Reality Hack (14 page)

That was when she saw it. At first sight it looked more like a greenish gas cloud than a human, but the indistinct shape resolved itself after a second into the general form of a boy. From the size he was in his early teens, and that was about right. She could tell almost nothing else about him, and he was ignoring her, walking toward the house with a slow, gliding stride as though he was walking on air. Then, when she looked closely, she realised he was: his feet were not actually touching the ground.

‘Brian,’ Nisa hissed. The figure continued to ignore her so she tried a little louder. ‘Brian. I know you can hear me. Turn around.’

The cloudy form turned in the air but continued drifting toward the house as if drawn there. He said nothing, just looked at her. The face looked more or less like the one she had found pictured in a newspaper article. Young, tending to the nerdy. He even had glasses.

‘Look… why don’t you stop and we can talk. I… I know what happened to you, but this isn’t the right way to deal with it.’

The drifting stopped and suddenly reversed as the ghost seemed to solidify, rushing toward Nisa. She held her ground, even though she wanted to bolt because… Well, a solid Brian was not that threatening a figure. He had soft, blonde hair, not an unattractive face, but the glasses were thick-rimmed and ugly. He was still in school uniform: a grey jumper and black slacks. There was a livid, red ring around his throat; the newspaper had said he had hanged himself with the red and black tie which now hung loosely around his neck.

‘What do you kn-know?!’ Brian snapped. ‘P-pretty girl. P-probably one of the b-bitches who bullied people like m-me.’ A stammer. The kid even stammered as a ghost.

‘Sure,’ Nisa replied, lifting her goggles up so that he could see her eyes. ‘That’s why I shave my hair and dress like a punk half the time. Because I fitted in at school. Pat Newgent beat the crap out of me three years running. Until I did sixth form and she started working in a chip shop.’ Up close, the angry young man seemed less solid. His features still seemed to shift a little as he glared at her, as though he was not entirely solid, even now. ‘I still didn’t feel safe until I came here, to university.’

The glare faded a little. ‘I b-bet you wanted revenge…’

‘I just wanted her to leave me alone. I’m sure you wanted to be left alone too. So why hang around here?’

‘John… he… Simon would hit me, but I c-could take that. I’d avoid him. John sent me m-messages. On the phone, emails. He told me what he’d do to me. He said he’d…’ The ghost shuddered and, for a second, almost vanished again. ‘I said I’d t-tell someone. He took my phone and my mother’s ring. She died… It was all…’ The anger flared again and Brian grew more solid. ‘I want it back!’

Behind him, Kellog had appeared with a wand of some sort in his hand. Nisa was not sure exactly what it did, but she figured it was not going to do the ghost much good.

‘The ring won’t do you much good now, Brian,’ she said, keeping her voice soft. ‘But we can get it back. We could take it to your father or your grave. We can prove what John and Simon did. There are laws now. They’ll be punished.’

He looked at her, anger still flaring in his eyes. ‘It’s almost full moon,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you until the next one. Take the ring to my father. Otherwise they’ll find John hanging in his bedroom like they did me.’ He stepped toward Nisa, vanishing into nothing as he did so, like a cloud of steam blowing on the wind. She felt her scalp tighten and a shudder ran through her body, and then the feeling of magic faded.

‘He walked right through me, didn’t he?’ she said to Kellog.

‘Yes, he did. That was well done. Risky, but well done.’

‘Risky?’

‘In a month he’ll be stronger, harder to take down, but it’s not easy at any time and if we can persuade him to go on his own…’

‘So we’d better make a case against John Junior?’

‘Yes, you’d best do that. Your idea, your lead. I’ll talk to Hanson in the morning.’

Nisa sagged but nodded. ‘I guess.’

Kellog turned and led the way to the side gate he had used to get around the back, closing it behind him when Nisa was through, which meant that she was leading as they got back to the street, and she saw the tall, pale, black-suited figure standing across the road in the shade of a poplar. She glanced back to see where her partner was and by the time she looked for the man again, he was gone.

‘Something wrong?’ Kellog asked. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost?’

‘Oh, ha ha, very funny. Let’s get back before I turn into a pumpkin.’ She started off toward the car without waiting for his reply.

Exactly why she was not mentioning the men in the black suits to him she was not sure, but she was not. She knew she should, but… But what? Why was she staying silent?

Tower Hamlets.

‘You seem happy enough talking to me about them,’ Faline said. They were in bed, in the dark, and the nap Nisa had taken that afternoon was keeping her awake now.

‘Yes, but I don’t seem to be able to tell anyone at XC.’

‘There are spells which could, perhaps, achieve this. You said the man you saw felt magical.’

‘And I’ve only ever noticed that feeling when Kellog or Norbery actually cast spells, not at any other time.’

‘So he could have cast a spell on you to stop you speaking, but that does not explain being able to talk to me about it.’

‘Well… maybe it stops me speaking to humans. You’re not human so I can speak to you.’

‘Possible, though why an agent of The System would allow that…’

‘I know. Maybe you were right and that isn’t what they are.’

‘You have another theory?’

Nisa grimaced into the darkness. ‘It’s not a nice one, and it has some holes… The shadows that Kellog is chasing. They watch people or places.’

‘I’m not really sure that is a more palatable idea,’ Faline replied.

‘I’m pretty sure it isn’t.’

~~~

‘…aware of…’

‘…is she…’

‘She must…’

‘Silence!’

Poplar, August 8
^th
.

It had been a long and frustrating sort of day. Nisa had filed a lot of paperwork to get the contents of Brian Pelham’s email account opened up. She was a little surprised no one had done so before now, but they had not and now it was done it was going to be a few days before she got any results.

There had been pistol practice. She had decided if there happened to be a barn beside her she was going to hit it maybe one time in ten. Kellog had said she was progressing well and she should keep practising.

And then there was her continued inability to mention the men in the black suits. She was convinced something was stopping her now; she had tried three times during the day to talk to Kellog about it, and every time something had happened to change the subject before she could mention it. No amount of concentration let her press on and say something. At least she had not seen any of them since the night before.

Black Light seemed welcoming after a day like that. The Hackers would be there, where they always were, doing something normal. Something normal seemed like a great idea, even if ‘normal’ meant talking about the supernatural. It was not
actually
supernatural, and that made all the difference. So Nisa walked up to the bar in her leather shorts and Lycra-and-mesh top, and grinned at Tamsin.

‘Whiskey,’ she said. ‘Double. Just a dash of water. I’m not used to the good stuff yet.’

Tamsin gave a smirk and turned to the optics. ‘New job pays better than the last one then?’

‘Much.’

The bartender turned again and reached for the hose which supplied the water. ‘I’m glad you’ve finally–’

The silence hit Nisa like a solid object. It was as though the entire world had just come to a stop leaving a stillness which permeated her mind with its wrongness. Tamsin was standing there, unmoving, an insect caught in invisible amber. The water had started to emerge from the nozzle in her hand and it too was just… paused. Glancing to her left, Nisa could see a woman frozen in a ludicrous posture, right in the middle of a dance step which probably looked great in motion, but she was off-balance on high heels and not falling. Slowly, Nisa turned around.

There were four of them. They were not identical, though they all wore the same black suits and shades. One was bald, one tanned, one a woman, and then there was the pale one Nisa had seen outside Leopold Tower. They stood there, unmoving, but they were not caught as the other people in the room were.

‘What…’ Nisa began, and the rest of the sentence caught in her throat. ‘What do you want?’ she croaked out.

The pale man stepped closer, reaching inside his jacket. Nisa tensed, but when he took his hand out again it was holding what looked like an old coin, large and blackened with age. He closed the distance further and pushed the coin into the left pocket of her shorts. Then he looked at her. His lips did not move, but she heard his voice, or it seemed like his voice, quite clearly.

‘The Shadows are here.’

‘What…?’

But he just stepped back again and his gaze lifted to something over her shoulder. Dreading what she was going to see, Nisa turned around…

‘–got your life on track,’ Tamsin said. There was the shush of water hitting the alcohol in the glass, almost lost in the noise of the crowd and the music. ‘I never thought a dead-end job and this place was where you should end up. Hey, you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

Nisa managed a weak smile. ‘Yeah, fine. I’m getting that a lot lately. Maybe I should work on my tan.’

As Tamsin counted out change from a five pound note, Nisa checked her pocket. The coin was there, solid evidence that she had not had some sort of weird, waking dream. But what did it mean?

Part Four: Demon

Tower Hamlets, London, August 11
^th
, 2014.

The coin, or whatever it was, lay on the carpet in front of the sofa. Nisa and Faline watched it as though it might suddenly burst into flame, or dance, or something else which metal discs should not do.

Nisa had shown her Witch Cat the ‘gift’ on coming home, and they had both decided that ignoring it was the best policy for now. It had been hidden away in one of the kitchen drawers, right at the back, and they had spent Saturday trying to forget it was there. Of course, that had failed. By the time darkness had fallen on Sunday they had decided that they should at least examine it, so there it was, being examined.

It did seem to be a coin, but what kind was a very definite unknown. From the weight and the blackened surface, Nisa thought it might be silver, very old silver. It was about two inches across, much bigger than any coin Nisa had seen before, and an eighth of an inch thick, and there seemed to be markings on the surface which suggested writing, or maybe runes, or glyphs, or something else that meant ‘I’m magic, keep away.’

‘He said
nothing
about it?’ Faline asked.

‘Nothing. Just a cryptic warning about shadows.’

‘Perhaps then,’ Faline mused, ‘it affords some form of protection.’

‘Could be I guess…’ Bending forward over her tucked-in legs, Nisa picked the coin up from the carpet. It did not really feel threatening. In fact, it felt a little warmer than she would have expected, kind of comforting. She ran a finger over the indistinct shapes on one side, coming to a stop as she felt that odd sense for magic tighten in her mind. Something, a three-dimensional pattern of white light, flickered into existence in front of her, slowly rotating as she watched it. It was weird, angular. The topology was all wrong, like she was seeing part of something and the rest was hidden
within
what she could actually see…

‘Nisa?’ Faline said, her voice holding a hint of concern.

‘Can… can you see that?’ Nisa asked.

‘I see you, holding the coin.’

‘You can’t see the shape? It’s… hanging there, over the coin.’

‘I see nothing over the coin, just your finger.’

Nisa moved her finger and the shape seemed to shatter, breaking apart and evaporating into silver dust. ‘It was… It felt like something I should know, but it… It was all wrong, like I wasn’t seeing all of it, even though it was right there in front of me.’

‘A message,’ Faline said. ‘They’ve given you a message. Something you are meant to understand, presumably at some point in the future.’

‘They couldn’t just
tell
me?’

‘Nisa, nothing worth having is easy to come by.’

Westminster, August 15
^th
.

Nisa grumbled to herself as she filled in yet more paperwork to get her hands on the contents of Brian’s inbox. It seemed as though Faline’s words were true of mundane information as well as arcane.

‘GCHQ probably has all of this filed away in a database,’ she mumbled to herself, ‘and I have to jump through hoops for it.’

‘The controls are there for a reason,’ Kellog said from the doorway. ‘It stops people snooping when they have no right to.’ He paused and then added, ‘Theoretically anyway. File that for now. There’s something else come up.’

Nisa saved her draft and followed Kellog out to a section of the building she knew all too well, though to a different room than the one she had spent long hours in recuperating from the incubus. There was a darkened observation room beside one of the medical rooms, and on the other side of the one-way mirror Sandra was tending to a woman in her mid-twenties who was sitting in the bed looking… Well, drained was the best that Nisa could come up with. She looked tired, spent.

‘Another incubus?’ Nisa asked after watching for a few seconds.

‘No, this is different. Her name is Emily Copper. She was reported missing by friends when she failed to turn up for work on Monday. She was found on Hampstead Heath this morning. It was thought that she was drunk, initially. She was confused, stumbling, basically incoherent.’

Norbery slid into the room giving Kellog and Nisa a nod. He looked angry. There was a tightness around his eyes that Nisa had never seen there before.