The Rogue Wolf Read online

  “…Yeah,” Carmen said.

  Gungnir nodded solemnly and then stopped at his aerocar. He looked at Carmen. “If anything is certain, it’s that something big is going on. No one knows what, but all my contacts are buzzing…and they’re nervous.” Carmen thought back a few days to when she had barged into his office. He’d been talking to someone. It was pretty easy to guess the subject of conversation now. “Charon is not the center of it. He is, however, its most visible element. It stands to reason that, if we can find him, we’ll at least have another piece of the puzzle.”

  She nodded. “So, where are we going now?”

  “I greatly appreciate your help, but this is more than you can handle by yourself, Edge. I told you before that this will not be like your first contract. No one swims alone in the deep end.”

  Carmen made no response. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe Gungnir was the only individual involved in his operation. Still, for whatever reason, she had assumed this would be like before, where she was given a destination and a set of instructions. She nodded slowly as the full scope of what she was undertaking came into view.

  They got inside the aerocar, and Gungnir handed her a blindfold.

  “What’s this for?” she asked.

  “Your protection,” he answered. “Knowledge is a double-edged sword,” he added.

  Carmen nodded again as she understood his intent. However, she waved the mask away and swallowed hard. “I’m in this all the way, no matter what happens,” she said, looking ahead.

  “Very well,” Gungnir muttered as he started the car.

  She didn’t often get to ride in cars. The vehicle leapt into the sky and shot off to the west, and Carmen knew immediately that this wouldn’t be a short trip. They were quickly above the clouds as they joined the intercontinental traffic. A quick glance outside was all she needed to see that the ground was moving by quickly. It reminded her of all those years ago when she had been brought to the facility by Janus, which started her thinking.

  “Gungnir,” she began, “when I had my problem before, Kali knew I should go to you. You had precise information on how to find a, as you said, professional who didn’t want to be found. When I walked into your office a few days ago, you were talking with someone about this even before I came to you. You talked about the circles you travel in… What are they?”

  He looked at her. The car was under autopilot anyway. “You said you’re in this all the way, so I won’t be coy.” She nodded. “Have you heard of the Rogue Wolves?” he asked.

  “A little,” Carmen said. “It’s a group of powerful Clairvoyants who work solely for the highest bidder.”

  “Essentially that’s true. There are several of us. I won’t go into those details. But not everyone is a Clairvoyant, nor do we all work full time, like when you initially went after the Sentinel.”

  Carmen nodded slowly. “I imagine the facility is a good place to scout talent,” she mused out loud.

  “It is, but that’s not the primary reason I’m there. Most of my business at the facility pertains to the operations of the facility itself. I try my best, given what it is. It’s difficult. Objectively, I must admit that the facility, at its foundational level, seems touched by madness.”

  “Why don’t you do anything about it?”

  Gungnir slowly shook his head with a tight jaw. “Edge, you don’t understand.” She raised an eyebrow. “When all who are around you are crazy, what is the sane individual?” he asked rhetorically. “Trust me, I do what I can. There are a few handlers like Kali who steer people like you my way when they need the type of help I can provide—”

  “Do they all get the same speech I got?” Carmen interrupted, noting that her hunch about him was at least partially correct.

  “Yes, but you’re one of the few to pay attention to it. Most, to use your words, are on the inside looking out but think they are on the outside looking in. They don’t realize how trapped in their perspective they are,” he said. Carmen considered that and nodded. “Trust me, it is no easy task to convince such people that, no matter how they move, they are going in circles,” he continued. “Once again, madness.”

  “I think I understand,” Carmen said. “So, who do you—who do we work for?”

  “I work for myself, you work for me, and you serve yourself, as all do,” Gungnir said simply. “Most of my contracts are government work, principally for the UTE. I suspect the…requests come from the upper if not top levels, but I have no way of being sure.”

  Carmen nodded as she felt the car wobble slightly from turbulence. Its inertial inhibitor was designed so she would never notice such disturbances, but although she didn’t feel them physically, she was keenly aware of every time the system stepped in. Maybe luxury cars had a setting for a Clairvoyant’s particular sensitivities? Her mind, however, was shifting through less immediate discomforts.

  “Have you ever done anything you regret?” she asked.

  Gungnir glanced at her before he started their descent. “Regret is practically a curse word for a Clairvoyant,” he said simply.

  Carmen agreed with every fiber of her being, but she also noted that he didn’t answer her question. She looked at him and wondered. She couldn’t read him, and she knew hardly anything about him. What twists and turns had his life taken? She did know that Kali trusted him, though, and that was probably good enough.

  As the car entered the clouds, she considered her own twists and turns over the past two years. She had never thought she’d ever be in a position like this. She had never thought she’d ever, in her wildest imagination, be a handler, let alone for a charge like Phaethon. It had all seemed impossible, but it made complete sense now that she was living it. It was like something was guiding her as she stumbled through life. She didn’t know if that was actually true, and she didn’t know if it was a good thing if so, but she did remember her conversations with Phaethon on the Dark over all those games of chess. She sighed as she wished she could overturn the board.

  They broke through the clouds over a vast forest cradled in a valley. It looked like a great hand had hollowed out the earth. The remoteness of the location was quite apparent, as not a single trace of civilization could be seen. Carmen had no idea where they were, which made her wonder why the blindfold was even considered necessary. Large outcroppings of rocks dotted the valley like pimples. They sped toward a rather large one.

  After stopping to hover over it, Gungnir flipped some switch on the dash, and they then started downward. The walls appeared to have eroded away to make a large cave. She looked up just as the roof closed shut. Artificial running lights illuminated to guide their trip till they set down on a landing platform. It was the smaller of two. The other was at least three times bigger and presently occupied by an arrowhead-shaped starship. She knew nothing about starships, though, and could only guess what it was.

  “I welcome you to the Lair,” Gungnir said as he opened his door.

  Carmen was only a half-step behind in opening hers. She followed him obediently while she glanced at the starship and everything else in the room. There was no point in being shy. As she said, she was in this all the way.

  “How long have you been doing this?” she asked as they reached a door.

  “A long time,” he responded after a brief pause. He motioned to the ship. “The Lady is almost as old as you are,” he continued as he opened the door.

  Carmen nodded, and they walked into the next room. It wasn’t all too big, maybe a healthy fraction of the fight rooms she had so loathed. The chaos contained here, however, rivaled the battles she once waged in those rooms. Computers and PDDs were strewn about on tables like the bodies of the slain. Papers also littered the room with notes she could read quite easily but couldn’t make sense of. They were fragmented in their logic almost to the point of being gibberish. She figured they weren’t worth paying too much mind.

  Her attention then turned to a woman sitting at a desk in the center of the pile. She faced
them but gave no greeting, even to Gungnir. She wasn’t very old, maybe Kali’s age. It was always so hard to guess. Her dark brown hair was about the only thing neat and tidy about her. She wasn’t at all dirty or disheveled, but her clothes clashed…badly. Carmen, as was typical for Clairvoyants, had little care for fashion. Her dress—in fact, everything about her—was purposeful and didn’t attract attention unless it needed to. This woman was surely visible half a system away. She didn’t look ridiculous per se, but it was like someone screaming just to scream.

  Carmen was quick to note that she couldn’t be read. Well, not exactly. The woman wasn’t a Clairvoyant, but from what Carmen could tell, her psyche seemed muddled, like the notes she saw earlier. There was no making sense of it. And unless Carmen missed her guess, it seemed deliberate.

  “Edge, this is Widget. She’s in charge of logistics, among other things,” Gungnir said.

  Carmen nodded slowly. Widget, however, made no response as she continued typing out whatever she was working on. The silence persisted for almost a minute before Carmen had enough.

  “Is she always like this?” she asked Gungnir telepathically.

  Just then, Widget looked at her. “Absolutely,” she answered casually. Then she looked away and went on with whatever she was doing.

  “Excuse me?” Carmen muttered.

  “Speaking,” Widget said a little louder than required. “I don’t speak—not at all—unless I’m speaking, and then I’m speaking all the time, because I’m speaking. Past, present, future. Got it?” she asked.

  “Um…no,” Carmen said.

  “Oh well,” Widget said with a shrug. “You looked smart.”

  Bewilderment practically leaked from Carmen’s pores. Gungnir stepped in. “To answer your question, Edge,” he said, “yes, she is always like this. Don’t let it bother you. It’s just a little Clairvoyant paranoia. It’s not to be taken pers—”

  “Truth. It’s wonderful,” Widget interrupted.

  “I…don’t get it,” Carmen said.

  “Despite my many attempts to convince her otherwise, Widget believes that we are always trying to read her mind,” Gungnir said, giving the woman an affectionate glare. “It’s an old technique but still quite effective. Constantly shifting your thoughts, thinking in incomplete thoughts, and using nonlinear logic makes it very difficult for a Clairvoyant to read you. The Sentinel tried the same techniques during his interrogation. Usually pain forces enough focus to break it.”

  Carmen noticed a rifle lying next to Widget on the table. “And that’s for?” she asked.

  “Flies, of course,” the woman responded with an amused smirk.

  “Unfortunately, I think Widget has been doing it for so long that she’s been permanently afflicted… Or she’s just toying with me. I can’t really tell,” Gungnir continued.

  “The only thing I do seriously is play cards…and lie. Oh yeah, not flies, caterpillars. Or was it scorpions?” she said, tapping a finger against her chin.

  Carmen had to force herself to not roll her eyes. “Why would a Clairvoyant want to read your mind? Believe me, we try hard to not read anyone’s mind.”

  “Can’t take that chance. Too important,” Widget shot back.

  “What’s too important?”

  Widget’s head snapped right toward her, and Carmen had never seen anyone with a face so serious. “I don’t want every Clairvoyant I meet to know my underwear is pink. It’s not, by the way.”

  “Figured as much,” Carmen muttered under her breath.

  The woman pointed a thumb at her and looked at Gungnir. “She’s definitely smarter than the last dumb one you brought by.”

  Gungnir rolled his eyes so Carmen didn’t have to. “Enough, Widget. Have you found anything more on Charon?”

  “If you want a trained monkey to do this job, I have an umbrella and a ticket to the zoo. Thankfully, you’re stuck with me,” Widget said. “They’re closed, for now. Find nothing, yes did I. Perhaps better luck when pigs eat ducks.”

  Carmen gave Gungnir a hesitant glance.

  “She’s very good at her job,” he said firmly. “You can trust me on that. She wouldn’t be here otherwise. You can trust me on that as well.”

  “My pet goldfish cries a single tear,” Widget remarked.

  “Uhh…yeah, right,” Carmen muttered under her breath. “So, what now?”

  “Now we take another avenue. I doubted this could be dealt with directly. Please come with me.”

  Carmen nodded and followed him out of the room. They passed through a short corridor and into another slightly larger room. It was the complete antithesis of the first: orderly and focused, despite its more casual fittings. It had several couches that looked rather comfortable and even a holoprojector, which currently showed the news.

  There was also a lone man sitting on one of the couches. He turned to look at them. He was Clairvoyant through and through, muscled in the same purposeful fashion as most of the Clairvoyants she met. He was direct if graceful in all his movements and had steely eyes that, for the moment, were fixed directly on her. He seemed to be not much older than she was. His African descent marked him as relatively unique on New Earth, much like Kali with her Asian descent. There was a relaxed tenseness about him. She couldn’t describe it as similar to Gungnir’s focused precision; it was more like a lack of concern.

  He walked toward them and only turned his attention away from her long enough to nod to Gungnir. “She’s a little different from what I expected,” he said. Carmen noted that he didn’t have a New Earth accent. She couldn’t place it, though that didn’t mean much, since she wasn’t well travelled. “Will she be reliable?” he asked Gungnir, though he looked at her when he spoke.

  She frowned. She was used to perceiving the thoughts of people who thought about her. She was well experienced with people talking about her behind her back. But this was annoyingly direct. Her reaction seemed to cause a response in this man that could be best described as curiosity.

  “I believe she will be, but we shall see,” Gungnir said.

  They both looked at her now. She glanced at the two of them, wondering if she had somehow turned transparent. Who are these people? she wondered. First Widget, and now this.

  “I’m right here,” she said with a hint of irritation when she couldn’t take it anymore.

  “I know,” the man said simply.

  Gungnir took that moment to cut in. “Edge, this is my second-in-command, Inertia,” he said, looking back and forth between the two of them. They stared at each other with not the friendliest of spirits. “It’s nothing personal, Edge,” he added after a sigh. “You just have to give everyone some time. They’re not bad to work with.”

  Carmen wasn’t sure if that was true, but just then Inertia extended his hand. She paused. Clairvoyants didn’t usually touch people in casual circumstances. It required conscious thought to lower their static charge enough to not shock the other person. She hugged Kali, of course, but it was a bit odd for two Clairvoyants who didn’t even know each other to bother with a social ritual as pointless as shaking hands, especially after the rather off-putting first impression.

  She thought about it and then took his hand. His grip was a firm but agreeable. He smiled politely, even if it was slight, and she couldn’t help a small if puzzled smile in return. Inertia wasn’t anything she was expecting, but this was better than Widget at least.

  “So, round two?” Carmen asked hesitantly.

  Inertia smirked slightly. “If that’s what you want to think,” he remarked.

  Carmen didn’t really know how to take the comment, but Gungnir looked at them again and nodded slowly. Widget walked into the room a few seconds later. She didn’t say anything, choosing instead to sit on the back of a couch nearby but not with the group. Carmen ignored her as Gungnir started speaking again.

  “Anyway, this is a complex puzzle and we only have a few of the pieces,” he began. “It seems that there are two main parts that we don’t see
the full extent of. The most visible element is, of course, Charon. We don’t know what his goals actually are, but they are either desperate enough or he is confident enough to operate out in the open. Personally, I think he’s just an agent for something else, much like the Sentinel was. Either way, we can’t be concerned about him for the moment.”

  Carmen’s eyebrows furrowed. “Can’t be concerned?” she asked. Inertia looked at her but said nothing. If anything, it seemed like he was assessing her. She had no clue why. “Well?” she asked Gungnir when he didn’t answer right away.

  “We’re not forgetting about him. We just have to wait until we can make our move,” he said.

  “Why am I here, then, if all we’re going to do is wait?” Carmen asked, trying to hide her frustration.

  “I talked about other avenues,” Gungnir replied.

  “Yes…” she responded slowly.

  “And that is why you are here. You’re to accompany Inertia in tackling the second part of the puzzle.”

  That’s why he was pressing me, Carmen realized, reflecting on how Inertia had first behaved. She had assumed she’d be with Gungnir every step of the way. Then she thought of the first impression—the real first impression—she’d made without even knowing it. Both Widget and Inertia had to know that she let the Sentinel go in their first encounter. I’m the biggest liability of this mission. With that in mind, she took a deep breath and looked at everyone in the room, also watching her just as intently. Round two indeed, she thought, realizing how stupid she must have sounded.

  “What is the second part of the puzzle?” she asked.

  “The sortens’ bid to recruit Clairvoyant mercenaries. The two of you will seek employment.”

  “How does that help to get Phaethon back?” she asked. “Or help to get Charon?”

  Inertia cut in. “Who hired Charon?” he asked simply.

  “I don’t know. You said you don’t either,” she added, addressing Gungnir.