Reality Hack Read online

  Nisa frowned. ‘I thought Probrum was something magicians got?’

  ‘It is, but certain effects, often from Glitches, can produce the same sort of taint.’

  ‘Excessively large magical effects can leave traces of it in the area they’re performed,’ Kellog added. ‘Certain unethical methods of obtaining power can taint an area for years.’

  ‘So we’re back to a Glitch,’ Nisa suggested.

  They were sitting in Hanson’s office and she had listened silently to the reports so far. Now she spoke. ‘It seems likely, but we should follow it up. I want Nisa taking the lead on this one.’ She held up a hand as both Kellog and Nisa opened their mouths. ‘You have three open cases as it is and this one looks like it’ll be fairly open and shut. I realise it’s throwing you in at the deep end, Nisa, but you have to learn, and we have to see whether all that training has sunk in. You’ll assist Kellog on his cases, and you’ll see what you can dig up on this shadow.’

  Kellog looked like he might protest but nodded. ‘I doubt it’s going to get closed properly, but it’s something to flex your investigative muscles on.’

  Nisa was less keen. ‘I… guess if it’s just some transient Glitch then I can’t mess it up too badly.’

  ‘Precisely,’ Hanson stated. ‘No offence.’

  ‘None taken,’ Nisa replied a little morosely. ‘I figure I’ll screw up somehow, but it just can’t be horribly bad.’

  Tower Hamlets.

  ‘You sell yourself too short, Nisa,’ Faline said as she padded into the lounge.

  Nisa looked up at her, sighed, and said, ‘Where are your clothes?’

  The human-shaped Witch Cat sagged. ‘Do I have to wear them?’

  ‘Yes, until ten, like we agreed. You’re a distraction.’

  Faline turned around and went back into the bedroom. It had been a good three weeks since Faline had revealed her human form to Nisa, and she now changed as soon as the sun set, but the one thing she would not do was allow Nisa to see her transform. She always hid herself away and then came back a different shape. And she was back to being a cat before Nisa awoke in the morning.

  It took Faline next to no time to return wearing the shortest denim shorts Nisa had been able to find and a lacy camisole top which barely hid her small breasts.

  ‘And this, seriously, is not a distraction?’ Faline asked.

  ‘It’s less of a distraction.’ Nisa went back to her book as Faline curled into her place on the sofa. The truth was that Nisa just wanted the cat-girl to get used to wearing something and this was a start. Faline was drastically shy of humans, but Nisa had hopes of introducing her to some of her friends at some point in the future. Probably a long way in the future, but still…

  ‘As I was saying,’ Faline said, ‘you’re an intelligent woman with a remarkable ability to retain information. You will make an excellent detective.’

  ‘I guess. I’d have liked to have observed Kellog at work first, that’s all. I’m going to make mistakes…’

  ‘Of course you are. We learn best from our mistakes. We learn best by doing. You will have the opportunity to assist in the wizard’s cases and see what he does. You will learn and do, and make mistakes, and so learn more.’ Nisa gave a grunt, not looking up from her book. ‘Where will you start?’ Faline asked.

  ‘Uh… Go back to the site, see if there’s anything I missed. Check the photos of the scene and Norbery’s report. Take a look at this residue he found.’

  ‘You already have a plan, excellent. What are you reading?’

  ‘A Natural History of the Unnatural,’ Nisa replied.

  ‘Ah, DeWinter. No one has surpassed his studies of the phenomena.’

  ‘Which is a shame, because this reads like it was written by someone in his nineties who didn’t like people anymore.’

  ‘He was almost a hundred and a recluse when he finally wrote it all down. That was in eighteen-ninety-three.’

  ‘Explains a lot.’

  ‘Were you looking for anything in particular?’

  Nisa gave a small grimace. ‘Not sure… Something that could blast a man into a shadow on the wall but not be seen?’

  ‘It would need to be a Glitch, and a powerful one, so you are unlikely to ever find an explanation.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘The more powerful a Glitch is, the less time it can exist before reality tends to assert itself. A Daath beast might have that kind of power. Bugs, as you so prettily describe us, must exist within the framework of the universe. The kind of power you are talking about is so unnatural that it lies beyond the realms of our power.’

  Nisa looked at her. ‘How am I supposed to think of you as a cat when you come out with statements like that?’

  ‘I can just sit here saying “meow” every so often if you prefer, but I’m not wearing these horrible rags to do it.’

  ‘The clothes stay. And I want you to speak English.’ She turned a page. ‘And I do value your insights.’ Another page. ‘Faline?’

  ‘Yes, Nisa?’

  ‘You’ve heard this idea that we’re all programs, bits of software in a computer simulation?’

  ‘I have heard the theory spoken of. It became popular in the sixties, I believe.’

  ‘Do you believe it?’

  ‘Not really. Not any more than any of the multitude of ideas created to explain our existence.’

  ‘Kellog says they have evidence. Things, beings, sent by The System who sometimes talk about what’s going on–’

  ‘And in ages past such things would be angels or devils, and they would tell people that God was watching them, or whatever deity people believed in at the time anyway. In this modern age of science, something comes and explains the universe away as a computer program. Is that any different from “God made the world in seven days?” Your detective says these things are agents of The System, but he describes other things as Daath Beings. How does he know the difference?’

  ‘Huh. Not sure he’s actually ever met one. Hey, if you don’t like being called a Bug, what do you prefer?’

  ‘Witch Cat,’ Faline replied with a shrug. ‘It’s what I am. Classifying the supernatural the way your people do is just that, classification. Humans, I’ve found, like order. They like to codify and categorise. Why does my nature make me anything like a vampire or even a Skinwalker? Only because someone decided to place us in the same class.’

  Nisa nodded and fell silent, continuing to flick through the book but not really seeing it. Faline was right, of course. People liked things to be explicable. They liked order. They would find order in disorder, even in the absolutely random. It was one of the reasons statistics was disliked; statistical analysis tended to show that apparently real strings of events were unrelated and people hated that.

  So, maybe The System was just another attempt to explain the inexplicable. Nisa liked it as a concept because it gave a reason for… Well, it explained things like Faline. She was not supernatural; she was a program which might not have been designed to work as she did, but at least the reason she could change shape was not ‘magic.’ Magic was not magic: it was just bending the rules of a computer simulation. It was more Neo than Morpheus, but it was part of how the world worked, a function of simulated physical laws instead of something outside them.

  But who said everything had to work the way science said it should?

  August 5th.

  She could hear voices. Snatches of conversation seeped into her consciousness, but they made little sense.

  ‘We’re losing her.’

  ‘We can’t…’

  ‘…take steps…’

  ‘…option. We have to…’

  She managed to prise her eyes open. There were more than four of them. Tall, shadowy figures with no visible faces, but they all seemed have eyes which shone brightly down at her.

  ‘She is aware…’

  ‘She can’t…’

  A hand reached out toward her face…

  ~~~

&nbs
p; Nisa woke up with a start, letting out a strangled, dry-throated scream which brought Faline upright in an instant.

  ‘Nisa?! What…?’ Faline reached out a hand and Nisa slapped it away, the dream still fresh in her mind.

  ‘Oh! God… Sorry, Faline. Nightmare. Something was reaching for me and…’

  The cat-like woman reached out more tentatively and this time Nisa allowed it. Faline pushed herself up the bed, rested her back on the headboard, and pulled Nisa up against her.

  ‘It’s all right now. You’re safe. Just relax.’

  Nisa settled herself against warm skin and tried to do just that. ‘It’s easier when you purr,’ she said, her voice hushed.

  ‘That only works when I’m a cat. If you’re having trouble in a little while, I’ll change. It’s not that far from dawn anyway.’

  ‘Why won’t you ever let me see you change?’

  ‘It’s not… me at my best,’ Faline replied. ‘The process is not very pleasant to watch.’

  ‘Does it hurt?’

  ‘No. From my point of view it’s just a little confusing. I have to lie down or I tend to fall over.’

  ‘I’d like to see it sometime. Not tonight, but sometime. If you’ll let me.’

  ‘Perhaps. As long as you promise not to look at me funny afterward.’

  ‘I can probably manage that. You’re a little bony for a pillow.’

  ‘My apologies.’

  Nisa managed a grin, not that her friend could see it. ‘Sexy, but a little bony.’

  ‘You seem recovered enough to use the real pillow.’

  There was a giggle and Nisa moved, settling herself down on the bed and then pulling Faline against her, spooning tightly against her back.

  After a few seconds Faline said, ‘Th-that is not going to get you to sleep.’

  ‘Yes it will,’ Nisa replied. ‘Eventually.’

  The City.

  The place where the shadow had been now had a section of wall which seemed to have been cleaned with a sandblaster. The slight feeling of menace which Nisa had not really noticed the day before was conspicuous by its absence today. Whatever it was that Norbery had scraped off the wall had been giving something off, she decided. Something… not right.

  But whatever that was, it was gone and staring at a blank wall was just going to result in passers-by looking at her like she had lost it. Nisa turned and started up the lane toward the Strand. The Rabbit Hole was not even a mile away and she could walk it easier than taking the Tube.

  Apparently, staring at the wall had already garnered her one person who might be questioning her sanity. There was a blonde walking toward her and, fairly obviously, looking at her. She was an attractive woman, maybe five-eight, but she was wearing black, high-heeled pumps which she knew how to walk in. There was a real strut in her step which tended to show off her slim, well-developed legs. She was in designer clothes: a short skirt split up the left thigh and a long-sleeved, flared jacket which was closed with a cord around two ornate buttons at her waist. That left her navel visible along with a set of firm abs, and a lot of cleavage. Nisa would have put money on implants, just from the way they shifted under the twill. She had a slightly narrowed, very attractive face with a small, pointed nose, hollowed cheeks and beautiful, blue-green eyes.

  As they got within a couple of yards, the woman dipped her eyes a little, smiled, and ran her tongue quickly over her lips. Nisa smiled back and, for a brief second, thought very seriously about calling in sick. But she had work and, for all she knew, Hanson had some way of monitoring her health. No, the obvious come-on would have to be ignored in favour of another day at the office, which just sucked. Nisa risked a glance back; the soft, pale-blonde hair was pulled into a short ponytail high on her head, but the tail of the woman’s jacket obscured a good view of what had to be a really good behind…

  ‘Get a grip, girl,’ Nisa muttered and kept on walking toward the Strand.

  Westminster.

  Kellog dropped three files onto Nisa’s desk. She actually had a desk now, in an office across the hall from Kellog’s. She got the feeling that XC was supposed to have more staff than it did.

  ‘These are the cases I’m working on,’ Kellog said and then frowned at her. ‘Rough night?’

  ‘Nightmare. Took me a while to get back to sleep. Faline helped.’

  ‘The purring is very soporific.’

  ‘The purring. Yes. So you want me to go over the files and acquaint myself with them?’

  ‘That sounded… efficient.’

  Nisa grinned. ‘Well, I’ve been reading PACE and everything.’

  ‘Good. You’ll understand the file format.’

  ‘Isn’t this stuff all kept on computer?’

  ‘We don’t, generally, keep the main files on computer. They stay in the file room when not in use. It’s rigged with incendiary explosives.’

  ‘Oh… That sounds efficient too.’

  ‘A precaution. Read the files. Make sure you get through the top one by lunchtime. We’re going out to check a few places on that one tomorrow.’

  ‘Tomorrow? Then why do I need to finish it before lunch?’

  ‘Because this afternoon we have proper use of firearms.’

  ‘Firearms?!’

  ‘You don’t think we’re going to give you a gun until you’ve learned to use one, do you?’

  ~~~

  ‘This,’ Kellog said, his tone more serious than usual, ‘is a Glock 26 Gen 4 automatic pistol chambered for a 9 by 19 parabellum round. Typically you’ll be practising with a one hundred and fifteen grain fully jacketed round, but you’ll be using hollow points in the field. Those are one-sixteen grain with a twelve hundred and forty feet per second muzzle velocity. This design features a “Safe Action” system which basically means it won’t go off unless you fully pull the trigger. You should find it’ll put a large hole in something at any range you can hit it at, but beware of body armour; the hollow points have low penetration.’

  Nisa looked at the little gun he was holding up. It looked like a toy, maybe six inches in length with a very short grip. Kind of square and solid-looking, and the polymer grip gave an even more toy-like impression.

  ‘It’s… small. I mean, there isn’t even room for my little finger on there.’

  ‘It’s a subcompact, designed for concealed carry. I suggest you start carrying a bag. It won’t go off in one, even if you drop it on the floor.’ He peered at her. ‘Don’t drop it on the floor to test that.’

  ‘Look, I’m English, not American. I didn’t grow up with a .44 Magnum under my pillow and go out shooting moose at the weekend. These things scare the shit out of me.’

  ‘That,’ Kellog stated, ‘is a good starting point. However, there is no case in the world where a gun deliberately set out to kill someone. There’s always a human, or a sentient being anyway, pulling the trigger.’

  ‘What about blowing up in my face?’

  ‘Glocks are exceptionally reliable. I’ll teach you how to treat this, you’ll treat it well because you’re scared of it, and it’ll return the favour. Now, it’s not loaded; we’re just practising the stances, getting the feel of the weapon, and then we’ll try hitting some targets.’

  He held out the pistol and Nisa took it as though it might break, or explode.

  ‘Step up to the line,’ Kellog instructed. ‘Feet roughly shoulder-width apart. You’re right handed? Then it’s left foot forward, pistol in the right hand. Cup your right hand with your left. Right arm almost straight and pushing forward, left arm pulling back. The right leg should be straight and the left one a little bent–’

  ‘Do you play golf?’ Nisa asked as she tried to obey the string of orders.

  ‘No.’

  ‘You should. This sounds like comedy golf instructions.’

  Kellog gave a grunt and stepped in behind her. His arms wrapped around her as he shifted the position of her hands, pushed her shoulders forward a little, and shifted her arms. He felt warm against her back a
nd there was a scent, warm, musky, strongly masculine.

  ‘How does that feel?’ he asked.

  She had never even contemplated Kellog as anything other than a taciturn colleague. But his muscular body did feel pretty good resting against her…

  ‘I could get used to this,’ Nisa said.

  He stepped back. ‘Good. Now we’ll try it with bullets.’

  Tower Hamlets.

  ‘Seriously, I think he’s been neutered or something.’

  Faline gave Nisa a look of pain. ‘Please. One does not use the N-word around a cat.’

  ‘Oh, sorry. But it’s like his libido is on zero. I mean… He had to feel something, right?’

  ‘Perhaps he simply prefers sexual partners of a different persuasion.’

  ‘No…’ Though he did seem to pay more attention to his skin than many men. And there was the firm physique. And he obviously wore some sort of cologne… ‘No… I don’t think he’s… Well, maybe.’

  ‘I wasn’t aware that you felt that way about your wizard,’ Faline said, an eyebrow rising.

  ‘Well… I don’t. I mean, there are probably rules about it anyway.’

  ‘I would imagine so, but it does bring up a point. If you did wish to bring a human home, I would be happy to sleep on the sofa.’

  Nisa grinned. ‘Fat chance. Anyway, if I did, you could join us. Nice threesome with my flatmate…’

  Faline sniffed. ‘I am not that kind of cat.’

  Hammersmith, August 6th.

  The houses on Hammersmith Grove were not especially large, unless you compared them to where Nisa was living, and then they were vast. They did have gardens, with a lot of trees, and that always gave her the impression of people who did not talk to their neighbours. Well, unless this counted as the suburbs, in which case it was probably all Friday night swinger parties and terribly upper-class spanking.

  Mrs Wooler did not look like she indulged in either. She looked more like the kind of middle-aged woman who spent a lot of her time looking out of her windows to see what the neighbours were up to. Certainly she had seen something, but not her neighbours.

  ‘Prowlers,’ Mrs Wooler said. ‘Checking things out for burglaries, that’s what I think.’

  Kellog nodded as though this was a perfectly reasonable explanation. ‘What exactly did you see, Mrs Wooler?’