Freedom, Humanity, and Other Delusions (Death's Handmaiden Book 3) Read online

236/5/35.

  It was not long after seven p.m. and Nava was sitting in on one of Takuma’s lectures on policing when her ketcom buzzed at her. The message was from Booker, asking her to go to the library building immediately. Booker had volunteered to run patrols, saying he would watch the vid of the lecture and, to be honest, someone had to. Apparently, however, there was something going on out there that needed her attention.

  When she got there, she could see the point. There were various students sitting around on the ground looking shocked. Booker seemed to be fine, but his partner was blinking watery eyes and did not notice Nava approaching. There was a medic from the infirmary already there, checking people over with a relatively unconcerned expression on his face.

  ‘Booker? What happened?’ Nava asked.

  ‘Someone used a Flash spell in the middle of this lot just as we were walking past,’ Booker replied. ‘I was lucky, I guess. I was looking the other way when it happened. Theo… wasn’t so lucky.’

  ‘Is that you, Captain?’ Theodore said. Theodore Garver Morgan, one of Courtney’s recruits but apparently happy with the change of leadership.

  ‘How are you doing, Theo?’ Nava asked.

  ‘I can see light now. I think it’s wearing off. I think I’m going to have a bad headache though. Feels like I got hit with a hammer, not a bright light.’

  ‘When you’re good to go, take off for your apartment. I’ll finish this with Booker.’ Nava turned to Booker before her blinded subordinate could argue. ‘I take it no one saw who used the spell?’

  ‘No one’s saying if they did. Doing it right when we were nearby though. Seems like they’re testing us.’

  Nava nodded slowly. ‘That’s a possibility.’

  ‘Permission to give my unfiltered opinion, Captain?’

  ‘Granted.’

  ‘The disreputable element have heard our captain isn’t patrolling and they’re trying their luck.’

  ‘Then they’ll be in for a shock when I walk around with you then, won’t they?’

  ‘Huh, yeah. Good point.’

  ‘And Flash needs a permit. I’ll be checking the databases later for people who have one. We’ll see if we can put any of them near here within the last thirty minutes.’

  ‘That was going to be my next suggestion.’

  Nava nodded again, looking around at the slowly recovering students. ‘I’m glad to hear your education hasn’t gone to waste, Booker.’

  236/6/1.

  There had been no more incidents after that, but Nava had no luck tracking down anyone with a Flash permit whose ketcom placed them near the library at the right time. It was annoying.

  Particularly annoying was the possibility that Booker was right. Someone, person or persons unknown, was playing tricks to see what they could get away with under the new regime. Maybe not specifically because Nava was only patrolling as a last resort, but they might just be trying their luck now that Courtney was no longer in charge. It did not entirely make sense, given the reputation Nava had… Then again, Nava was not out there. Maybe Booker was right about that, which would put her in an uncomfortable position.

  Nava was somewhat confident she could compartmentalise any threat the other students posed into the ‘I don’t need them dead’ category. There were relatively few students in the school who were a threat to her. Unless they decided on sniping with something like Magic Bullet. Even then, if she could survive the initial attack, she could be back on her feet in seconds. Active Recovery was useful for that.

  There were probably students who could make real nuisances of themselves, however. People who might be able to push her over the edge might be out there. She preferred to avoid a confrontation like that for as long as possible, hence she was there as backup for the other members rather than regularly patrolling.

  She was, in fact, at SSF HQ, waiting for anyone to report a problem when the call came in about another Flash attack.

  ‘This,’ she said as she headed for the door, ‘needs to end.’

  236/6/2.

  ‘Okay, everyone,’ Nava said, calling the meeting to order. The room fell into silence fairly quickly. That was good. ‘As you’ll all be aware, someone out there is playing dirty tricks. I’ve sent a spell schema to your ketcoms. It’s for Sense Protection, which provides some assistance in resisting light and sound attacks aimed at damaging your senses. Unfortunately, it’s not a cantrip, unless some of you are holding out on me regarding your capacities, but you should all be able to cast it from the schema.’

  ‘What, even you can’t do it, Captain?’ The speaker was Skylar Keyes, a girl from Mitsuko’s class who Nava had met on a field trip. She had seemed competent at the time and Nava had asked her to join up. Skylar was a tall, powerfully built woman with shoulder-length, auburn hair and dark-green eyes. Attractive, but not remarkably so. She hated her rather masculine name and insisted on being called Sky.

  ‘No, Sky. I can’t manage a twenty-eight Tammy spell as a cantrip.’ Nava’s gaze swept the room. ‘If you’re out patrolling, make sure you’ve got this cast on yourself. It lasts for thirty minutes, so it shouldn’t be too strenuous to keep going through your patrols.’

  ‘And if we find the one who’s doing it, Captain?’ Booker asked.

  ‘Then you arrest them. If they happen to get a little bruised while you’re doing it, we’ll write it up as resisting arrest. Just don’t go overboard. At the very least, they should be able to walk to the infirmary.’

  ‘Gotcha, Captain. So, breaking their arms won’t be an issue.’

  Nava shook her head. ‘I feel you’ve taken in the general meaning, but there may be nuances you’ve missed…’

  236/6/3.

  Nothing happened on Thursday night, which came as a bit of a surprise. It was almost as though the mysterious attacker knew the patrols were using protective sorcery. Nava decided not to dwell on that; if something fairly simple could put them off, maybe that would be the end of it.

  It was getting close to eight in the evening and nothing had happened today either. Nava was doing paperwork at her desk, which sat at the far end of the HQ room from the door. Patrols started from here and ended here with the teams checking in and making a report before heading off for their apartments. That made this a good place to wait for anything to happen. Nava was hoping she could do watches like this from the house now and then, but the solitude was actually quite to her liking and right now she needed to be here.

  Paperwork, she had decided, was going to be the death of her. The worrying thing was that she suspected a lot of what the ASF did was paperwork, and she was going to end up in the ASF after graduation. Could you actually die of boredom? She would have to look that up. Maybe there was a medical clause she could invoke to restrict her paperwork time.

  Pausing, she leaned back in her chair and picked up the mug of coffee she had poured herself. The SSF had, it seemed, some of the best coffee in the school. It could not quite match the special stuff Mitsuko brought from the mansion after a visit, but it was pretty damn good. The flavour was excellent. The scent was even better. Nava sat in the silence, savouring the smell of good coffee. Skylar and her partner would be coming in soon, but for right now, the silence was golden.

  Then the silence turned into crackling, and arcs of electricity danced in the air throughout most of the room. Computer screens went blank in an instant and Nava heard a shriek from outside the door. She was on her feet, her mug hitting the ground beside her, and heading for the door almost before the electricity had stopped. The screaming continued and she yanked open the door to find Skylar and her partner lying in the corridor. Skylar was the source of the shrieks, but it looked like her partner, Vance Shepherd Fosse, a fourth year who was close to being a veteran, was in just as much pain. Both of them, along with the paintwork on the walls, were showing signs of electrical burns. Skylar’s burns did look worse.

  Nava cast Active Recovery on Skylar and then Vance. Vance’s pain vanished in a second as his wounds faded
into nothing. Skylar had been hurt worse, because it took three full seconds for her to stop screaming.

  ‘Captain,’ Vance began.

  Nava held up a hand. ‘You’re both going straight to the infirmary to be checked over. That was an electrical attack. I’ve healed your wounds, but it may have done nerve damage or something. Go. I’ll listen to your reports when I get there.’ She had a second thought. ‘Sky, are you okay to walk to the infirmary?’

  Skylar pulled herself to her feet and looked herself over as though checking she was all there. ‘I think so, Captain. That spell’s amazing. I mean, I saw you use it on Mori, but it’s like a miracle when it’s used on you.’

  ‘Anyone can learn it. It’s not even that complex. Get yourselves checked out and wait for me there.’ Turning, Nava went back into the HQ room. Around her, machines were coming back to life. No permanent damage, it seemed, but she would get an engineer in to check everything tomorrow.

  Walking back to her desk, she pulled up the views from the security cameras outside the room. No one was visible on them. Next she checked for ketcom registrations there in the last few minutes, but the only ones showing as near were Skylar, Vance, and herself. Someone had cast an area effect electrical spell right outside the SSF’s HQ and they were not showing up on any means she had of detecting them.

  No… If there had been someone there casting the spell, they would have been seen by Skylar or Vance. A trap then. A delayed spell with a trigger condition. Sitting down, she connected through to the school’s database of spells and began searching.

  ~~~

  ‘It’s called Lightning Mine,’ Nava said. ‘It’s a conditional delay spell which causes a wide-area electrical attack. Generally, it’s triggered by a human walking within two metres of the centre point, though there are variants with different triggers. Someone had to place it right outside the door, which means it was done after everyone left on their patrols.’

  ‘So, why didn’t you trigger it?’ Skylar asked. She was still being checked over by Tanzi Royce, the school’s best medical technician. Vance had already been checked and given the all clear, but he had waited, as asked, for Nava to arrive.

  ‘I didn’t go near the door. That room’s pretty big. The discharges didn’t even reach me and the spell’s radius is eight metres. But, if it had been there when everyone left, it would have triggered and electrocuted all of us. Whoever is doing this, they just stepped up their game to ridiculous levels.’

  ‘Right,’ Vance said. ‘First it was Flash spells. Now it’s military-grade magical traps?’

  ‘And they had to be aiming to catch you, Captain,’ Skylar added. ‘They had to figure you’d leave and trigger it at some point.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Nava said. ‘This is going too far. If they want me, then I think it’s time they got their chance.’

  Skylar’s face went even more serious. ‘Uh, Nava, what are you planning to do?’

  236/6/4.

  ‘I’m going out on patrol tonight,’ Nava said.

  Mitsuko, who already knew this, did not look pleased, but it was Darius who spoke. ‘Is that entirely wise, Captain? It seems to be playing into their hands.’

  ‘It is. I won’t let them hurt any more of my people. Tonight, everyone but me will be patrolling in armour. If they want to attack anyone, they’ll go for me and I’ll arrest them.’

  ‘You’re that sure of yourself?’

  Nava gave Darius a blank look, as though surprised at the question. ‘Yes.’

  Francis burst into laughter. ‘Don’t question it, Darius. Nava could take on a battalion and come out on top.’

  ‘That may be a slight overestimate of my capabilities, Francis,’ Nava admitted, ‘but thank you for your vote of confidence. I won’t actually be alone. Everyone patrols in pairs. I’m enforcing that rule with particular emphasis tonight.’

  ‘Who are you taking with you?’ Darius asked.

  ‘Booker Tucker.’

  ‘Him? Why him?’

  ‘Oh, I think it’ll be interesting to have him along. He has an interesting attitude to justifiable force which I’d like to observe.’

  ~~~

  ‘So, why aren’t you wearing armour, Captain?’ Booker asked. His voice sounded a little hollow thanks to his helmet, but it was recognisable.

  ‘Well, I look fairly good in that armour,’ Nava replied, ‘but I look better in this dress. I mean, I can’t wear my kickass boots with the armour.’

  ‘Ha! Good one. You’re trying to provoke whoever’s attacking us into taking you on, right?’

  ‘Something like that. How are you finding the new armour?’

  ‘Better than the old suits. We don’t get to wear the helmets much. I’m not so used to that. Uh, maybe a little claustrophobic, but I think I’d get over that in time.’

  Nava nodded. ‘I felt the same way, more or less. The more familiarity you have with it, the better it gets.’

  ‘You had it before the rest of the support stream, right?’

  ‘My family considered it a must, so they bought me a set. The school wasn’t going to complain.’ They were taking their time, doing a standard patrol route between the clubs, but it was early and there was little to see. No one had got drunk enough to cause trouble yet. ‘And the other reason I’m not in armour is that if we find a drunk, seeing two people dressed like you coming at them would probably result in projectile vomiting.’

  Booker’s shrug was a little dampened by his armour. ‘We can get someone to hose us down before we take it off.’

  ~~~

  ‘Hold on, Captain,’ Booker said, pausing on their way to the senior nightclub. ‘I’ve got a call coming in.’ The suits did not have a built-in computing capacity, but you could lock a ketcom into a slot in the back over the right shoulder blade. Inside the suit, it had the same protection as the wearer, and the suit’s electronics allowed you to access your personal computer through the helmet interface. You could take calls with complete security too, so long as you remembered to cut off the external air system for a bit.

  Nava waited. She had a feeling this was going to be it. Whatever happened next, it was going to bring an end to the attacks. One way or another.

  ‘A friend of mine says he’s spotted some students sneaking into one of the training plantations,’ Booker finally said. Nava looked to the south where the training fields and forests, along with various support buildings, were located. ‘He says they were carrying bottles. Think we should check it out?’

  ‘Yes,’ Nava said without hesitation. ‘did you get a better location than “one of the plantations?”’

  ‘I have the right one on the heads-up map in here.’

  ‘Good. Lead the way.’

  Nava had decided to set aside the question of what Booker’s unnamed friend was doing out in that area at this time on a Saturday. There were a number of legitimate – or at least believable – reasons for someone to be there. The nights were already pretty warm and, despite it not being encouraged, students would go out to the woods for alfresco sex. Drinking outside the clubs and private housing was actually forbidden, but not unheard of. So, maybe Booker did have a friend who had given him the tip.

  ‘How far?’ Nava asked as they got to the edge of the fields which were the northern border of the outdoor training section of campus.

  ‘About a kilometre,’ Booker replied.

  ‘Okay. Let’s get moving.’

  Pacing their run, it took them six minutes to reach the end of the forest where, their tip said, they would find a bunch of students getting drunk. They slowed to a walk at the treeline and began to head into the woods, Nava clipping her ketcom to her dress with the recording function working. Ten metres in, the path branched.

  ‘Take the left one,’ Nava said. ‘I’ll go right. Call me if you find them.’

  ‘On it, Captain.’ Booker set off down the left track. Nava had chosen the directions based on where they were standing. Booker had made a point of being on her left for most o
f the evening.

  Nodding, Nava set off down the right-hand path. There was not much light. The sun had set already and Shinden had no moons. Nava had good night vision, but this needed something else, so she was using the spell she had last used in a cave, Sense Environment. She had to work it from scratch, forcing her mind to follow the processes needed to cast it, but it was a fairly easy one compared to some she had worked that way. Now she could ‘see’ a sort of relief map of the world in front of her, a radar image of her surroundings with the added advantage that vegetation was not a complete screen. Someone hiding behind a bush would be fairly obvious. When she arrived at a clearing maybe twenty metres across, they were obvious.

  Five of them. As she walked toward the middle of the clearing, she looked around, spotting five humanoid shapes hidden from plain sight behind the undergrowth. There might have been more since she doubted her spell could see through solid wood, but she suspected there were five of them waiting for her. They continued to wait as she stopped, right in the centre of the open area, waiting for them to make their move.

  She heard whispering. Snatches of sound reached her eyes, not loud enough to be deciphered. Time stretched on. If they had laid an ambush here, why were they not closing in? Something had gone wrong with their plan?

  Someone dropped a Light spell right on top of Nava. It illuminated the entire clearing just as the five men stepped out of cover. A couple of them were carrying lengths of pipe; not exactly the preferred weapon of a sorcerer. One had a spell assistance handgun, and that one was Zayden. It might have come as a surprise, but it did not. None of them were in armour, probably because walking through the campus dressed for battle would have drawn attention. Even carrying the armour in a case and changing out here might have looked odd since everyone knew what the cases looked like. So, no physical armour, but they might have spells active, just as Nava had.

  ‘Zayden,’ Nava said. ‘How interesting that I’d find you out here. And you brought friends.’

  Zayden grinned. ‘Don’t try to call out. There’s a radio jamming spell working on the whole clearing. Who’d have thought a support spell could be useful?’