Chapter 10 – Guardians in Darkness
Miriam looked angry:
"So uncle Nathan dared to install something into MY phone?!"
"I guest so," answered computer nerd calmly. "It was hardly your mother or father. We could use it, we disable GPS in your phone for next few hours to collect data, but we let this application work like we didn't find it. So, whoever planted it there could use it as routing data to our place. We could prepare warm welcome for that visit…"
They came into underground entrance hidden in woods. Guardian armed with submachine gun showed them to left the car.
"Password!" asked.
"Raising Sun," answered Trubel.
"Without Expectation," said his part of password guardian and showed them to go further…
XXXXXXX
Walls of subterranean corridor were made from unpolished concrete like in usual industrial building basement. In forty yard distances were placed basement lighting fixtures.
Next guardian stayed after bulletproof glass counter with retinal scanner.
Computer nerd came as first and guardian asked through speakers:
"Confirm your ID!"
After retinal scan computerized voice said: "Welcome, MB."
"MB as Mega Byte?" asked Miriam. "So your immediate superior is GB or TB?"
"How could she know?" asked MB.
"That's in fact pretty obvious," said Trubel. "Remember, they both are no idiots."
Kelly recognized coming Jim Kowalski, however he doubted it's his true name.
"Hallo Sergeant, how are you?"
"Still alive," answered lummox. "Welcome in Hadrian Wall Shadow Headquarter. Trubel will show you, what you should see."
"Do we have anybody for Eve?" asked Trubel.
"Yup, one Skalengeck drug dealer painted BC mark beyond body of his 'business rival'. I guess, he was just an stupid asshole, but for every case…"
"Yup, for every case," agreed Trubel.
She thought to get being a bit old for this stuff. She decided, once they finish this case, with Nathan Zieglaug and his wife both cold, and if she would be still alive, she would leave HW. Not for good, just for time to speak with Josh Porter. He is still not married and still not a Grimm. But with him there the chance for Grimm babies is best. Well, with Nick it could be better, but he is 'under Adalind's occupation' and till Adalind is alive, she has no chance to marry Nick off course. World will need more Grimms, in fact as many Grimms, as it would be possible. And however she loved Kelly, like if he is her real nephew, he is an ZauberGrimm and she would prefer 'normal' Grimms. There will be always an wesen crisis to solve, so if she would not stop it right now, she would have limited chance for her own children…
There is also another reason, why she sometimes hates her work here. Government shortened their budget and after great loss fourteen years ago it is not easy to find new recruits. As they cannot simply hire security for guarding their objects, Eve came with rather inhuman solution of their problem. She recommended to use wesen murderers as guardians with limited access. She removed memory of those persons and in fact whole personality of them. Eve replaced original personage with something she named 'loyal-guardian-matrix', she inculated them a simplified memory pack for what they will need during their new work and new name for each other. She named it 'imprinting' and it really worked like imprinting during first moment of bird or animal juvenile life. Nobody, even not Eve herself was sure, whether this change was for good. Yes, they were murderers and Trubel would have no problem to kill any of them and burry him in woods into shallow grave. But this enslavement disgusted her. What she felt as even more disgusting was the sad fact, without using it, they would have serious problems to secure their places. These 'New Guards', as Sergeant Jim Kowalski named them, were located on positions, where guardian could warn his colleagues, but where he most probably die. Nobody of them actually died yet, if you do not count death of original personality of such person, but they were determined to be sacrificed. Skalengeck drug dealer will be New Guardian number twelve, Eve will fabricate new name for him and during Black Claw's attack on this fake Headquarter he will most probably definitively die…
Eve was crossing corridor there and back, waiting for them. She had short pink hair, a blatant wig. Kelly noticed her posture and movements, so however she was not in look of his mother any more, he recognized her. She still looked beautiful. So he understood his father, why he was living with her for a long time prior to 'meet' Kelly's mother Adalind. Eve/Juliette inclined her head, rather a movement of an bird of prey, than an human or an Hexenbiest. She again observed both Kelly and Miriam with frightening focus of her mind, readable in her face.
"He's prewarming," she said with sad half-smile. "You can look through mirror."
Trubel directed them into one door, Eve/Juliette disappeared in another. All three they look through window on man, handcuffed to steel chair. Eve/Juliette came to him.
"Would you wish to talk?"
"Go and f*ck yourself!" was a bit unwise answer in his situation. But Skalengecks are not known for being very often wise…
"You don't want to talk? Well, if you don't want to talk, you won't need your mouth," said Juliette and covered man's mouth with her hand.
Once she moved her hand away, everybody could see, man's mouth was covered by his own skin like it was never intended to be opened. Man looked scared finally.
"If you can't talk to me, then you probably won't even want to see me either," said Eve, standing on man's back and closing his eyes.
Eve inclined her head again, saying:
"Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil," with these words she closed also his ears.
After that she opened door for Kelly and Miriam to enter. Trubel refused:
"I saw it too many times."
Eve/Juliette waved to man on chair:
"Sensory deprivation. Almost nobody is able to stay inside of his own head with all his demons in mind alone, without stimulus from outside. After one hour he will be grateful for allowing him to tell me everything he knows. After several hours he could be totally insane."
She gave them strange smile:
"Kelly, go with Trubel, I need to talk with Miriam alone."
Trubel almost dragged Kelly away.
"Sometimes I have problem not to hate her," she said. "But she saved Nick's, my and several other friends' lives several times, so I mustn't."
They came together to firing range. There she gave Kelly belt holster for gun, another for two extra magazines and the most important, Sig Sauer P220 in caliber 45 with two extra magazines.
On small table she putted box with cartridges.
"I agreed it with Nick," explained. "He allowed this gun for you for moments like this one. But coming home you must return it to him. Do show me now, whether you improved from last time."
Kelly cracked a happy smile, loaded gun, as well as both extra magazines. Then he shot bullets into prepared targets. After shooting he dismantled and cleaned gun and loaded it again.
"OK, show me, let's check the targets," said Trubel murmuring. "Ten into ten, great, six to nine, four to eight and five to seven. I guess you won't shot an innocent passer-by.*"
(*For those amongst readers, who are week in math – three magazines, each with eight rounds, plus one round in barrel, gives you twenty five shots…)
XXXXXXX
Both Hexenbiester examined each other.
"Well," said older. "Call me Eve. Once long ago I was Juliette and I lived with Kelly's father. That time I wasn't Hexenbiest and for long time I even didn't know about this hidden world."
Eve/Juliette made that strange sad half-smile again.
"But Adalind needed something from Nick and decided to steal his Grimm powers. As here in Portland an Grimm was needed, I agreed to participate in spell, that undone her spell. But it had side effect and I became Hexenbiest myself. Unfortunately I didn't trust Nick enough to tell him in time."
Now she frowned.
"I was worry, he would kill me. Probably my inner Hexenbiest putted that idea into my head. Later appeared Adalind saying she is pregnant with Nick and on other hand an Royal prince, who offered me a full new future, if I betray Nick's mother. They wanted Diana, I guess you met her and you can imagine, why did they want her so badly."
Eve/Juliette sighed.
"Diana was in hands of Nick mother, it was pretty complicated and Nick's mother trusted me. Royals killed her and it was my fault, as I helped them to trap her. So Nick started to hate me and one of us would die or kill each other. This organization cheated everybody like I was killed, but they healed me and… well… name it reprogramming… Now I'm here, interrogating or killing wesen murderers."
She looked even sadder, than before.
"I'll never have family life like Adalind has now. What's funny is fact, if only I didn't betray his mother, Nick would probably stay with me. And his son Kelly, boy possibly with another name, as he got his name after Nick's mother, would be in Joint Custody."
Older Hexenbiest shrugged her shoulders.
"But I became mad in the worst of possible wrong times. I don't apology myself, I just try to warn you, not to make same mistakes as I did. I can feel your strength and powers, as well as Kelly's. You have something together and your powers in some way complement each other's. If you decide to marry him one day, your children could be too powerful for normal school and you would probably need to homeschool them."
"Isn't it a bit too soon to speak about my and Kelly's children?" asked Miriam.
"I don't think so. Kelly is more similar to his father and Nick wanted family really badly."
"And Adalind?"
"I'm not sure. On the very beginning she in fact wanted just protection, I tried to kill her and I almost succeeded. But Nick's good man and she easily came to love him, once parenting Kelly together. And a bit later, seeing Adalind as good mother, he also fell in love. They parented also Diana together, however Nick is not her father. Later also Catherine was born. So they are now one big happy family and I spend my time torturing wesen killers and ruffians, as I told."
Eve/Juliette spoke with bitterly tone, but Miriam felt she tried somehow vindicate unforgivable. Younger Hexenbiest stayed mutely.
"I promised Nick I would protect his son, so if you cause harm to Kelly, Catherine or Nick, I'd destroy you," suddenly added Eve/Juliette.
"I'd never hurt anybody from this family, not intentionally," said Miriam after this tirade. "I signed pact with madam Lascelles."
"Hmmm... Spell of pact," said Eve/Juliette. "It's not hundred percent efficient. In fact I now try to find in records, whether there's a way to break magic pact without being killed."
"Why?" asked Miriam.
"Your mother could be a valuable informant, if we could keep her alive after telling us, what we need to know. But this kind of info remains often unwritten…"
"So, what is plan for uncle Nathan now?" questioned Miriam.
"We would need to know, what does he want?" Eve/Juliette shrugged her shoulders. "We'll never negotiate with him, but with that knowledge we could prepare better trap. Is he Black Claw fanatic? I do not believe so. I rather think, he wants your father's money."
Older Hexenbiest fell silent for a while.
"Fine, once you'll probably sometimes meet troubles being together with Kelly, there is one handy trick," Eve/Juliette smiled with ugly terrifying grimace. "It's similar to posthypnotic suggestion that normal psychologists use. But contrary of it, you can force somebody to do something even against his best conviction or interest. You can for example catch thief, use this trick and command him to return stolen property back to owners and go to Police Precinct to confess himself there. Or command somebody to forget something or remember something, what never happened. Or command him to remember sight, but not to tell anybody about it. It's pretty dangerous and morally problematic. On other hand, you can't use it on somebody with magic powers. Well, if you are not much stronger or until he's not debilitated. For example to influent Kelly this way you would need much more power, than you're able to keep now on your level of skills. It needs initial mental attack, something like if you want to bang his head with a hammer, but you would hammer just the mind, not a brain. I name it Mental Concussion, in older books you'd find under Latin name Commotio Mentale."
Eve/Juliette showed complicated gesticulation. Miriam recognized, on wall felled out a small piece of concrete. Older Hexenbiest recognized it too.
"Too much power," growled. "It's a question of some practicing to dose powers, too low – he would be not affected and you'd have no other chance to do it, too high – and he is dead like local economy. Wesen with stronger body do tend to stay also stronger attack."
Eve/Juliette cracked a smile.
"To knock for example Siegbarste cold you'd need one or two coworkers. But for usual Coyotle or Schakal or so you have enough power. After this knocking down you simply whisper your commands into his ear. Do it quickly, he can soon gather his wits and repeating this spell too often too soon could lead into his becoming stupid. Or at least more stupid…"
Eve/Juliette focused again her attention to Miriam.
"Are you in love with Kelly?"
"Honestly I don't know, but he's much better, than other boys, so probably yes," Miriam's answer was unsure.
"Silly teenager," said Eve/Juliette. "I think I was same, being in your age, but it's too long ago…"
Short after that end of conversation both Kelly and Trubel came.
"So?" questioned Trubel.
"So," answered Eve/Juliette.
"I mean…" said Trubel.
"I know, what you mean," smiled older Hexenbiest a bit. "I think she's worth of all these efforts. I showed her one rewarding spell. Hopefully she'll be able to do it in time of need."
"Sergeant told me to bring them along to him, once you're finished with teaching. Are you finished?" asked Trubel.
"Fine, do it."
"See you," abandoned Miriam with older Hexenbiest...
XXXXXXX
As far, as Kelly could evaluate, Jim Kowalski has several new scars from last time. What was strange, wound should not heal so fast to scar…
"Call me Sergeant," said Jim Kowalski again. "I want to say you something. We're considered by many wesens to be bad guys. Maybe we even deserve it. Yea, idea of freedom for wesen to show their true nature is seductive, but it would finally result in orwellian world."
"'Animal Farm' or 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'?" asked Miriam.
"Kelly, you're pretty lucky, she's not only beautiful, but also clever, rare combination," said Sergeant. "I believe there're two possibilities. Either normals, means Kersaite, would prevail and wesens would be oppressed, potentially dangerous kinds of wesens would be preemptively killed and so on. Organization like our could be declared as official authority controlling wesens with compulsory registration, shortening of human and civil rights and so on. Or, on other way, wesen would prevail through the 'Law of Jungle'. Many wesen species tend to be stronger, than usual human, so the society would change into caste system with Kersaite on lowest level of 'food chain'. Wesenrein idiots could be parallel police ensuring different wesen kinds separated from each other."
Kowalski nodded.
"So we decided, our way is best off course. We substitute Grimms in moments, when there is not enough of them in world. We do our best to got it though to wesens, 'explaining' them, that Gesetzbuch Ehrenkodex is the only way we let them live. Fourteen years ago, when Black Claw's war erupted, there were riots caused by wesens all over the world. Now there is only Big Silence, with exception of Portland."
Sergeant shortly laughed.
"Yup, there're small groups of idiots everywhere, who name themselves Black Claw and make their marks on walls, but there is no hierarchic structure or upper plan of actions, as far as we are able to say. All these incidents could be silently solved by Grimms, if only there are more of them. Most cases even do not need our intervention, local policemen are able to catch villains and they're always just silly mobsters. Here in Portland it's different. Portland is weird and possibly always was."
Kowalski looked on both teenagers thoughtfully.
"We've heard rumor, there is somebody, maybe your uncle Nathan Zieglaug, miss Nolty. Somebody recruits brawlers. Not in numbers enough for real war, but enough for problems like terrorism."
Sergeant laughed a bit.
"But I do not believe your uncle is an terrorist with political ambitions. I rather believe you are his real target. If he would succeed to kidnap you, he could ask money from your father. Yes, he would with a pleasure kill an Grimm, having chance, but only as joyful bonus."
"What should we do?" asked Miriam.
"I know, it could sound banal, but keep being together as often as possible. You two together have significant powers. I know, that's something what 'mute would not say, even if you tear his mouth', but I have no better advice for you, I'm sorry."
Kowalski smiled way, sharks usually tend to:
"Tell your mother, miss Nolty, that you met with Eve. If she get frightened, it means, she has some connections to Black Claw. Whatever is Nathan Zieglaug intending to do, our group means for him a problem. Police wouldn't go on wesen pathway, at last he probably thinks so. He probably knows, that Nick Burkhardt is an Grimm, but nothing indicates, that other policemen have a clue, what happens here in Portland. So his urge is to destroy us."
After short pause he continued:
"Those two guys you killed by their own hand-grenade were gangsters with criminal records, one was from Chicago, second from Las Vegas. It could indicate, they were hired as mercenaries. If there is a group of wesen mercenaries for an dirty job, their superior would most probably wish to send them to kill us over, once he learns about us."
"Now I'll drive you home, Miriam," said Trubel. "Tell your mother, what you saw here, from what you were said it's upon you, what to say."
XXXXXXX
Trubel stopped her car in few yards from Noltys' house main entrance.
"We are living in interesting times now," she smiled. "According one Hexenbiest from New Orleans working for HW, Zieglaugs' bookstore is temporary closed and nothing valuable was left inside. The books there are nothing better, than paper trash. But she found some echoes of powerful magic artifact being hidden there and taken away. We lost Zieglaugs' family, looks like they disappeared without trace. In fact we hope, somebody will attack us and we could interrogate some captives."
At the entrance of house Miriam kissed Kelly and said:
"I'll tell mum, what that 'Sergeant' asked for. But YOU owe me something more interesting and less creepy next time."
XXXXXXX
Three hours later drone operator came to Jim Kowalski:
"Sergeant, enemy drone contact positive. They are scanning this building."
"OK. So fish is on bait. Let's start 'The Operation Otter'."
TO BE CONTINUED...
Notes:
Today on evening streets here in Czechia you could observe strange trios - one guy in costume of christian bishop - as St. Nicholas, one in costume of an angel and one in costume of devil. Devil's role is to scare naughty children. Angel is just an angel and St. Nicholas is here to put a briddle on devil (not letting to take naughty children to Hell) and to give some small gifts (like chocolate or fruits) to good children...
And for readers - I know, my English is rather Czenglish. You are welcomed as betareaders, if you wish so...