agony. If they had been manifested in their own form it would have destroyed them utterly, but the Warlock’s were shielded within their hosts.

He screamed in pain and fell back, but we were not in such good shape either. Penny and I have many sins of our own to account for, and the spell was not sparing of us. I picked Penny’s nearly unconscious form up and staggered to the doors. We had arrived at the station and I threw us out onto the platform.

We huddled there, barely able to move, as the shuttle train closed the doors and moved away. I sat there, tears falling down my face onto Penny’s beautiful cheek as I held her close.

“I’m sorry” I sobbed to her. “I could not think of any other way to escape”

She stirred in my arms and opened her eyes. She lifted one hand to my tear streaked face and whispered a reply.

“Don’t you have any spells that won’t kill us too?”