The blow caught me in the stomach, and I stumbled back a step, dropping to one knee to the mat. As I struggled to push myself back up, my attacker stepped closer, and offered a hand.
“You know you aren’t actually supposed to let me hit you, right, Ray?”
I pushed his offered hand away and stood on my own,
“Excuse me if I’ve lost a step or two, Carter. I was in a coma, you know.”
“Yeah, I remember,” he dropped his hand and backed away. “But you have been out of the hospital for 6 months, and you have been here nearly every morning since. But you aren’t improving as quickly as I would expect, and at this point, physically, there is no reason you shouldn’t be.”
“How do you figure that? You go to medical school while I was away, or something?” I rolled my eyes.
“No, but I am a pretty good judge of people’s physical condition, and I can tell that you are pulling your punches, dropping your guard,” he regarded me sternly. “You aren’t fighting at the top of your game, Ray.”
“Obviously,” I scoffed. “We are just sparring. This isn’t a fight to the death,” I wiped my neck with a towel, dabbing at the sweat soaking into my shirt. “Speaking of which, I don’t come here for psychoanalysis, Carter, are we going to get back to it, or not?
“Well, you should be going somewhere for that, Ray.”
“Uh huh,” I rolled my eyes and tossed the towel off to the side.
I raised my hands; he sighed but followed suit. We resumed trading blows, but unfortunately, he didn’t consider that a good enough reason to stop talking.
“Speaking of which, I saw Liz yesterday,” he tried to make that come across as a very casual observation.
“Oh yeah?” I pretended I didn’t know what he was hinting at. “How is she doing these days?”
“She’s alright. She’s been working with Oliver, mostly helping ubarae who need to be relocated, for their own safety.”
“So, she is still stuck with Oliver, huh?” I laughed. “I’m sure that has been fun, for both of them.”
“They are a very effective team, if you ignore the bickering.”
“And how have the relocations been going?”
“Well enough. Most of us haven’t been exposed, after all, so not many people need relocating, at least for the moment. Of course, you’d know all this if you weren’t avoiding her calls.”
“I haven’t been avoiding her, I’ve been busy, that’s all,” he tagged me in the shoulder, and I danced back to get some space.
“Busy doing what, Ray?”
Well, he had me there. I shrugged.
“This and that. What are you, my mother? Besides, what does she need to talk to me about? I can’t be of any help to her.”
“I don’t think that is true. But even if it is, that isn’t why she’s been calling, and you know it.”
“Oh?”
“Come on, Ray. She wants to know if you are alright, if you have been talking to someone.”
“I’m talking to you right now, even if I would prefer that we both save our breath.”
“That isn’t what I mean,” he aimed a kick at my chest, I blocked and spun to the side. “Liz’s worried about you. She said it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to talk to her, professionally, but she gave me a list of other therapists she thinks could help you. I promised her I would pass it to you, when I saw you next.”
“Yeah, don’t bother. She already gave me a list, and I already threw it out.”
“Why?” he frowned. “You are still dropping your right hand. Keep your guard up.”
I corrected my stance,
“Because I am fine. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I don’t need to talk to anyone.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Come on, Ray. I may not have Liz’s professional training, but I don’t need that to know you are lying. You clearly aren’t fine.”
“You can tell that from my sloppy sparring, can you?”
“That is certainly one clue,” he snorted. “But I might give you the benefit of the doubt on that, if you didn’t show up hungover so often. Seriously, you should take Liz’s advice, you might feel better.”
“And what makes you think I want to feel better, that I deserve to feel better?” I shook my head. “I mean, you know what I’ve done. Do you think I should?”
“Is that what this is?” he stopped, dropping his hands and stepping back. “Because if this is just you punishing yourself, then I am not sure I am comfortable being involved in that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I am just trying to get a little exercise and a little clarity,” that, at least, wasn’t a lie. Strenuous exercise was one of the only things that could get me out of my own head, at least for a bit. “But if you’d rather I not come…”
“I didn’t say that. But if we are going to continue, I at least I expect to see more improvement,” he raised his hands again and beckoned me to make the first move. “Now, let’s try again, but this time show me you are actually making an effort.”
I rolled my shoulders,
“Alright, let’s go.”
I wedged the heavy, paper bag under one arm as I fumbled to open the door to my apartment. Heading straight to the kitchen, a plopped the bag down on the counter, enjoying the musical clinking of the bottles inside. Turning, I opened the fridge and took a quick inventory of the contents. I determined that I probably should get groceries at some point soon, but there was enough in there I could put it off another day or two, especially if I ordered takeout tonight. That was good, because I had a full day planned already. I extracted a bottle of vodka from the bag and poured a couple of inches into a glass. Glancing at the time, and I decided to mix in a splash of orange juice, it was still morning, after all. I returned the jug to the fridge and swirled the glass, mixing the drink before I took a sip.
“How much vodka did you add to that, exactly?” the voice came from the living room.
“Not enough, clearly,” I didn’t even bother to turn around, instead I took a long swig of my drink and topped the glass up with more vodka. “Why are you in my house, Gail?”
“You don’t lock your door anymore?” Gail was sitting on the couch, her feet kicked up on the coffee table.
“Why bother? There is nothing here for anyone to steal,” she narrowed her eyes at me as I spoke, but didn’t press the matter. “I’ll ask again, why are you in my house?”
“What? An old friend can’t stop by for a chat?”
“If history is any indication, then no, she can’t,” I collapsed into a chair across from her, letting my legs dangle over the arm. I took another sip of my drink. Still too much orange juice.
“Isn’t it a bit early for that?” she nodded at the glass in my hand.
“Why? I don’t have any other plans for the day,” I shrugged.
“Well, if you are bored, I have a few things that I could use help with…”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“You see this is what I meant,” pinched the bridge of my nose with my free hand. “We are not having this argument again, Gail. I am retired. Done. Out of the business. What about that is hard to grasp for you?”
“Look, I know you’ve needed some time, but…”
“No. I don’t need ‘time’, I have thought this through. I am done. Period. Please stop coming here and asking me to come back to work. It isn’t going to happen. I am not going back, and you don’t want me back. Understand?”
“No, Ray,” Gail snapped. “Frankly, I don’t understand. Maybe if you were doing something else with your time, but I don’t think it is healthy for you to spend your days like this.”
“You aren’t my boss, Gail. How I spend my days is not your concern,” I glared back at her.
“Alright, alright,” she raised her hands in surrender. “I don’t want to fight with you. That isn’t why I came here. Honestly.”
“Then why did you come?”
“Like I said, I just wanted to chat. Maybe run a few problems I’ve been having by you. Maybe you’ve managed to avoid seeing it, but things are kind of rough out there. I could use a second opinion on some things. You can give me some advice, just as a friend, right?”
I shook my head, ruefully, but I waved for her to proceed.
“I can’t promise I’ll be any help, but I’ll listen, if you want to vent.”
Gail had taken on a stressful, thankless job. I supposed the least I could do was hear her out, even if what she was really attempting was transparently obvious.
“Can I get you a drink?”
Gail hesitated for just an instant,
“No, thanks, I have to go back to work after this.”
“Alright, so what’s on your mind?”
“Where to even start?” she sighed, rubbing her temples. “The whole thing is a mess. Of course, we knew it would be, didn’t we? It was always going to be a mess.”
I nodded but didn’t speak. What was there to say?
“There are at least a dozen cases being investigated in the area right now. Abductions, assaults, murders. All appear to have been done by vigilantes attempting to root out ubarae. But, they don’t know how to identify an ubarae, so all the victims have, of course, been human. It’s… a nightmare. The only thing they do know about ubarae is that they are usually physically attractive. So, lots of celebrities, models, and the like are being targeted. They all want protection, but we don’t have the people for that. So, the ones with money have been poaching. We’ve already lost a few people to lucrative private contracts. Speaking of, you could make a lot of money doing private security, if you were interested.”
“Pass.”
“Well, anyhow, I think a certain percentage of the attacks are people who have another motive, and they are just hiding it behind what the media is calling ‘ubarae panic’. For example, one guy killed his romantic rival, stabbed him right in the middle of a restaurant downtown. Police arrive and he swears up and down the guy was an incubus, but as far as I can figure, he just didn’t like that the victim was dating the woman he was interested in. That isn’t an isolated incident. Another woman killed her husband’s mistress and claimed she was saving him from a succubus. And even the people that aren’t just transparently self-interested are no better; they are just executing strangers out of fear or bias,” Gail rubbed her face with her hands. “I know that this isn’t unexpected. I don’t think there is anything we could have done to stop it. Still… I am having trouble getting past it, accepting how ready so many were to resort to violence. Of course, we don’t yet know if these defences will even hold up in court, but that is another wrinkle, isn’t it? What happens if they actually manage to target an ubarae? They aren’t, strictly speaking, human, so do our laws cover them? If you kill an ubarae, is it even legally murder? That hasn’t been tested, yet, and I am a bit afraid of what happens when it is. The whole thing is a nest of snakes, honestly. And until all this is ironed out, what am I supposed to do?”
“I recommend early retirement,” I took a long drink.
“Right,” Gail sighed. “Well, let’s not dwell on the things we can’t control. The is something I could use real advice on. Have you heard of the International Committee for Ubarae Relations? They mostly just call themselves the Committee.”
“I’ve heard the name, but I am not really following the news, so fill me in.”
“Right, well, as I am sure you noticed, there has been a little bit of panic on the part of… all the world governments, about how to deal with this whole situation. You would think that everyone would turn to the countries that knew about the situation already, since they have experience, but there is still a lot of anger and mistrust there, because they kept the whole thing secret for so long. And frankly, even the governments that knew were kept at arms length, in practice. We were the ones with the information, not them. So, to try to find a compromise and arrive at a decision about what happens next, the UN countries have formed the International Committee for Ubarae Relations. They are currently consulting with any remaining experts and with the Council, so that the role of the Organization can be replaced, and we can find a… new equilibrium, of sorts. So, obviously they came to us, the remnants of the Organization, and they have made a big show of consulting us for our expertise. The problem is, I don’t know how far I should trust them. They have not yet come out with an official statement about what their stance is on the ubarae, saying they need more time to investigate, but they are asking for sensitive information: names, addresses, numbers. Everything we know about them. I know things have changed, we can’t keep secrets the way we once did, but I genuinely don’t know if I should give this to them, because I don’t know what they are going to use it for.”
“What do they say they will use it for?”
“Same thing we did, to track, to monitor, to eliminate threats. But I am concerned about how they define ‘threat’. There are rumors, just whispers really, that some factions have reached the conclusion that all ubarae are a threat, that we can’t coexist, that the only solution is to wipe them out, for the sake of humanity. I don’t want any part of that, I certainly don’t want to make it any easier for them, if that is what they decide to do. But, I am also not sure if I can refuse to turn over our records. It is… currently unclear how much power and autonomy my department is permitted.”
“So, I guess the real question is how far you are willing to stick your neck out, right?” I watched as she nodded thoughtfully. “Let’s say it’s the worst-case scenario, they decide to try and eliminate every ubarae. Would you help them, if they order it?”
“Of course not!” Gail nearly leapt to her feet in protest. “Our job was always to protect ubarae from humans, as much as it was to protect humans from them. As far as I am concerned, that hasn’t changed.”
“Well, that’s your answer, then,” I replied. “Give them nothing, protect the ubarae until you are sure of the Committees intentions. Take it slow and careful, because once you have exposed them, there is no going back.”
“Right,” Gail took a deep breath. “That makes sense.”
“This Committee, they don’t really understand the ubarae, so they might act rashly out of fear. You are the expert, so you will just have to use your judgement about what is best. I don’t envy you the responsibility.”
“Clearly,” Gail looked, for a moment, like she was going to say more, but instead she bit her tongue.
“But hey, hopefully it won’t come to that. I mean, you said it is just rumors, right?”
“Yeah. But I can feel the way the wind is blowing. Things are… tense. The killings I mentioned are proof enough of that. So far, the Council has managed to keep their people in line and not rock the boat. But Rogues haven’t ceased to exist, and the Council doesn’t truly have anything in place to enforce their will, that was always left up to…”
“The Organization.”
“Exactly. So, no one is really set up to catch and contain anyone truly malicious. We just don’t have the people or the infrastructure, anymore. If we have a serious Rogue incident, that could be all it takes to ignite the powder keg.”
“Well, the easy solution to that is to get more people. Show the world you can keep things under control.”
“Easier said than done,” Gail frowned.
“Well, there is over a decades worth of candidates that Carmine and Suzette falsely turned away, have you reached out to them?”
“We are working on it, but it is going to take time to find, and then train, them.”
“What about the Immune that went with the Domini? Any progress on bringing them back into the fold?”
“Wallace is heading up that task force, so I don’t have all the details, but I understand it is not going especially well.”
“Oh?”
“They are not infatuated in the way we are used to dealing with. They deeply trust the Domini, so even the few people Wallace has managed to find are not… cooperative, when we bring them in. We’ve actually had to lock most of them up, for their own safety and that of others. It is like trying to get someone out of a cult, and we just don’t really have a reliable way to deprogram them. We certainly can’t trust them,” she paused and gave me a searching look. “Have you spoken to Tom lately?”
“Not in a few weeks, why?”
“Well, if you get a chance, maybe check in with him. He was closer to a lot of those guys than any of us. Seeing his friends and colleagues like that has been really difficult for him.”
“He didn’t say anything the last time we spoke,” I frowned.
“I am sure he just didn’t want to worry you,” Gail looked at the ground. “But, you are his friend; I am sure it would help for him to have someone to talk to.”
His friend, huh? Well, it seemed I hadn’t been a very good one, of late. Too caught up in my own problems to notice he was struggling.
“I’ll be sure to check in with him. Thanks, Gail. I… I should have known.”
“Anytime. Well, I guess there is nothing for it but to keep recruiting and hope nothing too serious happens before we can shore up our numbers,” Gail clapped her knees and rose. “Speaking of which, this has been fun, but I should get back to it. I can’t be away from the office for too long. I’ll stop by again when I can. As long as you don’t mind?”
“Of course not. Just… knock next time, huh?”
“Lock your doors, Ray, and I will.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Gail strode to the door and pulled it open to reveal Simon, hand frozen in the instant before a knock. He stumbled back a step, startled.
“See, some people knock anyway,” I noted.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company,” Simon stammered.
“Don’t worry, I was just leaving,” Gail stepped past him into the hall. “I don’t think I am going to make any more progress today, and I need to get back to work. Maybe you’ll have better luck talking sense into her.”
“I doubt it. I haven’t so far,” Simon shrugged. “But I will do what I can.”
“I can hear both of you, you know that, right?” I called from the couch. “Did you coordinate this?”
He looked me over, ignoring my question,
“Have you started drinking already? I was hoping to catch you before you did.”
“Maybe try your luck tomorrow, then,” I shrugged.
“Don’t let her bullshit you,” Gail broke in. “She’s barely had anything yet.”
“And who’s fault is that, Gail?” I grumbled.
“I’ll take responsibility, gladly. Good luck, Simon. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Before I could even suggest that they catch up now, and leave me in peace, the incubus stepped inside and closed the door. I sighed. My quiet day at home was not going as planned.