The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Station Secure

Previously: "The Third in the Trap" 

Vidya swoops ahead to open the front door as you follow, staggering a little, with Punthali in your arms.

"What here," you grunt at Vidya as she starts to follow. "We don't need a twelve-year-old running up and down the corridors in her peejays. Gonna be hard enough explaining this"—you heft Punthali to get a better hold of her—"if we run into anyone."

But it's not far to the next apartment. You tap the door with your foot, and Daniel is quick to answer.

"We all set?" you ask as you push inside past him. Daniel calls Plante's name out sharply, and down the hallway, the door to a bedroom opens.

"She's pretty young," Plante observes as he guides you in.

"Try not to think about it," you snap at him. "That's what I do."

He turns white and then red, and his jaw works. You set the girl onto the bench of the Soulswapper.

As you turn to leave, your eye falls upon a large packing crate in the corner of the room, and you cross over to examine it. There are no identifying stamps on it. "Is this a transport tube?" you ask.

Plante is busy with some dials and readouts at the business end of the machine, but he glances over with a grunt. "Yeah. White's biff. Ready to send back."

Morbid curiosity overcomes you, and you to crouch and pull at the lid, but it is nailed down. Plante is deeply preoccupied with his work, so you return to the living room, where Daniel and Gabriel are standing, drinks in hand, talking quietly to each other.

"When's your biff scheduled for pick up?" you ask Gabriel.

"Tomorrow morning."

"And it'll keep until then?"

"Why wouldn't it?" he asks. "It's in a tube."

"I mean—" You suddenly have a question you'd not think to ask before. "Is it still alive?"

The two men glance at each other.

"Plante says it is," Daniel answers. "Says it's like catatonia. Natural, so we don't have to keep 'em snoozed up."

"Huh. I suppose they'll still need the nutrient drips, though," you muse aloud. "And everything else."

"Sure," says Daniel. "I don't want to go back to an atrophied husk."

That catches your attention. "Are you going back?"

He and Gabriel again glance at each other. "Aren't we?" Gabriel asks. "They told us we would."

"Who?"

"Dey. Management," he adds with a shrug.

"Did they tell you that when you signed the release?"

Both of them look puzzled. "What release?" Daniel asks.

"Didn't you have to sign a release? One that—" You break off as their puzzlement deepens. "You didn't have to sign any papers before coming out here?"

"No. Did you?"

You frown instead of answering, and ask for a glass of whatever they're drinking.

While Gabriel is fetching it, Daniel has to answer the door. It's Vidya—dressed in jeans and sweatshirt and flip-flops. "Fuck, what's wrong?" you ask she breathlessly bundles into the room.

"Whuh? Nothing. You didn't say I had to stay behind!"

"I didn't say I needed you here." But she rolls her eyes so you relent. "Alright. But only a soda or water for you," you add as Gabriel returns to hand you a short glass tumbler of an amber liquid. "Last thing I need is to contribute to the delinquency of a minor."

She rolls her eyes again, and gives Daniel a dirty look as he snickers. "Well, can I go watch Plante do the thing?" she asks.

"What's the fascination? But fine." She bolts down the hallway.

"Is she being in character?" Gabriel asks.

"Yes. I suppose I should get back into character. Bad idea slipping out of it." You contemplate your drink. "We have company coming in this week," you murmur to yourself. "It would be bad if—" You trail off.

"We heard we're getting reinforcements," says Daniel after a short but awkward silence. "Is that why, on account of them?"

"Yes. But I haven't decided what I'm going to do. It depends."

"Depends on what?"

You are suddenly irritated with them, their questions, the whole business.

"On what happens next," you retort. "I can't say until then."

Then you hand your glass back to Gabriel. "Thanks, but I've changed my mind. I really should get back into character."

But as you look around, you realize how difficult that will be to do that here, with them, with what is happening in the next room.

"Send the girls back when they're done," you say, and stalk from the apartment.

* * * * *

You regret not having the drink after you are back at Kali's, which feels dim and dank and empty. You stand in the midst of living room, staring with unseeing eyes at the space you made for the interrupted meditation session.

She was too young, you find yourself thinking. Too young. Vidya was too young too, but at least she was older. On the cusp. No, not on the cusp, but closer to it. Within sight of the cusp. Within sight of the cusp from which the real cusp would be visible.

Why are you having these doubts? You've impersonated children as young as Punthali before. Younger even, though not by much. Except those were just imitations. Masks. Disguises. You were playing dress up. But this—

You lightly touch one of your shoulders with a reluctant fingertip.

This isn't an impersonation, it isn't a disguise. This Kali Valentine's body. You are inside Kali Valentine's body. Muniz is inside the body of Vidya, and Cox by now is inside the body of Punthali. That's different. You are not infiltrating an area by using a disguise, you are infiltrating one place by infiltrating—usurping—another's own body. These are their bodies, you are inside their bodies and even inside their brains, you are actually thinking with their brains. Is that what is making the difference, is the influence stronger because of where you actually are?

Almost you go into the bathroom to look at yourself in the mirror, but you are afraid of how you might react to what you see.

There was some talk of this, back in London, when you were planning out the operation. Not much, not overt. But you were cautioned that in test subjects the influence of "P2" seemed to be somewhat stronger than the influence of a mind tat, and Hyde-White even went so far as to urge you to be "particularly mindful" of the influence of a Stellae's P2. Not that I think there is in any danger, I hasten to say, he added. I only ask that you be mindful of it, and offer pertinent observations of its influence in your reports.

So is it the influence of Kali Valentine's P2 that you are feeling now? Just to think, with her mind, of Punthali (and Vidya) under the Soulswapper is to feel horror. You feel it almost on her behalf. I should not be here.

But what choice have you got, now? You crossed that threshold days ago, not just once with her but now twice more with Vidya and Punthali. And there is no putting it back. Never mind what would happen to you if the Stellae discovered this operation. Fane doesn't let anyone walk away from a job.

No, you tell yourself, and you feel your guts and nerves tighten up professionally as you look the truth of the situation squarely on. I am here and I've got to do the job. And I've got to make sure the others do the job too.

And so when the door opens and Vidya and Punthali enter, you give them a coolly appraising look-over before directing them to the spot where the nightly ritual had been interrupted.

"Take your seats. Let us prepare. I will give you a countdown. Eyes shut on five. Center on four ..."

* * * * *

"When are Frank and Miko going to be here?"

"Wednesday. I don't know for how long."

It is Monday morning. The girls are eating breakfast. Punthali had a little difficulty slipping into a trance last night, but reported nothing unusual when she came out. She is very quiet this morning, but she always is. I'll give Cox a day, you decide, then we'll have a straight talk about how he's handling it.

"Are they meeting with Malaika?" Vidya asks.

"Yes. She has a mission for them."

Vidya chews and swallows a bit of her breakfast. You sense Punthali looking between you and her.

Then she leans across the table to ask Vidya something. Vidya says to you, "Why don't we infiltrate Malaika? She's the head of the Stellae.

"I've given it some thought. We don't want to move too quickly. She has a very high profile."

When Vidya makes no reply, you add, "You should explain that to your sister, as I assume she didn't understand me. Or she should have asked you what I said."

Vidya's expression tightens, and so does Punthali's.

"Yes," you say. "Mistakes like that could kill you."

Next: "A Little Talk About Ousiarchs" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"