Guardians Inc.:Thundersword (Guardians Incorporated #2) (45 page)

“An ancestor who still has influence over my family,” she said with an edge to her voice. “A supernatural being....a demon.”

The man reclined back, and then she saw his eyes looking at her cheek where she had felt the pinprick. She covered her cheek with her hand and smiled again. “My parents,” she told him. “They liked the word and never checked for its meaning.”

The man just nodded with a feigned smile.

“Miss Hannifin?” a heavyset man in his sixties said as he approached from the elevator hallway. She stood up from the couch and extended a hand; the pinprick was under control, for the moment.

“Johan Necklen,” he said, shaking her hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Mr. Necklen.” She took a quick glance at the Necklen Mining Corp. sign above the receptionist. She already knew who this man was, what he owned, and how much he was worth, but she still tried to keep the appearance of someone new to the corporate scene.

“Please follow me,” Mr. Necklen said, guiding her to the elevator. A suited guard had held it for him and he nodded as they entered. As soon as the doors closed, Necklen turned to her.  His excitement was apparent and nearly overpowering his judgment. It had been one of the reasons why she had chosen him among the other myriad companies she had access to.

“May I be blunt?” he asked.

“Of course, Mr. Necklen. That's why I came to speak with you in person, so we can be blunt with each other.” She felt the urge to kill him now, but she sensed the elevator security cameras overhead.

“What are your expectations in this deal?” he asked. “Surely you know just how valuable your sample is. My company doesn't have the resources to mount an operation of the magnitude you're suggesting.”

“Mr. Necklen, your mining operations are small in comparison to other companies, but your commercial reach is very large. What we want from your company is distribution. We already have a mining operation in place, but we don't have marketability.”

“Surely other larger companies have more commercial reach than us,” he said. “I'm sure you know that too.” The old man seemed suspicious, even when offered the deal of a lifetime. That actually was the most powerful reason she had come to him. Necklen had always been in that special list of companies that Caelum Mining Group had wished to annex as part of the Guardians Inc. But, Necklen had been left alone by the Guardians because of the honorable disposition of its owner.

That would change, of course, once Necklen agreed to join forces with her. She would have a clear shot at Caelum and then at the Guardians Inc. network.

“Other larger companies don't have your reputation of fairness,” she said. That at least was true, and Necklen’s smile spoke more than a thousand words.

“Thank you very much.”

The elevator doors opened and he bade her to walk into his office.

Again the urge to kill overcame her, but she stopped. Two men and a woman were seated at a conference table with stacks of papers before them.

“So, I guess we are ready to sign?” she asked with a genuine smile. The old man had just been curious about her motivations. He had been ready to sign the deal the moment she walked into his building.

“I am if you are.” Necklen escorted her to the table, and after introducing her to the lawyers, he sat beside her.

Necklen had been very thorough. It took a little more than three hours for them to come to an agreement about percentages and quantities, obligations and deliveries. She had almost forgotten how long and tedious business negotiations could be, but also how satisfying it was to complete and sign a contract. Then, and only after she had signed the last copy of the contract, Necklen began to really talk in earnest about the future.

“We’ve already identified more than a dozen applications for the material,” he said. “From heat shielding to telecommunications. We think that it might even be a good medium for printing circuits, but we are going to need more samples to test.”

“I also came prepared,” she said and pulled out a little metal box from her briefcase and handed it to Necklen. “I'll send you more samples, but you can start with this.”

The man took it like a greedy child and opened the latch. “You're going to love this,” he told the lawyers. With utmost care he pulled out the sample. It was a small brick made of a black material, almost like obsidian. The surface was perfectly flat, but it distorted the lawyers’ faces in its reflection.

“An amazing material,” Necklen said.

“Quite magical,” she told him with a smile.

“Do you really have as much as you say?” he asked without looking at her.

“I have enough to build a city if we need to,” she replied.

She felt a pinprick again on her right cheek; this time it was stronger and it extended all the way to her temple. She couldn't linger anymore. She placed her hand on her cheek and stood up from the table.

“I'll take my leave now,” she said brusquely.

“Is something wrong?” Necklen said, standing up. The others were mesmerized by the object.

“Toothache,” she said. “It’s been bothering me all week. I'm sorry.” She felt the back of her head sag a little. “Can I use your restroom?”

“Sure, use my private.” Necklen said as he pointed to a door.

She hurried, careful not to make her head wobble as she walked. What would Necklen say if he saw her scalp falling down her back? She entered the bathroom and locked the door. As she approached the mirror she let go of her cheek and it sagged down, pulling on her lower eyelid.

It almost looked like molasses.

She concentrated in another form; she couldn't use her true form because the bathroom would not contain it, so she chose another one, one more familiar than that of Whiro Hannifin.

Her skin contracted and changed color, from the darker tan to a clear, pristine white, and the auburn hair turned blond.

Her eyes took on the green hue she had been so fond of and her lips thinned. The more she held this shape, the more she would be able to hold on to Whiro Hannifin, so she turned on the water and allowed it run freely for a minute while she checked her image in the mirror.

The perfect smile, the bright, luminous, emerald eyes, the shining hair, the perfect body.

Yes.

Tasha had to accept that she had been quite a catch before she joined the Wraith and became a Goddess, and soon, very soon, little pieces of her new empire would insinuate themselves into Guardians Inc.

To be continued in

Guardians Inc.: The Four Legged Prophet (Book three of the Guardians Inc. Saga).

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Guardians Inc.: The Four-Legged Prophet.

(Book three of the Guardians Inc. Saga)

The Lion

Mrs. Pianova was standing beside the Doctor's bed when Thomas entered the door. She opened her arms to greet him, and her usual stern demeanor was lit up with a smile.

“Welcome home,” she whispered, glancing back at the Doctor, who was sleeping in the hospital bed. Thomas looked around; he had last seen Killjoy when he was out of phase with time, but she wasn't in the room anymore.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “How is he?” He looked at the Doctor, expecting to hear terrible news. When he had been displaced in time, the scene had been ominous.

“We are waiting for the anesthesia to wear off,” Mrs. Pianova said. “He came out from surgery less than two hours ago.”

“Surgery?”

“Quite...extensive,” Mrs. Pianova said. “He finally accepted to begin a set of surgeries for his arthritis.”

Thomas looked at the Doctor with relief. He was sleeping, not dying as he had believed the last time he entered that room. “Is he going to get better?”

“Much better, Thomas,” Mrs. Pianova said. “I dare say that after this surgery he'll be almost as new.”

Thomas remembered the Doctor after Isaurus had attacked him in the Namtarii's Keep. Isaurus had accelerated the Doctor's rheumatoid arthritis. The sickness had attacked his joints, especially his hands and feet, and he cringed at the memory of seeing the Doctor's hands practically turned into claws by the RA. After returning from the Aesir, Thomas had read all that he could about the sickness that afflicted roughly one percent of the world's population.

He had left the Doctor in the hands of the Mansion's medical ward to follow the trail of the Aesir. He had been away for almost eight months, so why had the Doctor waited so long to begin this treatment?

“Why did he wait so long?”

“It's...complicated,” Mrs. Pianova said. “I think that it’s better for him to tell you his reasons in person.”

“Of course,” Thomas said. The Doctor's decision was just another thing he had to accept without question.

He felt a sharp pain in his temple.

“Thomas?” Mrs. Pianova asked.

Even Bolswaithe had secrets. A machine supposedly created to help humanity was
lying
... What would Tony and Henri say when they found out that he wasn't human? Would they feel duped? Humiliated? He could end that secret right now; he could take Tony and Henri to the Mansion's entrance and show them Bolswaithe's smashed body on the pavement, just pieces of machinery strewn on the concrete, a broken toy...

“Thomas!” Mrs. Pianova grabbed him by the arm, bringing him out from his train of thought. “Are you okay?”

It took Thomas a second to react. “Yes. I'm just tired. I'm sorry, I phased out for a second.”

“It's okay, Thomas,” Mrs. Pianova said. “It will take some time for the Doctor to come to, so why don't you and Tony go rest a little?” She looked behind Thomas at Tony, who was standing by the door.

“I can't,” Thomas told her. “Not yet. There is something I need to do immediately.” He turned around toward the door. He saw Tony exchanging a worried look with Mrs. Pianova. “Don't worry,” he told her without looking back. “It will be fast, and then I'll go straight to bed, I promise.”

He walked past Tony and ran to his room.

“What's going on Thomas?” Tony asked as they climbed up the curved foyer stairs.

“Wait here,” Thomas said.
He entered his room and grabbed the robot's head he had brought back from Versoix. The thing had tried to assassinate his grandfather. Gramps was alive only because the Norns had returned Thomas at the precise moment to save him. The three sisters that saw the fate of humans and pantheon creatures alike had seen the assassination attempt and the impending battle between the Fauns and the humans. They had manipulated time to place Thomas in the perfect moment to stop both incidents.

But that didn't mean that whoever was responsible for the assassination attempt would stop from trying again.

Bolswaithe had analyzed the robot's technology and had come to the conclusion that it belonged to a rogue element working from within Guardians Inc.

Thomas wasn't going to wait for the Doctor to resolve this; he wasn't going to let it pass either.

He was going to solve the situation immediately.

“Tell Bolswaithe to call the Council of Twilight for an emergency meeting,” he told Tony. Bolswaithe's body lay broken on the Mansion's front entrance, but his program was already stored in Guardians Inc.’s systems and ready for download into a replacement frame.

“What?” Tony asked.

“Just do it!” Thomas yelled as he stopped at the base of the stairs.

“I'm already on it.” Bolswaithe's voice came from Tony's wristpadd. Thomas had left the overclocked wristpadd he had used in the command tent at Ethipotala, and Bolswaithe had left a message on the screen saying that he had already departed the limiting technology. “Are you sure about this...”

“I'm sure, Bolswaithe,” he said, looking at the statue of Prometheus that adorned the foyer. It didn't depict the demigod that had brought fire to humanity as most others did, chained to a rock and tortured by birds as they ate his liver every day. Instead, Michelangelo had sculpted him as a figure of power and wisdom, a benefactor to humanity. A role model for all Guardians to follow.

Thomas was going to follow that role model and become one himself.

“Very well, Thomas,” Bolswaithe said. “Meeting confirmed in ten minutes.”

“Tell us how to get there,” Thomas said, and a map of the inside of the Mansion appeared on Tony's wristpadd.

“Shouldn't we tell Elise about this?” Tony asked as a line was drawn on the map for them to follow.

“No time,” Thomas said as he walked toward the Doctor’s office and from there to the door that would take him to the Council chamber.

“The Council is assembled,” Bolswaithe’s voice came from the wristpadd. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea that you go in without the Doctor.”

Bolswaithe had told him the same thing three times already, but Thomas had dismissed his objections. A couple of days before, he would have thought twice about going into the Council chamber alone. He had been so unsure of what he was supposed to do or even who he was. But not anymore.

Bolswaithe had tried to dissuade him, but deep inside Thomas realized that the robot butler had to cave in to his request. Bolswaithe, like everything and everyone else in Guardians Inc., existed to help him achieve his goal.

In the end, Bolswaithe accepted his orders, which only assured Thomas that he was right.

“We can't wait any longer,” Thomas said. “They might have another plan to kill Gramps. I need to put an end to that right now.”

“That's enough for me,” Tony said. “Open the door, Bolswaithe.”

“It's highly irregular that Thomas is going without the Doctor,” Bolswaithe said. “I don't think it’s advisable for the both of you to go. The Council might get nervous.”

“Then they're really going to freak out when they see us all,” Elise said. Tony and Thomas turned around and saw Elise and Henri standing by the door.